A federal judge in South Carolina ruled that the Trump administration’s EPA illegally terminated the $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program, a key Inflation Reduction Act effort aimed at pollution and health problems in underserved
For communities that have spent years waiting on air sensors, climate resilience planning, and other projects tied to the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program, the timing of this week’s court decision landed like a delayed lifeline.
A federal judge in South Carolina ruled that the Trump administration’s termination of the program was “illegal.” In doing so. US District Judge Richard Gergel found the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to eliminate the $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program was unlawful and voided the action.
Gergel’s ruling is a setback for efforts to dismantle a Biden-era initiative that funded projects addressing environmental and public health challenges in underserved communities across the country. The program. established under the Inflation Reduction Act. was built to help communities respond to long-standing pollution sources and climate risks.
“These are projects that would have addressed long-standing sources of local pollution or climate risk.”
But the relief is complicated. Gergel stopped short of issuing a permanent injunction that would require the agency to resume administering the program. He said an injunction would likely force the federal government to rehire the staff responsible for overseeing the grants. That appeared “impractical” because the Trump administration had already fired the employees who handled the work. The judge also denied a request to extend the program’s September deadline for awarding grant funds.
The case was brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed in partnership with the Public Rights Project. Kym Meyer, the litigation director, said the organization is still working through the ruling.
“We’re anxious to talk to EPA and to see how they’re planning to move forward, and then we will figure out what our own next steps need to be,” Meyer said.
She added that the grant program should resume as soon as possible.
The program’s purpose was tied to inequality in pollution exposure and public health outcomes. Under budget documents cited in the case. the grants were intended to support community priorities like reducing pollution and strengthening public health and climate readiness. Awards were often made to community groups partnering with local governments. aimed at issues such as rising utility costs. air pollution. decaying infrastructure. and extreme heat.
“These communities are all in areas that experience higher pollution exposures than the more affluent neighborhoods surrounding them.”
Zealan Hoover, a former senior advisor to the EPA Administrator and director of implementation, described what was at stake beyond the dollars.
“These are projects that hundreds of communities across the country had been working on for years,” Hoover said. “These are projects that would have addressed long-standing sources of local pollution or climate risk, and it is really tragic that these grants were terminated.”
One recipient was CleanAIRE NC, a nonprofit that works to improve the health of North Carolina residents. The group received $500,000 to install air sensors across four communities in Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte. Andrew Whelan. the director for communications strategy for CleanAIRE NC. said the sensors were intended to support local advocacy for cleaner air.
“These communities are all in areas that experience higher pollution exposures than the more affluent neighborhoods surrounding them. resulting in vastly different experiences and health outcomes. ” Whelan said. “They’re closer to major highways, greater industrial activity and polluting factories and coal plants.”.
In an email, Whelan said the data would help communities learn how to press for cleaner air.
“For decades. the families of north Mecklenburg County have been forced to wait for basic transparency about the air they breathe. ” he wrote. “While it’s too soon to know how this ruling will impact individual grant recipients. the court has validated that our community was wrongfully deprived of these critical air monitoring resources.”.
The dispute is rooted in actions the Trump administration took early in its term. At the beginning of his presidency. Trump issued executive orders that paused “the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act” and directed agencies to “terminate. to the maximum extent allowed by law…‘environmental justice’ offices and positions.”.
In the lawsuit. court documents described how the decision to end the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program was made. An EPA official told the court that. after a review. he decided to terminate the program last February for “policy reasons.” Gergel found that explanation did not make the cancellation lawful.
This was not the first time the program’s grants were challenged in court. In a separate lawsuit over the same grants. Gergel ruled in favor of CleanAIRE NC and other plaintiffs. but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision. This time, the litigation focused on the legality behind canceling the entire program, rather than individual grants.
An EPA spokesperson said in a written statement that the agency is “reviewing the decision.”
The immediate legal effect is clear: the termination of the program was voided. The practical path forward is less certain, shaped by the judge’s decision not to order a permanent injunction requiring the program to restart—after the staff responsible for overseeing the grants were fired.
In other words, the court has said the shutdown was wrong. Whether communities will get back the projects they were promised—sensors. infrastructure work. and climate readiness planning—may depend on what EPA does next. and how quickly it can rebuild the staffing that the judge said the law would otherwise push it to restore.
EPA Environmental Justice Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program $2.8 billion Inflation Reduction Act Trump administration South Carolina federal judge Richard Gergel Southern Environmental Law Center CleanAIRE NC air sensors Mecklenburg County