This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

A federal judge in South Carolina ruled this week that the Trump administration’s termination of environmental justice grants was “illegal.” The decision dealt a setback to efforts to dismantle a Biden-era program that funded projects addressing environmental and public health challenges in underserved communities across the country.

In the ruling, US District Judge Richard Gergel found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to eliminate the $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program was unlawful and voided the action.

“These are projects that would have addressed long-standing sources of local pollution or climate risk.”

However, Gergel stopped short of issuing a permanent injunction requiring the agency to resume administering the program. He said such an order would likely require the federal government to rehire staff responsible for overseeing the grants, which appeared “impractical” since the Trump administration already fired those employees. The judge also denied a request to extend the program’s September........

© Mother Jones