WASHINGTON–With credit unions waiting on nearly $2 billion in funding, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot terminate and claw back roughly $20 billion in grants awarded through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The court upheld an April 2025 preliminary injunction that prevents EPA from taking back funds already placed in grant recipients’ accounts. But funds will not be flowing anytime soon, as the court has allowed for a potential review by the Supreme Court.
CU Strategic Planning noted in its analysis that six judges concluded that EPA’s attempt to end the grants based solely on a policy disagreement likely violated the law that created and funded the program. The decision reverses a September ruling by a smaller panel of the same court that had sided with EPA.
‘Especially Relevant to CDFIs’
“The ruling is especially relevant to CDFIs and credit unions because the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was designed to move clean-energy financing through community lenders,” CU Strategic Planning said in a blog post. “That includes the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, under which Inclusiv received a $1.87 billion award to provide funding and technical assistance through credit unions.
“While this stops the termination of the grants and claw back of funds, access to the awarded funds won’t resume immediately,” the blog post continued. “The court is allowing time for EPA to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court, and questions remain about how the grants will be administered following the 2025 repeal of the law that created the program. Still, the ruling is a significant step toward protecting funds that had already been awarded and disbursed.”
As the CU Daily reported earlier here, in September of 2025 Inclusiv filed an emergency appeal seeking to overturn the latest decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia supporting the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and the National Clean Investment Fund.
Prior Ruling
As the CU Daily had also reported here earlier, the federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can cancel nearly $16 billion in green energy grants, overturning a lower court order that had forced the government and Citibank to keep making the payments. The decision affects more than 100 credit unions that had been awarded grants from the funds.
In August of 2024, Inclusiv had been awarded $1.87 billion as part of the GGRF to distribute to credit unions. Inclusiv is a plaintiff in the ongoing federal litigation challenging what it called the EPA’s “unlawful attempt” to terminate the NCIF and GGRF.
