Judge Presses Trump’s EPA Over Effort to Cut Green Bank Funds

A federal judge on Wednesday grilled the Trump administration over steps it took to freeze and subsequently terminate grants for clean energy project lenders.

The Environmental Protection Agency was “putting the cart before the horse” by telling Citibank N.A. to freeze disbursement of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants when it didn’t have a court order and hadn’t yet filed a notice of termination, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said at a hearing on grant recipients’ March 21 motion for a preliminary injunction.

The primary green bank plaintiffs were already awarded funds—they weren’t asking to be awarded funds at a future ...