A green nonprofit connected to Democrats says it may have to fold if it cannot access the massive grant funding awarded by the Biden administration that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now working to terminate.
The Climate United Fund was established in early 2023 before applying for and winning nearly $7 billion from the Biden administration in April 2024 from the Biden EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a program endowed by the Inflation Reduction Act. Now that the Trump EPA is moving to terminate the grants due to concerns that the GGRF — which paid out billions to other green organizations featuring Democrat insiders and donors on their boards — may have been rife with waste or fraud, Climate United is arguing in court that it may fall apart unless it can access taxpayer cash that the Biden administration parked at Citibank on its way out the door.
Climate United Filing by Nick Pope on Scribd
“Defendants’ unlawful actions are causing Climate United to suffer real and immediate harm,” the March 10 filing warned. “Climate United does not have other committed sources of funding to replace the grant funds. Without those grant funds, Climate United will shortly run out of cash to pay operating expenses — it will no longer be able to pay its employees, pay rent, pay critical service providers and contractors, or meet its commitments under the loans and awards it has already approved.”
“In fact, as a result of Defendants’ actions, Climate United has already been compelled to defer compensation for certain staff to preserve its available cash, while also confronting increasingly unfavorable terms from essential vendors and prospective deal partners,” the filing continued. “Failure to honor commitments will erode trust in Climate United as an institution, damage its reputation, and cause profound harm to the local organizations that rely on Climate United funds to develop critical energy projects that reduce energy costs and create jobs.”
Julie Kelly, an independent journalist who covered a Wednesday hearing for the case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, reported that Climate United is specifically requesting access to $3 million in order to keep itself afloat as its lawsuit against the Trump administration and the bank plays out. Kelly added that Climate United said it may have to furlough most employs and leave its office space as soon as Friday if the organization does not get the relief it is seeking from the court.
Climate United — which is a coalition consisting of three nonprofit organizations — says that it plans to use the GGRF money to provide financing for developments like solar projects in Arkansas and tribal territories in the Northwest, in addition to a major investment of up to $250 million to purchase several hundred electric heavy-duty trucks.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Tuesday night that he is moving to terminate the GGRF contracts for Climate United and other groups that were awarded a combined total of about $13 billion more in Biden EPA largesse, including politically-connected organizations like the Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities. All three groups are currently taking the Trump administration to court to try to block Zeldin’s termination.
In November 2023, when Climate United was first rumored to be in the running for GGRF cash, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that its board of directors featured former chair of the California Democratic Party and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, former Obama Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, and other politically-connected individuals.
When discussing the GGRF and efforts to recoup the cash in media appearances, Zeldin has frequently referenced a video published by conservative activist group Project Veritas, in which a former Biden EPA official compared the agency’s sprint to get GGRF dollars out the door before the Trump administration’s arrival to “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”
The GGRF is now the subject of ongoing probes by the Federal of Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
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