By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to end contracts agreed by the previous administration to distribute $20 billion in grants to fund clean energy and transportation projects in disadvantaged communities, he said on Thursday.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a message posted on X that he will ask the Inspector General, Congress, and Justice Department to work with the agency to end the contracts agreed with eight regional organizations that were named financial agents, and to rescind grant money awarded under the Biden EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
Last April, the Biden EPA said the organizations would oversee the awarding of grants to groups and communities for projects ranging from home energy retrofitting to off-grid renewable energy in communities that have lacked access to green financing.
As part of the actions authorised by the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure bill, the aim was to kickstart projects over the next seven years to reduce or avoid up to 40 million metric tons of climate pollution annually.
Under the Trump administration, the EPA has been attempting to freeze funding related to climate change and environmental justice, and has been met with legal challenges.
Democratic lawmakers and groups suing the administration say that dismantling the funding will likely require Congressional backing.
Zeldin in a video on X criticised the way the money was being disbursed under Biden.
“It was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight,” he said.
In addition, a U.S. judge on Monday said Trump’s administration violated a court order, with the result a broad freeze he had imposed on federal spending was lifted.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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