EPA Administration Says $20 Billion Grants to Climate Groups Are Now Terminated

The move was announced in a post on Tuesday.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks as Vice President JD Vance visits the East Palestine Fire Department in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2025. Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, were forced to evacuate in February 2023, when a Norfolk Southern train carrying chemicals derailed, covering the area in thick black smoke. Rebecca Droke/POOL/AFP

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administration confirmed Tuesday that $20 billion in what it called “gold bar” grants to eight recipients has been terminated.

“It is my commitment to President Trump, Congress, and you, that EPA will be an exceptional steward of your tax dollars,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a post on social media platform X, adding in a video that it’s a “high priority” to terminate those programs and that he has “officially terminated these grant agreements.”

Last month, in a video posted on X, Zeldin said the EPA would try to rescind $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration for climate and alternative energy projects.

The program, approved under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, is formally known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, but is more commonly called the “green bank.” Two initiatives, worth $14 billion and $6 billion, respectively, are intended to offer competitive grants to nonprofits, community development banks, and other groups, for projects with a focus on what are said to be disadvantaged communities.

The money has already been awarded to eight nonprofits, including the Coalition for Green Capital, Climate United Fund, Power Forward Communities, Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, and the Justice Climate Fund. Those organizations have partnered with a range of groups, including Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity and the Community Preservation Corporation.

Zeldin added in a video released Tuesday that the FBI and the Department of Justice are both investigating the funds. The money has since been frozen, he added.

“Not only does EPA have full authority to take this action but frankly, we were left with no other option,” he said. The terminations announced Tuesday were done because the programs, he said, were in violation of the EPA’s statutory objectives and were misaligned with the administration’s focus.

“The only way we can reduce waste ... is by terminating these grants,” Zeldin, a former Republican congressman, said in the video.

Zeldin said last month that in meetings with members of Congress before he was confirmed, he “made a very important commitment to them and to the American people” and added that he wants a “full accounting” of EPA funds.

“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” Zeldin said at the time.

Green energy advocates denounced the EPA’s recent actions as a political stunt and said Zeldin is illegally attempting to revoke spending approved by Congress for partisan reasons. They pledged to challenge the directive in court.

“This is not just an attack on clean energy investments—it’s a blatant violation of the Constitution,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, an environmental group that supports the project, in a statement last month. “The Trump team is once again trying to illegally slash programs meant to help American families to fund tax cuts for billionaires.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris announced the grant awards last year at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.