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The New York, N.Y.-based Inclusiv, the credit union industry’s Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) intermediary, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Citibank over the EPA’s attempt to terminate the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) program. Inclusiv’s complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Monday.
Inclusiv said it is one of five recipients of CCIA award funds that has not been able to draw the congressionally-allocated funds made available through the program for the past several weeks. As a result, Inclusiv cannot distribute $651 million in CCIA award funds that it has committed to 108 credit unions in 27 states and Puerto Rico.
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The CCIA is one of three sub-programs under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a nearly $27 billion fund created through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that supports clean energy, energy efficiency and pollution reduction. In April 2024, Inclusiv was selected for a $1.87 billion CCIA award by the EPA.
The funds are being held at Citibank, which entered into a Financial Agency Agreement that designated the bank as the financial agent for all GGRF grants, including the CCIA grant to Inclusiv, in September 2024, according to Inclusiv’s complaint.
While distributing the $651 million it promised to 108 credit unions is Inclusiv’s immediate-term priority, it plans to pass on $1.683 billion (90% of its $1.87 billion award) in subawards to up to 400 credit unions across the U.S. in total as part of its EPA-approved workplan. Credit union awardees will use the funds to support affordable clean energy lending programs.
“Our decision to take legal action is not only about Inclusiv. This is about protecting the CCIA program and the interests of community lenders, families and small businesses who stand to benefit from the savings the program would provide to them,” Inclusiv President/CEO Cathie Mahon stated.
The complaint, which detailed a timeline of Inclusiv’s communications with the EPA and Citibank, stated that on Feb. 12, 2025, the same day Inclusiv provided written notice to the EPA about its first group of 108 chosen subrecipients and sent award notice letters to 64 of those subrecipients, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin “publicly announced that EPA intended to claw back all GGRF grants and ‘return the entire fund balance to the U.S. Treasury.’”
Then, on March 4 and again on March 10, 2025, Treasury told Citibank “not to disburse funds from any of the GGRF accounts,” according to the complaint. Inclusiv said in its complaint that it instructed Citibank to set up accounts for Inclusiv’s 108 subrecipient credit unions so that their grant funds could be disbursed, however “Citibank has stalwartly refused to set up those accounts and has never answered Inclusiv’s questions about what it should do.” On March 11, 2025, EPA sent all GGRF grant recipients, including Inclusiv, letters purporting to terminate their grants, the complaint said.
What’s more, Inclusiv stated in its press release announcing the litigation that the EPA’s administrator “has made numerous unsubstantiated claims about waste, fraud and abuse to defend the EPA’s improper conduct.”
“But Inclusiv has managed our CCIA program with integrity and care, carefully stewarding the federal funding we were awarded to advance the program goals documented in our EPA-approved workplan,” Inclusiv stated. “Despite the controversy about GGRF in the press and on social media, we continue to meet weekly with our grant managers at EPA as part of our contractual obligations with the agency. Additionally, we have been cooperating with all oversight inquiries, but our repeated requests to meet with the EPA Administrator have been ignored.”
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
