One grant recipient has confirmed to The Hill that their account with Citibank has been frozen in the wake of pressure from the administration. At least two others told E&E News, which first reported the freeze, that they were in the same boat.
The program in question, which is funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, provides $20 billion to help finance the deployment of climate-friendly projects.
Last year, the Biden administration awarded that cash to eight institutions that are in charge of doling it out to projects aimed at mitigating climate change.
Now, however, at least some of those eight entities have had their accounts frozen. A representative from one of the organizations told The Hill that their funds were originally frozen by Citi for a day after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin criticized the program.
The account was briefly unfrozen, but was made inaccessible again last week. The representative said that they have requested information from Citibank and the EPA, but have not received it as of Monday.
In the meantime, the organization does not have access to funds needed for their operations.
A spokesperson for Citibank declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the EPA directed The Hill to a recent video of Zeldin in which he indicated that he wanted to claw back funds for the program and said he would get the Justice Department involved.
Read more at TheHill.com.
