The EPA Wants that $20 Billion Back

Current conditions: An approaching rain storm prompted evacuation warnings for parts of Los Angeles recently affected by wildfires • A Category 5 tropical cyclone is heading for Western Australia • School has been suspended in Brazil’s state of Rio Grande do Sul due to an extreme heat wave. Less than a year ago, the region was under water.

THE TOP FIVE

1. EPA’s Zeldin wants to claw back $20 billion in climate grants

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says he plans to revoke $20 billion in grants awarded for Biden-era climate projects. In a video posted on X, Zeldin said the EPA would end its contract with the bank that oversees the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion Inflation Reduction Act program for climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives. As Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo reported last year, the idea behind the fund was to “create a national clean financing network for clean energy and climate solutions.” The money has already been awarded to eight nonprofits, including the Coalition for Green Capital, Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity, and Community Preservation Corporation. Zeldin seems intent on clawing the money back, accusing the Biden administration of rushing its distribution without oversight. “The financial agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated and the bank must immediately return all of the gold bars that the EPA toss off the Titanic,” he said. The move will likely draw legal challenges.

X/epaleezeldin

2. Trump nominates fossil fuel lobbyist to lead BLM

President Trump has nominated Kathleen Sgamma, an oil and gas lobbyist, to lead the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM oversees 245 million acres of public lands, or about one in every 10 acres across the country. It also manages 700 million acres of mineral estate. Sgamma leads a Colorado-based fossil fuel trade group called the Western Energy Alliance. As The Associated Press reported, she “has been a leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, calling for fewer drilling restrictions on public lands that produce about 10% of U.S. oil and gas.” Environmentalists slammed the nomination. “It’s hard to imagine how Trump could give a bigger middle finger to America’s public lands,” said Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Everyone who treasures the outdoors should oppose her nomination.”

3. State Department planned to spend $400 million on Tesla vehicles

Public documents show that the State Department was planning to buy $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles, most likely Cybertrucks, Drop Site reported yesterday. The 2025 procurement forecast has since been updated to remove any mention of Tesla, and now references only “armored electric vehicles.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become a key advisor to President Trump, scrutinizing government spending as leader of the “Department of Government Efficiency.” His role has “raised recurring questions about how he might police himself when one of his companies competes for official contracts,” Bloomberg said. Musk posted on X that he was “pretty sure” his company wasn’t getting $400 million from the government. “No one mentioned it to me, at least.”

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4. Report warns climate change threatens future of EU

The German government put out a report yesterday that says climate change poses a looming existential threat to the European Union. By 2040, the climate crisis will “increasingly impact political, economic, and social dynamics within the EU,” the report said. More frequent extreme weather events will burden public health and trigger mass migration both into and within Europe, and also threaten crop production and tourism in countries heavily reliant on both sectors. “A lack of tourism and crop failures can lead to economic instability and have the potential to cause conflict within the EU,” the report said. “It is in Germany and the EU’s interest to slow climate change and accelerate decarbonisation, not only from an economic and ecological perspective but also from a security policy perspective.”

National Interdisciplinary Climate Risk Assessment

5. China ramps up construction of coal-fired power plants

Construction on coal-fired power plants in China soared last year to the highest level since 2015, according to analysis from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air and the Global Energy Monitor. China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, but it has been applauded for its renewable energy expansion. Indeed, last year it added 356 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity. But China also started building lots of new coal power plants with electric-generating capacity totaling about 95 gigawatts. These plants will begin to come online in the next few years. “Instead of replacing coal, clean energy is being layered on top of an entrenched reliance on fossil fuels,” the report said. “The parallel expansion of coal and renewables risks undermining China’s clean energy transition.”

THE KICKER

“The companies and local governments that are now being strung along by the Trump administration did not make a vague handshake agreement with the Biden administration. Instead, they signed a contract with the federal government to receive a certain amount of money in exchange for doing a certain activity. The administration might have changed since then. But the government is still bound by its debts and obligations.”

–Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer on contract law and the Trump spending fight