Inside the Court Battle to Stop Trump’s $20 Billion Climate Clawback.
Shortly before midnight on April 15, United States District Court Judge for the District of Columbia, Tanya S. Chutkan dealt Donald Trump’s administration another in a series of lower court losses. The court issued a preliminary injunction that blocked Trump’s effort to claw back $20 billion in federal funding for vital climate and green energy programs and usurp the power of the U.S. Congress, and required the immediate release of the now frozen funds.
Within 24-hours, the Trump administration filed an appeal with the D.C. Circuit Court, winning a partial victory which requires that the funds remain frozen while it examines Judge Chutkan’s ruling.
Two weeks earlier, Judge Chutkan told a chastened Trump administration lawyer, “I’ve asked you repeatedly, and you’ve been very candid with me, in saying that you don’t know what the evidence is of waste, fraud, and abuse, and violation of the law, and corruption… Here we are, weeks in, and you’re still unable to proffer me any information.”
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Chutkan is a former public defender and Harvard Law School faculty member. She has served for over a decade on the U.S. District Court for D.C., where she presided over Trump’s federal election subversion case and several January 6 insurrection cases. She controls her courtroom through a combination of congenial humor, incisive questioning, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the law.
She is rarely rattled, but lost her patience with the administration’s lawyer Marcus Sacks as he admitted — yet again — that the government had absolutely no evidence to present supporting its repeated claims of potentially criminal charges. The claims impact dozens of small and large, local and national nonprofit organizations — including some of the most highly-respected and well-known service organizations in the nation — working throughout the country to implement the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the most far-reaching climate and environmental justice law in U.S. history.
It was the third hearing before the court in the consolidated case of Climate United v. Citibank in which the plaintiffs — including the nonprofits and several state attorneys general — are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the third time the Trump administration failed to proffer any evidence to support its allegations against them.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has tried to seize and ultimately froze $20 billion in congressionally appropriated and contractually obligated funds held in the nonprofits’ bank accounts at Citibank — actions that Georgetown constitutional law professor David Super calls “spectacularly illegal.” The administration has canceled the nonprofits’ grants following a visit to the EPA from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), engaged in a public campaign of harassment and intimidation with the help of a right-wing media smear operation, and launched an FBI investigation into many of the nonprofits’ activities. A veteran U.S. prosecutor was forced to resign, and three temporary restraining orders had already been placed on the administration by the court. Despite it all, the administration came up with nothing to show for its very public assault.
Asked if the government had any new information to offer regarding the reasons for terminating the nonprofits’ grants, Sacks replied, “We do not, Your honor.”
Asked if the government had followed the law when it terminated the grants, Sacks replied, “That’s a complicated question.”
With that astounding admission, I felt the air leave the courtroom as 50 people simultaneously sucked in their breath, stopped moving, and an emotion somewhere between stunned and an angrier, “I told you so!” passed between those gathered before the court.
Judge Chutkan had already found that the EPA likely violated the law when it terminated these grants. Since the first temporary restraining order issued on March 18, the court has enjoined the administration from canceling the grants and attempting to seize the funds from Citibank. The preliminary injunction requires that those funds be released as Judge Chutkan considers a final ruling on the merits of the case. The D.C. Court of Appeals interjected, rescinding (for now) only that part of the injunction that unfroze the funds, following on the heels of a similar U.S. Supreme Court ruling on April 4.
“If the current president wants to ask Congress to repeal the IRA and the funding that goes along with it, he is free to do so, but no president or federal agency can single-handedly undo an act of Congress, much less in the improper and disgraceful way this president and EPA have tried to go about it,” said Attorney General of Minnesota Keith Ellison in a statement last month. “We are also holding Citibank accountable for improperly complying with the government’s campaign of intimidation and freezing funds that it is required by law to release.”
If Judge Chutkan ultimately rules against the administration, as she seems poised to do, it could be a significant victory in the effort to restrain Trump’s increasingly fascist presidency, regularly obstructing the rule of law and usurping unprecedented authority from the U.S. Congress. Trump is defying the Constitution, refusing to implement laws and court orders he dislikes. He refuses to distribute congressionally appropriated funds — which he would rather give away as tax cuts to the world’s largest corporations and wealthiest individuals, including his biggest political financial supporter and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. He is yet again acting at the behest of the fossil fuel industry in its best efforts to stay relevant long after its time has passed.
This particular scheme involves Trump’s effort to claw back the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The Fund includes billions of dollars to create a national network of lenders, including state and local “green banks,” capable of not only financing projects to reduce climate and air pollution and build the green energy economy, but also ensure that its benefits reach all Americans, including those who have not only borne the brunt of the harms of the fossil fuel industry, but have also been largely shut out the transition away from its products.
Trump does have more cards up his sleeve — namely a majority in the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump scored his first Supreme Court victory of his second term on April 4 in a ruling that may signal the court’s intention to greenlight not only his attacks on federal funding, but also on programs that address racial inequality.
Michele Goodwin, Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy at Georgetown Law School, says that the Supreme Court ruling raises critical concerns about the court’s willingness to intervene on behalf of the president, “When Donald Trump says, jump, is it that this is a court that will say, ‘How high would you like for us to jump, Mr. President?’”
So, What Exactly is a “Green” Bank?
Last June, John Legend could be seen casually walking through the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He wasn’t there for a gig or a social visit. He was on a tour with local nonprofit organization, Jubilee Housing, as part of his HUMANLEVEL Initiative, which aims to raise awareness and encourage public and private stakeholders to invest in solutions to ensure everyone has access to safe, affordable homes.
On March 25, I joined Jubilee Housing on the same tour to learn about its work with the D.C. Green Bank. The D.C. government established the D.C. Green Bank in 2018 to lend money to meet the District’s 100 percent renewable energy sustainability goals by using public funds to mobilize private investment, becoming the first U.S. city with its own Green Bank. The D.C. Green Bank is among the dozens of nonprofits that received a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund award whose accounts are frozen at Citibank. It received a $10 million award in January that was frozen in February. So that I could see first-hand what these and other Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds will ultimately support, I visited a project already well-underway and undertaken with its existing funds. (Representatives of the D.C. Green Bank declined to be interviewed for this article.)
Jubilee Housing is a 50-year-old affordable housing and service organization. “It’s pretty incredible when you think about how much it costs to live anywhere, but D.C. in particular,” communications manager Jennifer Shannon tells me. “We provide deeply affordable housing for individuals and families earning just 30 percent or less of the median,” or about $45,000 or less a year for a family of four in D.C., she explains.
With the help of a $3 million loan from the D.C. Green Bank Jubilee is transforming the King Emmanuel Baptist Church and an adjacent building into deeply affordable and energy-efficient green housing. Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony a few weeks earlier, King Emmanuel Pastor Daryl Bell said, “for the individuals who are coming to this place, you’re putting seeds in their life, seeds of hope.”
“Instead of redlining people out, we green-line them in,” Jim Knight, President and CEO of Jubilee shares later by email.
Carting blue hard hats and fluorescent yellow vests, I join Shannon and several other Jubilee staff to take the short walk from their office over to the church through the heart of Adams Morgan. Inside King Emmanuel, purple velvet pews, a functioning pipe organ, and colorful paintings depicting the life of Jesus are mixed in with piles of insulation recently pulled out of the wall, stacks of color swatches, and the efficient buzz of construction workers. Next-door, the additional 52-unit construction is also well underway, with the smell of fresh paint hitting us as we walk along cement floors passing by drywall, exposed aluminum pipes, and construction plans tapped to the walls.
“I had a gentleman in here earlier today who was getting ready to move into the new building, and he had himself, his wife, three children, and a grandma — six of them. Right now, they have one bedroom, but he’s getting a four-bedroom,” Jordan Shahin, vice president of Jubilee’s Real Estate Development, tells me.
D.C. Green Bank’s loan provides the financing for all of the green components of the construction. These high-performance energy efficiency upgrades reduce electricity costs and carbon emissions. They include energy-efficient appliances and lighting, HVAC heating and cooling systems, high-efficiency insulation, a rooftop solar system, and even a working farm.
Tim Tutt is the Managing Director of Jubilee Farms. He has a warm congeniality and a shock of white hair. Though he doesn’t mention it, I’m not surprised to learn that he holds a Doctor of Ministry with a focus on Public Theology and is an ordained clergyperson, having served as the pastor of several churches.
Tutt explains that the farm will include two large greenhouses growing some 13,000 plants a month year-round. Residents will grow the food, prepare, and serve it in a communal kitchen. For those residents coming home from incarceration (nearly 60 percent of D.C.’s unhoused population was formerly incarcerated), this will be part of workforce reentry training, earning food handler and food prep certification. They’ll eat the food they grow, package some into delivery boxes for other residents of affordable housing, and sell produce at farmers markets and to restaurants to raise income. “When you can feed your neighbor, there’s a sense of camaraderie, there’s a lot of pride,” Tutt says.
“What you need to imagine in here are four big fish tanks with koi swimming around, pooping like we hope they do with abandon,” Tutt says, a huge smile overtaking his face as he gestures to the now-empty basement. The water is pumped out of the fish tanks and up to the plants that grow in towers on the roof with the fish poop serving as fertilizer. No pesticides, combined with locally grown and eaten food, means less fossil fuels burned.
Shahin explains that many banks lack the resources, knowledge, or will to make green investments. “It’s challenging because it costs more, and the cost is all upfront,” he tells me. Add rising interest rates and “these extras are the first thing to go,” Shahin says. “So, it’s great that there’s programs like the D.C. Green Bank and others that are helping us bridge that gap and get over that hump.”
The financing also attracts private investors. “When they see multiple capital sources in the stack — especially the D.C. Green Bank, which is very well known in our area — it makes them more excited to be part of the project,” he adds, and, like any other bank loan, “D.C. Green Bank will get its money back, plus interest,” which it then reinvests into other projects.
“It’s better for our residents, better for the environment, and allows us to recapture some of the savings. The building uses less energy, it’s more efficient, we don’t have as many issues with stormwater management, so we can really benefit,” Shahin adds.
They are also fortunate. Unlike most of the nation, D.C. has an established local Green Bank with experienced green lenders, and Jubilee’s loan was not reliant on its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds.
The staff are understandably reluctant to enter the fray of the political storm surrounding the fund. But Tutt says, “We certainly are glad for the most possible money to come into the pipeline to do this type of work. It fits with our mission, our ethos, our way of caring for the world and our way of being good neighbors. The more federal money, the better.”
A Nation of Green Banks and Lenders
Article CONTINUES
Read the full feature length investigation at Rolling Stone.com