The bank accounts of nonprofits administering a $20 billion climate program have been frozen as the program faces significant scrutiny from the Trump administration.
One grant recipient has confirmed to The Hill that their account with Citibank has been frozen in the wake of pressure from the administration. At least two others told E&E News, which first reported the freeze, that they were in the same boat.
The program in question, which is funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, provides $20 billion to help finance the deployment of climate-friendly projects.
Last year, the Biden administration awarded that cash to eight institutions that are in charge of doling it out to projects aimed at mitigating climate change.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has been critical of the program, however, and at least some of those eight entities have had their accounts frozen in recent weeks.
A representative from one of the organizations told The Hill that their funds were originally frozen by Citi for a day after Zeldin voiced his criticism. The account was briefly unfrozen, but was made inaccessible again last week. The representative said that they have requested information from Citibank and the EPA, but have not received it as of Monday.
In the meantime, the organization does not have access to funds needed for their operations.
A spokesperson for Citibank declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the EPA directed The Hill to a recent video of Zeldin in which he indicated that he wanted to claw back funds for the program and said he would get the Justice Department involved.
“The financial agent agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated and the bank must immediately return all of the gold bars that the Biden Administration tossed off the Titanic,” Zeldin said in the video, which was posted online earlier this month.
“EPA needs to reassume responsibility for all of these funds. We will review every penny that has gone out the door,” he added.
