For once, a federal appeals court has sided with President Donald Trump in his efforts to claw back taxpayer dollars sent to leftist groups.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals approved the plan for EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to rescind $16 billion appropriated by former President Joe Biden in his lame duck days for basically a "slush fund" for "green" climate projects, reversing a lower court block on the action.
Zeldin first announced the freeze on $20 billion back in February, and it was immediately challenged by the groups who would have benefitted from the funds.
At the time, Zeldin compared Biden's appropriation to “throwing gold bars off the Titanic” and said there wasn't enough oversight on how the money would be spent.
“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” Zeldin said. “The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years.”
After the lower court said Zeldin had not given enough substantiation of his allegations against the nonprofits, the appeals court ruled 2-1 that Zeldin could terminate the grants and contracts.
The court also said that the nonprofits had no standing to challenge the termination of contracts, and that their arguments needed to go before a federal claims court that specifically hears contract disputes.
If the nonprofits take their claims to that court, there's still a chance that Zeldin could be forced to honor the contracts.
This was considered a loss for the groups, who were seeking immediate access to the money.
Another path the groups could take is to appeal the D.C. court's decision to the Supreme Court, but there's no guarantee the high court will even take the case.
The D.C. appeals court is by no means conservative, so its ruling cannot be seen as partisan.
While Trump is not necessarily against green energy, he doesn't think the federal government should be subsidizing it and propping it up to try to reduce fossil fuel use.
With $37 trillion in debt and counting, there's no way we need to be giving billions more to green energy groups.
Let them stand on their own two feet in the market and see what happens.
