Climate United filed a lawsuit on Saturday against the EPA and Citibank, claiming the entities are illegally withholding nearly $7 billion awarded to the organization last April. The grant is connected to a green financing program for climate change projects, with a larger sum of $20 billion that provides money to multiple groups — all of whom have said they, too, are unable to access their grants.
Those funds are under scrutiny by the Trump administration and EPA Director Lee Zeldin, who said the green financing program was “purposely designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.” He’s referred to the funds multiple times as “gold bars” and insisted the agency will review “every penny.”
The lawsuit filed by Climate United in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia echoes calls from Democrats that Zeldin is unlawfully withholding the money. The $7 billion is intended to finance electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as energy-efficient home construction and renewable energy projects.
“EPA has failed to provide Climate United with a reasoned explanation for its actions or a meaningful opportunity to object or to be heard,” the suit states, according to Politico.
The complaint argues the funds were already appropriated to Climate United and that withholding the dollars violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause of the Constitution. The nonprofit also said it does not have any other funding to replace the frozen money and private investment is not an option, as the green financing program was intended to use public funds to areas the private sector historically avoids.
“Climate United’s access to its grant funding should be restored,” the group argues.
The lawsuit also alleges Citibank breached its contract with Climate United by failing to disburse the funds when the group requested access on Feb. 18 and Feb. 21 without offering “any legal or factual basis” for denying those and additional requests to receive the money.
The green financing program is one of several areas being targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency, which has called the $20 billion in project grants a “gold bar scheme.” The Justice Department is investigating the program at the request of the EPA, which has already stirred controversy after Denise Cheung, head of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., resigned after she refused to open a grand jury investigation into the EPA’s claims.
The Trump administration has been critical of Biden’s climate agenda, including the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which provided hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects. Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump and his confirmed appointees have worked to roll back several Biden-era energy and climate policies.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Citibank spokesman Mark Costiglio said the company is reviewing the lawsuit.
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Citibank “has been working with the federal government in its efforts to address government officials’ concerns regarding this federal grant program,” Costiglio said. “Our role as financial agent does not involve any discretion over which organizations receive grant funds. Citi will of course comply with any judicial decision.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the EPA for comment.
