By BENJAMIN STORROW
President Donald Trump is slowly but surely dismantling his predecessor’s signature climate law.
Tax credits for electric vehicle purchases? Those end this month.
$7 billion in Environmental Protection Agency grants to install solar in low-income communities? Canceled.
And a $20 billion green bank? It’s on the chopping block, too.
The last development came Tuesday, when a federal court cleared the way for EPA to claw back billions of dollars in climate grants it awarded last year under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The ruling represents a massive blow to the single largest program created under the Inflation Reduction Act, my colleague Jean Chemnick writes today.
The Biden administration and Congress had envisioned the fund as a way to expand lending for renewable energy projects, electric transportation initiatives and green home improvement projects in poor communities. But it quickly ran into the buzz saw of the incoming Trump administration.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin labeled the program a “green slush fund” and sought to take back the money, which sits in Citibank accounts. The move prompted a legal challenge from the nonprofit groups that are under contract with the government to disburse those funds.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in EPA’s favor Tuesday, citing an August ruling from the Supreme Court that allowed the National Institutes of Health to avoid paying 1,200 health research grants. Recipients signaled their intent to appeal, but the appellate court ruling paves the way for EPA to claim $17 billion of the climate fund’s $20 billion pot.
“It’s fantastic to see reason prevail in the court system,” EPA said in a statement released after the ruling.
The decision is the latest setback for backers of former President Joe Biden’s 2022 climate law. Many had hoped that climate programs that received funding during the Biden era — and largely benefited Republican districts — would be able to continue operating under Trump.
But those hopes have largely been dashed. Trump signed a sweeping budget law in July that eliminated tax credits for EVs and dramatically scaled them back for renewable energy projects. EPA moved to terminate a $7 billion program to expand rooftop solar for low-income households in August. And the Energy Department has canceled several high-profile loans, such as a $4.9 billion transmission line designed to support wind development in the Midwest.
