WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has terminated grant agreements worth $20 billion issued by the Biden administration under a so-called green bank to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects.

The action comes weeks after the EPA froze the grants, which EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has characterized as a “gold bar” scheme marred by conflicts of interest and potential fraud.

“Twenty billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution, in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight — doling out your money through just eight pass-through, politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand-new” nonprofit organizations, Zeldin said in a video shared Tuesday night.

The grants “raise significant concerns and pose unacceptable risk,’’ Zeldin added. “The only way we can reduce waste, increase oversight and meet the intent of the law as it was written is by terminating these grants.”

The terminations come as three of the nonprofit groups that received grants have filed lawsuits challenging the funding freeze ordered by the EPA. A hearing for one of the lawsuits is scheduled Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Maryland-based Climate United Fund said the EPA and Citibank illegally denied the group access to $7 billion awarded last year through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a Biden administration program created in 2022 by the Inflation Reduction Act and more commonly known as the ‘green bank.’ The freeze threatens the group’s ability to issue loans and even pay employees, Climate United said.

Two other nonprofits, the Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, have also sued Citibank in recent days, alleging that the bank improperly froze an additional $7 billion to finance climate-friendly projects for housing, low-cost electricity, clean air and water.

The three nonprofits are among eight groups tapped last year by then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan to receive $20 billion to finance tens of thousands of projects to fight climate change and promote environmental justice. The money was formally awarded in August.

While favored by congressional Democrats, the green bank drew immediate criticism from Republicans, who routinely denounced it as an unaccountable “slush fund.″ Regan sharply disputed that claim.

Zeldin, who was confirmed as EPA head in late January, quickly targeted the green bank as an example of Biden-era overreach. In a video posted last month on X, Zeldin said the EPA would revoke contracts for the still-emerging bank. Zeldin cited a conservative journalist’s undercover video made late last year that showed a former EPA employee saying the agency was throwing “gold bars off the Titanic” — presumably a reference to spending before the start of Trump’s second term.

“Not only does EPA have full authority to take this action, but frankly, we were left with no other option,’’ Zeldin said in the new video. “This termination is based on substantial concerns regarding program integrity, objections to the award process, programmatic fraud, waste and abuse, and misalignment with the agency’s priorities.”

Democrats defended the bank program and accused Zeldin of acting without legal authority or evidence of wrongdoing.

“Without a shred of evidence, Administrator Zeldin is escalating his unfounded attempts to unilaterally terminate congressionally authorized and contractually obligated funding that would lower household energy costs, spur economic growth and cut pollution,” said Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Whitehouse called Zeldin’s efforts to block the green bank “a blatant giveaway to the fossil fuel megadonors who bankrolled” President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Zeldin’s actions “will drive up energy costs, deepen our reliance on foreign oil and worsen climate change,” Whitehouse said, accusing Zeldin of continuing what he called the Trump administration’s “lawlessness and disdain for the Constitution.”

Separately, Whitehouse challenged a criminal investigation into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund by the Justice Department and FBI.

“Without a true basis to interfere with these properly appropriated and obligated funds, it appears you reverted to a pretextual criminal investigation to provide an alternative excuse to interfere,” Whitehouse wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Author’s Note: This blog was updated on May 22, 2025, to reflect House passage and text changes in the final bill. The bill has yet to be passed by the Senate.

After weeks of working behind closed doors, House Republicans have passed their disastrous tax bill. This extreme bill not only makes devastating cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, but also guts clean energy, climate, and environmental justice programs that are reducing costs, creating jobs, and improving public health across the country.

Let’s not mince words: Republicans are trying to raise your energy bills and destroy thousands of American jobs—simply to pad the pockets of billionaires, fossil fuel executives, and their top corporate backers with massive tax cuts.

We’ve compiled our policy analysis of the Republicans’ Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee bill text, Ways and Means (W&M) Committee bill text, and the manager’s amendment below to explain how these sweeping cuts will harm your pocketbooks, health, and planet.

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Background

First, some context: Back in 2022, Congress passed transformational clean energy investments as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). These investments were strategically designed to make energy bills more affordable, revitalize American manufacturing, and create millions of good jobs for working Americans, while cutting pollution. But House Republicans are now unleashing a full-scale attack on these historic investments, even though the lion’s share of the benefits from these investments flow to GOP districts. They’re targeting critical programs like clean energy tax credits, advanced manufacturing tax credits, Environmental Justice Block Grants, and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).

Simply put, these bills are an affront to American communities struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, working people trying to support their families, and those living in sacrifice zones with polluted air and water. Let’s take a closer look at the devastating cuts that Republicans just passed in the House.

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Ways and Means

The House W&M Committee covers the tax-writing elements of the reconciliation bill, meaning this part of the bill text includes major cuts to the federal energy tax credits that are already delivering enormous benefits, particularly in Republican districts. These benefits include affordable clean energy and historic climate pollution reductions. Here’s what the GOP passed.

EPA chief Lee Zeldin on Monday firmly defended the agency’s stance on clawing back federal grants, in spite of recent losses in federal court.

“I have a duty to make sure that we don’t light on fire billions of dollars in tax dollars,” Zeldin told reporters during a press briefing. “And I, as administrator of EPA, am not going to stand before any member of the media and get bullied into lighting billions of dollars on fire.”

Zeldin’s press briefing comes days after the US District Court for the District of Columbia found that the Environmental Protection Agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously in failing to explain why it suspended grants that green banks received from Inflation Reduction Act programs under former President Joe Biden.

But the case is still ongoing, and Zeldin said Monday he’s confident the Trump administration has the evidence to prove self-dealing, conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients, and lax oversight.

Broadly, Zeldin said too much money has been secured in the name of environmental justice, but not used on fixing environmental problems.

To illustrate, Zeldin pointed to a $50 million grant the EPA canceled to Climate Justice Alliance, which he said has advocated for a free Palestine. Climate Justice Alliance’s web page states that “[t]he path to climate justice travels through a free Palestine.”

“I would argue that if you’re going to spend $50 million in the name of environmental justice, instead of spending $50 million on Climate Justice Alliance, the $50 million should get spent actually remediating environmental issues,” Zeldin said.

Those decisions aren’t driven by partisan politics, he said.

“I don’t stand here saying that I want to take a dollar from a left wing organization and give it to a right wing organization,” he said. “I don’t want to do that. I’m not going to do that. What I am saying is that if you’re going spend a dollar remediating environmental issues, it should go directly towards dealing with that issue.”

Zeldin also said he doesn’t think the government should strip away the tax-exempt status of environmental groups, which the Trump administration is reportedly considering.

“If you follow the rules, regardless of your entity—you could be a (c)(3), (c)(4), (c)(6)—the lesson to those particular groups is to follow those particular rules for that status and that level of incorporation,” Zeldin said.

“Where an individual group can go awry is if they register with a particular status and they do not follow the rules for having that particular status, or they just don’t follow the rules in general,” he said.

“I’m not saying that across the board, if you get some status as a climate and advocacy group, that you’re immune for this group, and that you’re entitled to do whatever you want, say whatever you want, outside the bounds of the law, outside the balance of what dictates that particular status.”

Reorganization Plans

As other Trump administration departments have launched workforce and organizational overhauls, EPA leaders are still working on their reorganization plans, Zeldin said.

Speculation ran high among staff the week of April 14 that cuts could be announced imminently. But Zeldin and his team are still speaking with political and career staff “to solicit their insight on ways that they think this agency can operate better,” he said.

Zeldin has said in the past he wants to cut the EPA’s budget by 65%. Documents reviewed by House Democrats show the agency is considering wiping out 50% to 75% of its scientific research office.

But Zeldin said his team is looking well beyond the Office of Research and Development, scrutinizing “every single office.”

“We’re just trying to get it right,” he said. “ We’re speaking to political and career staff in all of these different offices.”

He also said he doesn’t want to lose “one good employee,” and that the correct number of staff the EPA needs is “not one more or one less than what we need to fulfill our statutory obligations, to fulfill our core mission, to be able to to power the great American comeback.”

At another point in the press briefing, Zeldin said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) isn’t involved with the EPA yet, at least in any significant way.

“We don’t have any non-EPA employees here inside of the building,” he said, referring to the agency’s headquarters. “We have a few people who have been working on a mission connected to DOGE, but they work for EPA. The decisions that are made are made by me. They make recommendations.”

He also said most of DOGE’s EPA work has been related to grants, and that he has asked for the team’s ideas on “improvements that we can make as far as use of technology to improve operations here, whether it’s overseeing grant funding, it’s public comments, or more.”

Zeldin expressed his strong support of AI, saying the EPA “should be utilizing” the technology and that he has had conversations about deploying it to review public comments, oversee grants, and reduce backlogs inside the agency’s chemicals office.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major reversal, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency said he will try to rescind $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration for climate and clean-energy projects.

In a video posted on X, Administrator Lee Zeldin said the EPA would revoke contracts for a still-emerging “green bank” that is set to fund tens of thousands of projects to fight climate change and promote environmental justice.

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 disadvantaged communities.

The program is a favorite of Democrats who passed President Joe Biden’s signature climate law without a single Republican vote, and former EPA Administrator Michael Regan frequently cited it as one of his major accomplishments.

Republicans in Congress have called the green bank a “slush fund” and voiced concern over how the money will be used and whether there will be sufficient accountability and transparency. The Republican-controlled House approved a bill last year to repeal the green bank and other parts of Biden’s climate agenda. The bill was blocked in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Zeldin, in the video posted Wednesday night, said there will be “zero tolerance of any waste and abuse” at the EPA under his administration. He cited “an extremely disturbing video” on X that features a former EPA staffer stating that the Biden administration was “tossing gold bars off the Titanic” in order to spend billions of taxpayer dollars before President Donald Trump took office.

“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. “I’ve directed my team to find your gold bars, and they found them. Now we will get them back inside of control of government as we pursue next steps.”

The video Zeldin cited was posted by Project Veritas, a right-wing organization that often uses hidden cameras to try to embarrass news outlets, labor organizations and Democratic officials. In this case, the Veritas video showed Brent Efron, a former EPA special adviser for implementation, speaking at a bar or restaurant with someone who turned out to be with the group. Efron has since left the EPA.

Clean energy advocates denounced Zeldin’s action as a political stunt and said he was 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 green bank. “The Trump team is once again trying to illegally slash programs meant to help American families to fund tax cuts for billionaires.”

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.

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