Federal judge says Trump administration's move to kill $2.8 billion in environmental justice grants was illegal

A federal judge in South Carolina has struck down the Trump administration's attempt to end a $2.8 billion environmental justice grant program.

What happened?

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said the Environmental Protection Agency acted unlawfully when it canceled the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program, a Biden-era initiative created through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Inside Climate News reported that the judge voided the cancellation, though he did not order the agency to fully resume running the program.

Gergel said a permanent injunction could require the government to bring back grant staff whom the Trump administration had already dismissed, which he viewed as "impractical."

He also declined to extend the program's September deadline for distributing funds.

The Southern Environmental Law Center and the Public Rights Project filed the lawsuit.

An EPA official told the court that he terminated the program last February for "policy reasons," but Gergel ruled that justification did not make the decision lawful.

Why does it matter?

The funding was intended to help communities tackle problems such as rising utility costs, air pollution, deteriorating infrastructure, and extreme heat.

Many of the awards went to community groups working with local governments on projects that had been in the works for years.

Zealan Hoover, formerly a senior adviser to the EPA Administrator and the agency's implementation director, said: "These are projects that hundreds of communities across the country had been working on for years."

One affected recipient is CleanAIRE NC, which received $500,000 to install air sensors in four communities in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

Andrew Whelan, the group's director for communications strategy, said those neighborhoods "experience higher pollution exposures than the more affluent neighborhoods surrounding them, resulting in vastly different experiences and health outcomes."

The project was meant to help residents better understand the air they breathe and advocate for cleaner, safer conditions.

Still, the ruling does not guarantee that those projects will move forward quickly, leaving many communities in limbo for now.

What are people saying?

Kym Meyer, who directs litigation at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the organization is still "working through" the ruling.

"We're anxious to talk to EPA and to see how they're planning to move forward, and then we will figure out what our own next steps need to be," she said, per Inside Climate News.

Hoover called the cancellations "really tragic," saying the grants "would have addressed long-standing sources of local pollution or climate risk."

Whelan said, "While it's too soon to know how this ruling will impact individual grant recipients, the court has validated that our community was wrongfully deprived of these critical air monitoring resources."

In a statement, the EPA said it is "reviewing the decision."

Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.