Leftist Judge Stops EPA From Clawing Back Taxpayer Money

At least for the moment. But, there is one big caveat

US judge blocks Trump’s EPA from clawing back climate grants

A U.S. judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from recovering grant funds issued as part of a $20 billion climate funding program that President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to terminate.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington issued a temporary restraining order, opens new tab halting the EPA’s termination of three environmental nonprofit groups’ grant agreements and barring Citibank from dispersing grant funding held at the bank in their accounts.

Those grants were terminated as part of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s campaign to claw back money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which Congress authorized in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act during then President Joe Biden’s tenure in 2022 to kick-start projects aimed at curbing pollution.

Absent a court order preserving the status quo as the litigation proceeds, Chutkan said those groups would face imminent harm if Citibank transferred money the groups use to pay employees, pay rent and fund projects out of those accounts.

Um, they are not federal employees. They are not federal agencies. Them paying their employees for future projects is not the responsibility of the US taxpayers.

(People’s (commie) World) Climate United and two other groups, the Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, said the freeze not only prevented them from financing new projects, but might force them to lay off staff. They said the allegations they were mishandling funds were utterly meritless.

That’s their problem. All three of the groups were created post-passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. So, it’s not like they are long standing business. They were created to get the money from IRA. And they are all essentially shell groups, doling the money out to other companies which have been around for a while, such as Habitat For Humanity.

The nonprofits also wanted Judge Chutkan to order Citibank to unfreeze the account. She declined to do so. The order simply preserves the status quo while the case proceeds.

Funny, the Socialist People’s World is giving more information, and more balance, than Reuters and most other articles. So, really, the money is not available for the “companies” right now, either.

Zeldin has characterized the grants as a “gold bar” scheme marred by conflicts of interest and potential fraud.

“Twenty billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution, in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight — doling out your money through just eight pass-through, politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand-new” nonprofit organizations, Zeldin said in a video previously posted online.

What are they doing with the money? Perhaps the companies should provide a detailed action plan and show where it is going and how it will be spent. And how any already received has been spent.

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