MATSUI, SEEC, DINGELL DEMAND EPA RELEASE OBLIGATED FUNDS
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), including Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Quigley, and Paul Tonko and Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer, Suzanne Bonamici, Sean Casten, Mike Levin, and Chellie Pingree, along with SEEC Member Rep. Debbie Dingell – an original author of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund – sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin to demand that the EPA direct Citibank to immediately release the legally obligated money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. They led a total of 82 Members of Congress in signing the letter.
“We write to you in response to the Trump Administration’s persistent and shocking attempts to undermine the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). For weeks, Citibank has withheld congressionally authorized GGRF funding at your direction without any justification, and now, despite failing to produce any evidence of wrongdoing, the Trump Administration has requested that GGRF awardees turn over records to the FBI and appear in federal court. And last week, you further escalated EPA’s inappropriate attack on the program by announcing the termination of existing GGRF contracts without any evidence that the grantees were in breach of the terms of their agreements. Last night, a federal judge responded and blocked the EPA’s attempt to claw back billions in legally obligated dollars, slamming EPA for providing “no legal justification for the termination” and for failing to follow due process. We are stunned by this unprecedented campaign of intimidation, and we call on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to direct Citibank to immediately release these legally obligated funds,” said the letter.
“We find it extremely troubling that GGRF funds continue to be the target of a political witch hunt without any justification or evidence of wrongdoing. The EPA’s actions have unnecessarily spurred great economic uncertainty, and now, the eight nonprofit recipients of NCIF and CCIA funding are at risk of going bankrupt and some have already begun to furlough their workers. In the absence of a clear explanation to awardees for why these funds continue to be frozen, we urge EPA to direct Citibank to release these funds without further delay so that these federal dollars, as intended by law, can help American families and businesses begin to lower their energy bills, spur local economic development, and work towards healthier, safer communities across the country.”
The letter can be found here.
Background
Last month, the Trump Administration launched a broad, far-reaching attack on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a historic program established in the Inflation Reduction Act to expand access to low-cost, high-impact clean energy financing. Last week, Administrator Zeldin announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would terminate contracts with all eight awardees under the GGRF’s National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator – threatening $20 billion in critical clean energy and local economic development projects. For weeks, neither EPA nor Citibank had provided the nonprofit grantees with any explanation to justify the freeze. To date, three of the largest GGRF awardees individually sued a combination of Citibank and EPA. On March 18, the courts responded by blocking the EPA’s attempt to reclaim billions in legally obligated dollars deposited at Citibank because the EPA “gave no legal justification for the termination” of GGRF contracts and failed to follow due process.
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