Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined three attorneys general on Wednesday in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration to preserve federal grant dollars flowing into Illinois for clean-energy projects. Raoul and the coalition filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Illinois Climate Bank, a state-created public bank whose purpose is to stimulate the development of clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions-reducing projects, and to help overcome existing market barriers to these projects.
The lawsuit also names Citibank, which holds the funds for the federal government, to ensure those funds are released as required by law.
“Congress appropriated billions to assist in transitioning to a clean-energy future, protecting our environment from carbon emissions and putting people to work in the process,” Raoul said. “The Trump administration’s decision to deny these critical funds will prevent the development of clean energy projects across Illinois, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to fight this illegal action that hurts our environmental and economic future.”
In their lawsuit, Raoul and the coalition allege that since February 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pursued a highly irregular and illegal campaign to thwart the $20 billion appropriation Congress made to Illinois and other state green banks. The lawsuit states the EPA has terminated the grants solely due to the Trump administration’s opposition to the duly-enacted Inflation Reduction Act. Raoul and the coalition argue this violates fundamental constitutional guarantees of liberty in the separation of powers and flouts myriad statutory and regulatory controls on federal agencies’ management of congressional appropriations and finalized awards.
Raoul and the coalition further allege that Citibank, which holds the funds for the EPA in a financial agency agreement, improperly capitulated to a Feb. 17 letter from the FBI that demanded that Citibank freeze the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) it held, despite being required by law to release the congressionally-approved funds upon the request of grantees and subgrantees.
The federal government’s improper campaign against GGRF funding also included an attempt to seize the funds Citibank holds, which is an abuse of power that led one of the Department of Justice’s top criminal prosecutors to resign as they refused to proceed in the absence of evidence legally required to seize those funds. A federal judge has since denied the EPA a warrant in this matter, and two different U.S. attorneys’ offices have also declined the case due to lack of probable cause.
Joining Raoul in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Maine and Minnesota.
