A federal appeals court has just handed President Donald Trump a major legal victory.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that the Trump administration acted lawfully in canceling $16 billion in climate-related grants previously awarded to nonprofit groups.
On Tuesday, the panel of judges ruled 2–1 to overturn an injunction from Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
Democrat-aligned Chutkan had temporarily blocked the Trump administration from terminating the funds.
The dispute arose in Climate United Fund v. Citibank.
Environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Administrator Lee Zeldin.
The groups argued they had been unlawfully denied funding from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The green agenda program was created under former President Joe Biden’s misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Biden’s EPA had awarded $20 billion in taxpayer-funded grants to eight entities to launch “climate-related” projects.
But in March, Zeldin terminated the program.
The EPA chief cited serious concerns about fraud, waste, and abuse.
Zeldin described the program as a “gold bar scheme.”
He said the Biden-era “climate” bank was rife with integrity issues, lacked transparency, and was misaligned with the agency’s current priorities.
Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Neomi Rao said