Judge orders EPA to fund climate grants, including $20M for tribe in NV

A South Carolina federal judge ordered the Trump administration to fund hundreds of environmental justice grants it illegally canceled last year, a decision that could impact $20 million in federal funding rescinded from the Walker River Paiute Tribe in Nevada.

Last month, a federal court found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to terminate the $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program authorized by Congress under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act was “arbitrary and capricious and unlawful.”

However, the judge stopped short of ordering the agency to take steps to fully restore the program, noting such an order “would presumably require ordering EPA to rehire” staff charged with administering the program, calling such an order “impractical.”

The EPA in turn argued the order “does not compel further action” and declined to reinstate the grants.

But in a two-page order issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel said the EPA violated the court’s order by refusing to release funds the court ruled were illegally canceled.

Gergel ordered the EPA to “comply with its statutory obligations to administer the ECJ Program through September 30, 2026” — the date through which Congress funded the programs.

An EPA spokesperson said the agency is “reviewing the decision.”

The federal climate program was terminated in May 2025 following two executive orders issued by President Donald Trump targeting funding for renewable energy and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the federal level.

The Nevada Clean Energy Fund — a nonprofit bank that would have administered the $20 million EPA grant awarded to the Walker River Paiute Tribe  — is not a part of the lawsuit, but said they are following the case and its impact on Nevada. 

In Nevada, the program’s termination eliminated a $20 million EPA grant that would have funded a multi-year climate resiliency plan to deliver water, energy, and food infrastructure to about 1,200 tribal members who live on the Walker River Reservation. 

The funding would have weatherized and increased energy efficiency and climate resiliency for 150 homes – about 30% of all existing homes on the reservation. A portion of the grant was also earmarked for a vital water infrastructure project to protect health and safety on the reservation. 

Toby Merrill, the litigation director for Public Rights Project which is part of the lawsuit, said the order “made it clear that EPA has to follow the law, not keep making the same arguments the court has already rejected.”

Bryan Cordell, the executive director of the Sustainability Institute which filed the original lawsuit, said the EPA has several options to release the congressionally obligated funds. 

“It doesn’t require the EPA to necessarily hire people back, but it does require them to implement the program as it was congressionally directed to do, and so the solution to that could look like a lot of things,” Cordell said. 

When the federal court ruled the EPA’s decision to terminate the congressionally obligated funds was illegal last month, Cordell said the agency quickly reopened treasury accounts allowing the conservation group to get about $75,000 of already spent funds reimbursed over the past month. 

“I have the general sense that funds could move pretty quickly,” Cordell said. “The real unfortunate part to me about this is that we have households that are literally suffering just because we can’t get the funding moving.”

The Sustainability Institute’s project was focused on home repair, weatherization, and energy efficiency improvements for historic homes in South Carolina.