Grates for La Clean Trucks frozen by Trump’s Calmatters administration

The Trump administration has frozen $ 250 million grants at a non -profit target that helps companies replace diesel trucks in Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, part of the broad federal efforts to return $ 20 billion in green energy funding.

The Climate United Program, Declared last OctoberIt would offer affordable leasing contracts for new electric heavy trucks operated by small fleets and separate trucks serving the ports.

Communities near the ports, including Wilmington, San Pedro and Long Beach, have been fighting for years to clean harmful vapors that have been walking in their neighborhoods from the long lines of trucks carrying goods to and from massive ports.

The freezing of the funds comes after California had to give up a regulation that gradually removed the diesel trucks Because the US Environmental Protection Agency with President Donald Trump would not approve of it.

The grant, which would fund about 500 electric trucks, remains frozen by Citibank, which owns the funds, as a legal dispute plays between EPA, Bank and Climate United, a non -profit goal in Maryland.

“We have no money at all, even if you work with money,” Climate United spokesman Brooke Durham told Calmatters in an interview. “We have to collect philanthropic grants so that we can cover the operating costs and salaries … And then all the projects are in the limbs.”

EPA had threatened to terminate the contracts and The climate groups filed a claim Above you do not have access to the money when they were frozen. Groups claim that EPA and the bank illegally refuse money as Congress has seized them through the Law on Reduction of Inflation in 2022. Federal Judge ordered Citibank to pay some of the funds but then the Court of Appeal block this decision As the case continues.

In a March messageEPA administrator Lee Zeldin has accused the $ 20 billion green energy grant program of “wrongful behavior, conflict of interest and potential fraud … I took action to terminate these grants, recruited with self -sufficient and wasteful costs.” However, the agency has not provided evidence of these allegations.

Zeldin has repeatedly mentioned a video of Project Veritas, a conservative group known for recording a video undercover video that secretly filmed a man said to be an EPA employee in the Biden administration, saying that the “throwing gold bars” is still not occupied.

Known as a Fund for Decreasing Green Gases, but also called the Green Bank, the grants are awarded to non -profit organizations, banks and other groups. $ 20 billion were awarded for A variety of projects all over the country.

Climate United representatives said Zeldin’s allegations did not apply to their programs; The money was allocated before Trump was elected.

Climate United has launched other programs across the country in addition to the California Electric Truck Program, according to the trial. EPA also frozen its $ 31.8 million loans for solar energy projects in rural communities in Arkansas and $ 63 million for solar power plants in partnership with tribal governments and communities. His initial tribes and public solar projects were to be in East Oregon and Aidaho, according to the costume.

In addition, $ 30 million to help communities to plan projects that “improved energy independence, reduced pollution, and more costs” were frozen. The Climate United has awarded $ 6.35 million to 22 projects in 18 states, focusing on tribal communities.

When asked about the freezing of the port trucks, the EPA press office told Calmatters in an email that “it is not a party to provide contracting agreements within the Biden-Haris Golden Ribbon Scheme, so we won’t have this information.”

The freezing of money meant that the electric truck program could not move on at the most loaded port complex in the country. Investment is seen as a significant step towards electrification California diesel trucks, which are among the largest sources of air pollution in the LA pool.

The grants were intended to help small operators buy cleaner vehicles in an industry that works on a “razor thin profit model,” said Matt Shrap, CEO of the port transport association.

Many small operators cannot afford electrical trucks. Electric Can cost $ 400,000Compared to less than half of that for a new diesel truck. Moreover, it is often too difficult for small operators to fund them as they are a relatively new technology. As there is currently no market used for them, banks have problems assessing their value.

Residents of port communities have long been complaining about health effects, including asthma and headache, from diesel trucks that release large amounts of soot and other respiratory -related pollutants.

Cleaning diesel exhaust gas “is a literal case of life and death for many members of our community and our loved ones”, Paola Vargas, a resident of Carson and a non -profit organizer East Yard municipalities for environmental justice, they told Calmatters In December. “Every day matters. Every day we have no (truck emissions) … is a wasted day and a day of harmful effects for us.”

California air quality regulators consider it as a switch to zero -emissions vehicles an important part of cleaning heavy air pollution in the state and reducing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.