Judge Rules EPA Termination of Environmental Justice Grants Unlawful

Federal District Court Judge Adam Abelson blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from chopping $600 million in environmental justice grants for low-income areas and communities of color, ruling the terminations unlawful.

The grants are in the Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, a subset of $2.8 billion appropriated in the Inflation Reduction Act for block grants to community groups that address pollution disproportionately harming communities of color, low-income areas and rural areas.

Donald Trump’s sweeping orders to end or discard programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion led to the EPA’s February effort to cut off work toward environmental justice.

EPA argued, as it has in other cases, that terminating grants is a contract dispute and legal challenges should go to the Court of Federal Claims rather than to District Court. Abelson rejected that assertion.

Abelson ruled that terminating these grants violated the Administrative Procedure Act:

EPA contends that it has authority to thumb its nose at Congress and refuse to comply with its directives. That constitutes a clear example of an agency acting ‘in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations, or short of statutory right,’ and thereby violating the APA.

and

Congress expressly required EPA to use the appropriated funds for ‘environmental justice’ programs. By terminating Plaintiffs’ grants on the basis that current EPA leadership no longer wants to support ‘environmental justice’ programs, EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act, and therefore was ‘in excess of statutory . . . authority, or limitations [under the Administrative Procedures Act].

and

EPA is required to spend the funds that Congress appropriated … and to do so on specified types of projects, and to specifically ensure that such projects benefit disadvantaged communities.

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