Biden’s $20,000,000,000 Green Bank Money Stays Frozen As Trump Prepares Supreme Court Appeal

Biden-era green bank grants worth $20 billion remain frozen two months after an appeals court ruled against the Trump administration’s attempt to cancel them.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voted 6–4 on Aug. 4 to uphold an order blocking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from terminating the Inflation Reduction Act grants, finding the agency “likely contravened the IRA’s mandatory appropriation.” Days later, the court agreed to the administration’s request to keep the money frozen while it prepares to take the fight to the Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court should absolutely take this case,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Biden administration rushed $20 billion in taxpayer money into the hands of politically connected organizations, creating what looks like a taxpayer-funded slush fund for its climate agenda.”

“At a time when so many Americans are struggling to afford skyrocketing utility bills, the Trump administration is refusing to implement this program, which would lower bills for those who most need the help,” Mark Drajem, media director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said in a statement to the DCNF. “That’s a cruel blow from this administration made worse by the fact that the president had pledged to cut energy bills.”

The stay pauses the part of the court’s order that would require the money to be paid out through Nov. 9, according to Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. It will be extended until the Supreme Court acts if the administration files a petition, and the grantees did not oppose it.

The EPA, Climate United and the offices of Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin canceled the grants in March 2025, citing “well documented concerns about self-dealing and conflicts of interest,” according to the agency. Climate United, the largest recipient, had been awarded about $7 billion.

A three-judge panel of the same court sided with the EPA in September 2025, ruling 2-1 that the grantees’ main claims were “essentially contractual” and belonged in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The four judges in the minority in August would have lifted that part of the order, pointing to Congress’s repeal of the section that created the program in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Reuters reported. After the ruling, the EPA said it was reviewing its next steps.