Appeals Court Halts Federal Judge’s Order Mandating EPA to Disburse Billions to Climate Groups

An appeals court blocked a lower court order that would have barred the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from terminating billions of dollars in grants to several climate groups. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late Wednesday reversed an order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that would allow climate-related groups to access $14 billion of the $20 billion in grant money held by Citibank. Chutkan’s order also mandated that the EPA not suspend or terminate the grant awards program. “The purpose of this order is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the district court’s forthcoming opinion in support of its order granting a preliminary injunction together with the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and any response thereto, and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the court wrote in an unsigned order. A separate ruling to set court deadlines and responses will be issued at a later date, it said....