<span style="gap: 6px;" class="d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center alert-text-underline"> <img src="https://www.eenews.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Group-3.png" alt=""> <span>POLITICO’S Loyalty Bridge Access: Free 3-month Subscription for Former Government Subscribers in a Career Transition. <a href="https://www.politicopro.com/loyalty-bridge-access/">Learn more</a></span><hr> <a class="cta-link" href="/get-access/" target=""> <div class="cta-wrapper-alert"> <p class="divider"> <span style="color: #00a6e5"> 7-DAY </span> UNLIMITED ACCESS </p> <div class="line"></div> <span style="color: #00a6e5"> <span class="colored-yellow"> FREE TRIAL </span> </span> </div> </a> </span> <br> <span style="color: #00a6e5"> 7-DAY </span> UNLIMITED ACCESS <br>By <strong>Jean Chemnick, Lesley Clark</strong> | 03/18/2025 06:29 AM EDT <br>The Trump administration says it terminated $20 billion of Biden-era grants because some recipients have senior staffers who served in the Biden or Obama administrations.<br>EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin canceled $20 billion in already awarded climate grants, sparking multiple lawsuits. <span>Mark Schiefelbein/AP</span><br>The Trump administration asserted Monday that EPA’s largest green bank recipient should be stripped of its almost $7 billion award because its leadership has too many Democratic ties.<br>The Climate United Fund signed a contract with EPA last year for the largest grant under a climate law initiative aimed at expanding lending for clean energy projects. The Trump administration froze all $20 billion of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants last month, prompting lawsuits from some awardees. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin then <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/03/zeldin-terminates-greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund-grants-00225481" target="_blank">terminated the grants</a> last week.<br>In Monday’s <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000195-a61f-d84f-a5f7-f61f1c390000" target="_blank">court-mandated filing</a>, EPA said the nonprofit had “conflicts of interest” because senior staff served in the Obama and Biden administrations. The agency included no concrete allegations of fraud.<br>Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who is overseeing the lawsuits, last week criticized EPA for failing to provide any evidence of wrongdoing and ordered the agency to provide more details on its decision to pull the money by Monday. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/03/judge-slams-epas-climate-grant-cancellations-you-have-to-have-some-kind-of-evidence-00227643" target="_blank">questioned whether EPA</a> could provide proof of fraud, abuse or anything that was “improperly or unlawfully done” with the grant program — other than it ran afoul of Zeldin.<br> Request a FREE trial to receive unlimited access to <br> <br>The transformation of the energy sector.<br>Policy. Science. Business.<br>Congress. Legislation. Politics.<br>The leader in energy and environment news.<br>Late-breaking news.<br>© POLITICO, LLC<br><br><a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilAFBVV95cUxPVWRwYzFEUVhBbjBLeC1aN1RoN1Z0azFFOWR6cTFwemlkWE5PT052c3ZjZlhoWUY4T1BsTXFVR25fWFd0STZWWVJGbnlTQUJTUllEbEZMYnhfMVlKanJKVTE0V18xd1ktWWtLR0t1c1JLM1Jzdm5DbmJEU0ltSUV5Sm9GWGNJY3pKU3Y2YkxSRXRNTnZ1?oc=5">source</a>
