TechCrunch News 09月03日
法院支持环保局撤销气候资金发放
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一项关于200亿美元气候相关资金的争议在周二有了新进展,一家上诉法院裁定环保局(EPA)胜诉,该局此前撤销了拜登时期授予非营利组织的赠款。此法律纠纷源于EPA局长泽尔丁(Lee Zeldin)决定取消《通胀削减法案》下的部分赠款发放。泽尔丁声称这些赠款不符合EPA的当前优先事项,并无证据地表示担忧存在欺诈。一位区法院先前曾裁定泽尔丁的行为“武断且反复无常”。两位多数派法官(均为特朗普任命)认为泽尔丁取消合同是有效的,并强调政府“必须确保对赠款的适当监督和管理”,他们引用了保守派活动团体Project Veritas提供的经过剪辑的秘密视频作为依据。该资金主要用于可循环使用的贷款,但非营利组织Climate United和Power Forward等机构的资金已被冻结,导致其项目和合同付款受阻。

⚖️ 法院裁定环保局(EPA)有权撤销《通胀削减法案》下的气候资金赠款,此前该机构局长泽尔丁以不符合EPA优先事项和潜在欺诈为由取消了这些赠款。

🏛️ 上诉法院多数派法官(均为特朗普任命)认为泽尔丁的决定有效,强调政府需对赠款进行适当监督和管理,并引用了Project Veritas提供的视频作为依据,尽管此前有区法院裁定其行为“武断且反复无常”。

💸 被撤销的赠款涉及数十亿美元,原计划用于支持如Climate United和Power Forward等非营利组织的太阳能项目及其他气候相关活动,但资金被冻结已导致项目受阻和合同付款困难。

📉 EPA的论点转向赠款的合同性质,多数法官认为应由联邦索赔法院而非更广泛的联邦司法机构处理。持不同意见的法官则认为EPA无权干涉已属于受赠方的资金。

The battle over $20 billion worth of climate-related funding authorized by Congress continues as an appellate court ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency, which had terminated Biden-era grants made to nonprofits.

The legal tussle stems from EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s decision to cancel grants dispersed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Zeldin said that the grants did not match the EPA’s current priorities and claimed, without evidence, that he had concerns about fraud.

A district court had previously ruled that Zeldin’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious.”

The two majority justices, both Trump appointees, wrote that Zeldin’s cancellation of the contracts was valid and that the government “must ensure proper oversight and management” of the grants. They cited in support of their decision an undercover video taken by Project Veritas, a conservative activist group that releases deceptively edited videos.

In March, court filings revealed that the EPA along with the FBI and the EPA inspector general had instructed Citibank to freeze money that had already been placed in accounts controlled by the nonprofits. The money was largely to be used for loans, which would be paid back and reused.

The grants in question were awarded to a range of nonprofits, including Climate United and Power Forward. At the time of the March hearing, Climate United had committed to $392 million in projects based on the money in its accounts, including $63 million for solar power developments in Oregon and Idaho and another $31.8 million in solar projects in rural Arkansas. Power Forward had committed $539 million and said the freeze left it unable to pay contractors’ outstanding invoices.

Zeldin had claimed that fraud was one of his main concerns, though a lengthy investigation by the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., failed to turn up any meaningful evidence, according to a report in The New York Times.

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Perhaps as a result of a lack of evidence of fraud, EPA arguments before the appeals court focused on the contractual nature of the grants. The majority of justices agreed that the matter should be heard by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, not the broader federal judiciary.

The dissenting justice, an Obama appointee, said that the EPA “has no lawful basis — nor even a nonfrivolous assertion of any basis — to interfere with funding that, pursuant to Congress’s instructions, already belongs to Plaintiffs.”

The plaintiffs are likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If they fail there, the EPA could still be liable for billions of dollars, according to legal analysis by its own attorneys.

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环保局 气候资金 通胀削减法案 法律诉讼 EPA Climate Funding Inflation Reduction Act Legal Dispute
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