Citibank Blocked From Allowing Access to Climate Grant Money (1)

A federal appeals court partially stayed a district court order blocking the Trump administration from clawing back around $20 billion in green grants.

The US District Court for the District of Columbia’s April 15 order enjoined Citibank N.A. from transferring or otherwise moving funds out of accounts established in connection with the grants of Coalition for Green Capital, Climate United Fund, and Power Forward Communities. Citibank was also ordered to disburse any funds properly incurred before a mid-February suspension of the groups’ funds.

The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit late Wednesday partially granted the administration’s emergency motion for a stay pending appeal. The panel stayed the district court order insofar as it requires Citibank to release, disburse, transfer, otherwise move, or allow access to funds and requires defendants to file a status report with the district court within 24 hours of the entry of the preliminary injunction. It also prevents the parties from taking any action with regard to the disputed contracts.

The court said that order was needed to give it an opportunity to consider the district court’s forthcoming opinion, which was filed late Wednesday.

In the district court decision, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan found that the EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously in failing to explain why it was suspending the grants.

Chutkan also said the executive branch can’t decline to spend money appropriated by Congress, that the green bank plaintiffs would suffer imminent harm without the grant funding, and that the unlawful agency action damages the public interest.

The district court decision “gives us a chance to breathe after the EPA unlawfully—and without due process—terminated our awards and blocked access to funds that were appropriated by Congress and legally obligated,” Climate United CEO Beth Bafford said in a statement after the preliminary injunction was issued.

“After a year-long application process, we were hired to do a job that we’ve done for decades: investing in communities and strengthening markets,” Bafford said. “We want to get back to work.”

Separately, a federal judge in Rhode Island on April 15 temporarily ordered the Trump administration to restart climate grant funding nationwide, at least while lawsuits are pending over the money.

Like Chutkan, Judge Mary S. McElroy of the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island found that the White House’s sudden and indefinite freeze of Congressionally-appropriated funding was arbitrary, capricious, and not reasonably explained.

The case is Climate United Fund v. Citibank N.A., D.C. Cir., No. 25-5122, order 4/16/25.