By Clara Lincolnhol
Gongwer News Service
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell and 39 other members of Congress urged courts to continue to protect climate and clean energy funding.
Lawmakers submitted an amicus brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday urging the court to block the EPA’s attempts to eliminate two climate funds.
The court is reviewing the case,Climate United Fund et al v. Citibank N.A. et al. Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, and others allege the EPA illegally attempted to eliminate the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator programs.
Both programs are part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and were created by Congress to generate economic development in the clean energy sector, lower energy costs and reduce pollution. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and has been a frequent target of the Trump Administration, according to the statement from Dingell.
“From day one, the Trump Administration declared war on programs established and funded by the IRA, with a particular venom reserved for two of the GGRF’s catalytic capitalization grant programs, the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator,” lawmakers said in a statement. “In their efforts to eliminate Congressionally mandated grant programs, Administration officials have harassed the award recipients with baseless threats of prosecution and sought to claw back disbursed grant money out of private hands.”
The brief presses the court to uphold a temporary injunction against the Trump administration’s efforts to nullify the two grant programs.
By freezing funds and attempting clawbacks from private bank accounts, the Trump administration violated congressional mandate, the lawmakers said.
“At its heart, this is a case about whether the executive branch can freeze and confiscate lawfully made funding awards held in private bank accounts without due process because of an administration’s disagreements with congressional policy decisions,” lawmakers said it the statement. “If so, then perhaps no one in the United States is safe from such unchecked arbitrary action.”
The lower court ruled that the EPA intended to fully dismantle the GGRF, and it never planned to re-issue them. The Trump Administration claimed otherwise.
“EPA’s actions to dismantle a Congressionally mandated program are a brazen and impermissible attempt to usurp the legislative branch’s power,” the lawmakers said in their statement. “The Constitution granted the power of the purse to Congress, not the president or his agents.”
Gongwer News Service
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell and 39 other members of Congress urged courts to continue to protect climate and clean energy funding.
Lawmakers submitted an amicus brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday urging the court to block the EPA’s attempts to eliminate two climate funds.
The court is reviewing the case,Climate United Fund et al v. Citibank N.A. et al. Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, and others allege the EPA illegally attempted to eliminate the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator programs.
Both programs are part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and were created by Congress to generate economic development in the clean energy sector, lower energy costs and reduce pollution. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and has been a frequent target of the Trump Administration, according to the statement from Dingell.
“From day one, the Trump Administration declared war on programs established and funded by the IRA, with a particular venom reserved for two of the GGRF’s catalytic capitalization grant programs, the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator,” lawmakers said in a statement. “In their efforts to eliminate Congressionally mandated grant programs, Administration officials have harassed the award recipients with baseless threats of prosecution and sought to claw back disbursed grant money out of private hands.”
The brief presses the court to uphold a temporary injunction against the Trump administration’s efforts to nullify the two grant programs.
By freezing funds and attempting clawbacks from private bank accounts, the Trump administration violated congressional mandate, the lawmakers said.
“At its heart, this is a case about whether the executive branch can freeze and confiscate lawfully made funding awards held in private bank accounts without due process because of an administration’s disagreements with congressional policy decisions,” lawmakers said it the statement. “If so, then perhaps no one in the United States is safe from such unchecked arbitrary action.”
The lower court ruled that the EPA intended to fully dismantle the GGRF, and it never planned to re-issue them. The Trump Administration claimed otherwise.
“EPA’s actions to dismantle a Congressionally mandated program are a brazen and impermissible attempt to usurp the legislative branch’s power,” the lawmakers said in their statement. “The Constitution granted the power of the purse to Congress, not the president or his agents.”
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