A federal judge was wrong to block the Trump administration from freezing billions of dollars and terminating contracts for nonprofits to run a “green bank” aimed at financing climate-friendly projects, a divided appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling is a win for the Trump administration that had blasted the program as a waste of taxpayer money and tried to claw back funding.
The groups sued the EPA, its administrator Lee Zeldin and Citibank, which held the grant money, saying they had illegally denied the groups access to funds awarded last year. They wanted access to those funds again, saying the freeze had paralyzed their work and jeopardized their basic operations.
Those arguments have no place in federal court, according to the split D.C appeals court panel.
“In sum, district courts have no jurisdiction to hear claims that the federal government terminated a grant agreement arbitrarily or with impunity. Claims of arbitrary grant termination are essentially contractual,” the majority wrote.
Instead, the divided panel said they should go to federal claims court — a loss for Climate United Fund and other nonprofits who wanted the federal court system to ensure it quickly received its funding.
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