The rulings are setbacks to Trump’s efforts to halt climate and environmental funding approved under the Biden administration.
Two court rulings on Tuesday unfroze hundreds of millions of dollars in federal climate funds, a win for nonprofit groups that have been denied access to money they were promised under the Biden administration.
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the federal court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of up to $625 million in climate grants that have been frozen since mid-February under the $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The fund is also known as the “green bank” program and has been a major target of Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Separately, Judge Mary S. McElroy of the federal court for the District of Rhode Island ordered five federal agencies to unfreeze environmental and infrastructure funding that had been awarded to nonprofits during the Biden administration.
In her ruling, Judge McElroy said the nonprofits had demonstrated in court that the indefinite freeze, put in place by the Trump administration, “was neither reasonable nor reasonably explained.” She added that the nonprofits were likely to be able to prove that the freezes were “fundamentally arbitrary.”
The lawsuits are among many filed against the Trump administration’s moves to freeze billions of dollars in funding that had been awarded through two laws passed in 2021 and 2022, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Various judges have ordered the administration to unfreeze funds, but the administration has cited legal loopholes to avoid doing so. Administration officials have said the pauses are necessary to align with executive orders President Trump has issued since taking office.