Biden administration spending climate cash fast, as Trump threatens to cancel it

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump has said he would cancel all unspent funds from President Joe Biden's signature climate law if he wins the presidential election on Nov. 5.

But the vast majority of grants will be spent by the time a new president takes office in January, and targeting what remains would be a massive legal challenge, according to Biden administration officials.

The Biden administration has awarded $90 billion in grants to climate, clean energy, and other projects so far under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which amounts to 70% of the law’s roughly $120 billion in total climate-focused grant money and over 80% of what the law made available before 2025, according to administration officials.

Another $15 billion could be awarded in the coming months.

The administration is doling out the funds "as quickly and as equitably as we can," White House Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian told Reuters.

She added that the unspent funds - as well as the billions of dollars worth of tax credits available annually under the law for things like electric vehicles, solar plants, and wind farms - would be tough to freeze if Trump regained office.

"No president is above the law, and the law is pretty clear here: The executive branch does not have the authority to withhold appropriated funds just because it might disagree with the policies that Congress enacted," Quillian said.

The Inflation Reduction Act is billed as the largest U.S. climate law in history, valued at over $400 billion total. That figure includes grants and other spending to spur clean energy deployment, along with tax incentives and credits.

Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, said in an economy-focused speech on Sept. 5 that he wants to "rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act" if elected.

The Republican former president is running against Biden's Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat who cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the bill.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said on Tuesday that if his party wins control of Congress on Election Day, they will target the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, in the first 100 days.

Whether that is likely depends on the makeup of the next Congress after the election.

U.S. House Republicans have attempted to repeal part or all of the law 42 times, but have failed to get enough votes.

Last month, 18 House Republicans sent a letter to Johnson urging him not to target the law because of the investments that IRA subsidies have drawn to their districts.

Biden administration agencies with the most climate-related IRA funding told Reuters they are moving fast with their grants.

The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, said they already had obligated all, or nearly all, of their IRA-related funding.

The Interior Department, meanwhile, said it had awarded or made available nearly $4.9 billion of its $6.4 billion in total Inflation Reduction Act funding.

The Treasury Department, meanwhile, said it has completed the rules for using major IRA tax credits for 22 of 24 available programs and plans to finish the rest this year.

Trump would have a hard time repurposing that money thanks to protections in the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, according to Gillian Metzger, a Columbia University law professor. That law was passed after President Richard Nixon impounded funds for federal spending he opposed on policy grounds.

"These measures really constrain the authority of presidents to do this," she said.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Jonathan Oatis)