A federal judge considering the Trump administration’s abrupt cancellation of climate research grants worth billions of dollars told government lawyers they had to produce “some kind of evidence” of wrongdoing to back up such drastic actions.
Climate United, which coordinates investment in clean energy projects, sued to seek access to $7bn that was frozen before it was cancelled on Tuesday night by Lee Zeldin, the New York Republican congressman turned administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In US district court in Washington on Wednesday, Judge Tanya Chutkan asked lawyers for the EPA: “Can you proffer any evidence that [the grant] was illegal, or evidence of abuse or fraud or bribery – that any of that was improperly or unlawfully done, other than the fact that Mr Zeldin doesn’t like it?”
Marc Sacks, a government lawyer, said: “The determination is based on the information contained in the termination letter.”
Chutkan said, “That’s pretty circular,” then asked if Climate United had violated federal regulations.
Sacks said: “I think the agency cited both of those regulations within their termination letter.”
Chutkan said: “I can cite cases all day long, but you have to have some kind of evidence or proffer to back it up.”
She also said: “You can’t even tell me what the evidence of malfeasance is.”
There is plentiful evidence that Zeldin is implementing an assault on attempts to tackle the climate crisis. On Wednesday, the EPA issued a slew of rollbacks of rules to combat pollution.
Zeldin said he was “driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age”.
Climate groups reacted with horror.
Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, told the Guardian: “Come hell or high water, raging fires and deadly heatwaves, [Donald] Trump and his cronies are bent on putting polluter profits ahead of people’s lives. This move won’t stand up in court. We’re going to fight it every step of the way.”
Climate United is not the only group to have sued over access to grants. In New York, the Coalition for Green Capital has sued over the cancellation of a $5bn grant, an act it called “patently and plainly unlawful on its face” and “arbitrary and pretextual”.
In Washington, lawyers for Climate United argued that the EPA had not followed the law, meaning Chutkan could rule on the matter. Lawyers for the government said it was a contract dispute, so she could not.
Chutkan said: “The government didn’t decide who it wanted to contract with. A new administration came in, didn’t like the contract any more. That’s what new administrations do. But there are procedures that have to be followed. And it doesn’t appear, at least on the record before me, that those procedures have been followed.”
The hearing ended without Chutkan issuing a ruling or temporary restraining order, but asking both sides to make new filings by Monday evening: Climate United to amend its lawsuit and the government to provide information about alleged wrongdoing.
“I don’t have the credible evidence that’s required,” Chutkan said.
