The federal district court for the District of South Carolina granted in part plaintiffs’ motion to enforce judgment and clarify the court’s June 2026 order vacating U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidance terminating the Inflation Reduction Act’s Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program (ECJ Program). The June order also required that ECJ Program funds “must be made available through September 30, 2026.” The plaintiffs argued in their motion that the vacatur of the guidance required EPA to comply with its statutory obligations, including operating the Program. The federal defendants argued, however, that the court denied the plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief and that the vacatur did not alter the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s (OBBBA’s) rescission of unobligated funds. In its order, the court clarified that EPA “must comply with its statutory obligations to administer the ECJ Program.” The court also stated that its interpretation of the OBBBA in the June order (i.e., that the OBBBA’s rescission of unobligated funds did not moot the plaintiffs’ claims) was the law of the case and “EPA may not flout the Court’s prior order based on a legal argument which it advanced and the Court rejected.”

Community groups' and cities' lawsuit alleging that the Trump administration had unlawfully and arbitrarily frozen federal grant funds, including for programs and projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sustainability Institute v. Trump

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South Carolina Federal Court Ordered EPA to Administer Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Through End of September

Filed

United States of America

South Carolina

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