15 Mar 2025

Non-Profits Sue to Regain Access to Disbursed Climate Funding Frozen by DJT’s Regime

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Three non-profit organizations sued the Environmental Protection Agency and Citibank to regain access to “green bank” funding disbursed to them and now frozen by Citibank under orders from Donald Trump’s regime.

Climate United Fund is a coalition of the non-profits Calvert Impact, Community Preservation Corporation and Self-Help. It was awarded $6.97 million from the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created by Congress in 2022 under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency. Citibank was chosen as the financial institution to administer the money.

Climate United Fund operates as a “green bank” to finance clean energy technology projects around the nation. The programs it funds and oversees to produce clean energy also create cleaner air, good-quality jobs, lower energy bills and improved energy security.

Much of the funding they supply to clean energy projects is in the form of loans, which are repaid and then fund more projects for “green community” solutions. The delinquency rate on such loans is similar to that of commercial lending.

In February the FBI asked or told Citibank to put a thirty day freeze on the Climate United Fund account. The FBI also asked or told Citibank to freeze the accounts of several other non-profit organizations and a state department in a Democratic-majority state. These include:

  • Habitat for Humanity
  • United Way
  • Colorado Clean Energy Fund
  • New York State Department of Taxation and Finance

Climate United Fund filed a lawsuit to get the freeze on their funds lifted. In federal District Court, Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the Department of Justice to provide the court with evidence of alleged fraud, abuse, illegality or bribery that justifies the freeze of the Congressionally appropriated and disbursed funds.#

Chutkan said, “Can you proffer any evidence that [the grant] was illegal, or evidence of abuse or fraud or bribery — that any of that was improperly or unlawfully done, other than the fact that [EPA Administrator] Mr. [Lee] Zeldin doesn’t like it?”

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Click here to learn more about Climate United Fund.