The head of the Environmental Protection Agency came under bipartisan criticism Wednesday over his agency's actions to cancel billions of dollars in congressionally approved spending to address chronic pollution in minority communities and jump-start clean energy programs across the country.
Nearly 800 grants were awarded by former President Joe Biden's administration under the 2022 climate law , which directed the EPA to spend 3 billion on grants to help low-income and minority communities improve their air and water and protect against climate change. The law allocated another 20 billion under a so-called green bank program to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects nationwide.
Funding for both programs was abruptly terminated by the Trump administration in actions that Democrats have denounced as illegal and unconstitutional.
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has illegally withheld, or impounded, climate-law funding despite a decades-old law that explicitly prohibits such actions by the executive branch. Repeated court rulings, including by the Supreme Court, support the power of Congress to set federal spending levels.
Zeldin's budget maneuvers "endanger communities by making it harder to address pollution and climate chaos," Merkley said at a hearing Wednesday.