Environment — News & Analysis

EPA terminates $20 billion "green bank" as funds sit frozen at Citibank (March 11, 2025)

March 11, 2025 — EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the termination of the entire Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) — a $20 billion Inflation Reduction Act program designed to finance clean energy projects in low-income and underserved communities through a network of nonprofit green banks — citing unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and mismanagement. The announcement came on the same day a federal court hearing had been scheduled on the fund's frozen status, with the EPA requesting a 24-hour delay before making the termination announcement.

The funds had been lawfully obligated by the Biden administration and placed in a Citibank account for distribution to three primary recipients: Climate United Fund ($7B), Coalition for Green Capital ($5B), and Power Forward Communities ($2B). The EPA had pressured Citibank to freeze the accounts in February, blocking grantees from accessing congressionally appropriated money. Courts were immediately drawn into the dispute: a federal district judge found the EPA's fraud allegations "vague and unsubstantiated" and issued a temporary restraining order blocking the clawback. An appeals court later reversed that order in September 2025, and the litigation continued into 2026 without the EPA ever producing evidence of wrongdoing.

The GGRF had been the centerpiece of Biden-era climate finance for communities historically excluded from clean energy investment. The termination also affected the Solar for All program, though $7B of that component was briefly unfrozen in early March before the broader termination swept it back in. The $23.3 billion in total IRA clean energy grants that the Trump administration attempted to cancel represented the largest peacetime revocation of congressionally appropriated funds in American history.