US appeals court blocks the cancellation of $20bn in clean energy grants

The full US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot freeze roughly $20bn in grants awarded to nonprofit groups for clean energy projects. The decision reverses an earlier ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court last September that had sided with the administration.

At the centre of the dispute is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, created by Congress under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The majority of judges said the EPA's attempt to terminate the grants and claw back the money "based solely on a policy disagreement" likely violated that act.

The money will not be released immediately: the ruling has been temporarily put on hold to give the EPA time to ask the US Supreme Court to intervene. The case is one of several legal challenges to the administration's effort to unwind the previous government's climate agenda, a push that has run alongside expanded support for fossil fuel production.