Climate groups expect a federal judge to quickly issue a preliminary injunction in a case related to the Trump Environmental Protection Agency‘s attempt to terminate billions of dollars in grant money for climate projects. 

Climate United, along with other plaintiffs who were granted billions of dollars in funding through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, is expecting a preliminary injunction from a federal court in Washington, D.C., by the end of the day Tuesday. 

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A federal court in Washington, D.C., last week heard arguments from the Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities, which were granted $14 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. 

The fund was established by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a law passed by Democrats and signed by former President Joe Biden that provided hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy subsidies. 

The three climate groups argued last week that the EPA’s attempts to terminate the funds were unlawful. The groups also noted that a further delay in funding could cause irreparable harm to the grantees, which could lead to the groups going out of business. 

The climate groups are asking the court to release the funds while it decides whether the EPA’s actions to cancel them were unlawful.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said the Biden administration improperly distributed the fund’s money through Citibank to avoid oversight. The EPA has since withheld the money at Citibank, and last month, it announced it would cancel $20 billion from the fund.

Zeldin called money “gold bars,” referring to a video last year of a former EPA employee saying the Biden administration was trying to distribute the promised funds before the incoming Trump administration. 

“It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic, and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge,” the former employee says in the video.

However, District Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily blocked the EPA from terminating the funds in response to the lawsuit. During last week’s hearing, Chutkan noted the agency has yet to provide sufficient evidence to back claims that the grants were mismanaged or fraudulent. 

The EPA did not provide any new evidence to support its claims of fraud. Instead, Marcus Sacks, the Justice Department lawyer representing the EPA, argued in court that the agency could terminate funding for agency priority, citing the grant’s terms and conditions. 

CLIMATE GROUPS TELL COURT EPA EFFORT TO CANCEL GRANT MONEY IS UNLAWFUL

The fund has three programs, including the National Clean Investment Fund, which granted $14 billion to the three groups suing the EPA. The agency also seeks to terminate the $6 billion granted to five organizations under the fund’s Clean Communities Investment Accelerator. 

Lastly, the fund also granted $7 billion to its Solar for All program, for which the EPA has yet to seek termination of the money.