The Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) was a government program created by the Biden administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). It was intended to disburse billions of dollars in government funds to climate-change activist groups. The goal of the program was to establish hubs throughout the United States that would solely help “low-income and disadvantaged” communities engage in environmental construction projects such as net-zero buildings and net-zero transportation. ¹

CCIA was allocated $6 billion and in turn earmarked the funds to be sent to five groups: the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), which received $2.3 billion; Inclusiv, which received $1.9 billion; the Justice Climate Fund, which received $940 million; Appalachian Community Capital (ACC), which received $500 million; and the Native CDFI Network, which received $400 million. These groups have connections with each other and with the Biden administration, with OFN’s president having held a role in the Biden administration Treasury Department. ¹

History

The Clean Communities Investment Accelerator was a government program created by the Biden administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), which was itself initiated by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. It was intended to disburse billions of dollars in government funds to climate-change activist groups. The recipients were decided through a competition held in 2023, when the creation of the CCIA was announced along with Solar for All and the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF), and their application portals were opened. Recipients of the CCIA’s grants were announced in April 2024. ^{1 2 3}

The goal of the program was to establish hubs throughout the United States that would solely help “low-income and disadvantaged” communities engage in environmental construction projects such as energy sites, net-zero buildings, and net-zero transportation. The hubs would provide both funding (“typically up to $10 million”) and technical assistance (“typically up to $1 million”) not to local construction outfits but to “community lender groups” that would then be tasked with choosing which projects to finance. ^{1 3}

Citibank had been chosen to facilitate the disbursement of the $20 billion allocated to the National Clean Investment Fund and the CCIA. Following allegations of financial misconduct from the second Trump administration, in February of 2025, Citibank cut off access to the funds. Then, in March 2025, Trump administration EPA administrator Lee Zeldin officially announced he was cancelling the grants. ^{4 5}

In July 2025, following the passage of the federal spending bill titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the second Trump administration’s EPA officially blocked $20 billion of the total $27 billion allocated from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund via the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) and the CCIA. ^{6 7 8 9}

In September 2025, 40 Democratic members of the U.S. Congress made a last-ditch effort to rescue $16 billion of the funds by appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The lawmakers asked the Court to revisit its previous decision on September 2 to allow the Trump administration to terminate the EPA grants. ¹⁰

Grantmaking

The Clean Communities Investment Accelerator was allocated $6 billion and in turn earmarked the funds to be sent to five groups: the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), which received $2.3 billion; Inclusiv, which received $1.9 billion; the Justice Climate Fund, which received $940 million; Appalachian Community Capital (ACC), which received $500 million; and Native CDFI Network, which received $400 million. ¹

These recipient groups have connections with each other and with the Biden administration. The Opportunity Finance Network, a community development investment network with a membership of 470 community development financial institutions (CDFIs), received $125,000 in 2020 and $200,000 in 2023 from the New Venture Fund, a left-of-center fiscal sponsor and incubator managed by the powerful Arabella Advisors consulting company. OFN’s leadership had ties to the Biden administration, with president and CEO Harold Pettigrew having been appointed to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Advisory Board in 2021.  ^{11 12 13 14}

Inclusiv, a credit union-backed CDFI, is financed by Arabella’s New Venture Fund as well as by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Citi Foundation, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, the New Economy Project, Mackenzie Scott’s Yield Giving, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, and the Climate Finance Fund, among many other organizations. ¹⁵

Inclusiv and Justice Climate Fund are partners of the climate activist group Hive Fund, a project fiscally sponsored by Arabella’s Windward Fund. In 2024, the Hive Fund boasted that its partners collectively received $8 billion from the Biden administration’s GGRF grants. ^{16 17 18}

Opportunity Finance Network president and CEO Harold Pettigrew sat on the board of the Justice Climate Fund (JCF) as of 2023. The JCF was founded by the Community Builders of Color Coalition which is comprised of Inclusiv, the Opportunity Finance Network, the National Urban League, the Oweesta Corporation, the Hip Hop Caucus, Prosperity Now, Urban Strategies, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the American Association of Blacks in Energy, and the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, among others. The JCF is led by a board made up of African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs, the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders, Inclusiv, the National Bankers Association, the Oweesta Corporation, the Opportunity Finance Network, Partners for the Common Good, the Community Development Bankers Association, ImpactAssets, the Housing Partnership Network, and the Connecticut Green Bank. ^{19 20 21}

The JCF regranted CCIA funds to several of its board members: the Oweesta Corporation, the National Bankers Association, the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs, the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders, and Partners for the Common Good. Each organization received $2 million. ²²

Appalachian Community Capital (ACC) is led by president and CEO Donna Grambell, who as of 2025, was the board chair of the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs as well as a board member of Southern Bancorp, the Raza Development Fund, Fahe, and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. ACC was started in 2015 with seed funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, Bank of America, the Calvert Foundation, Deutsche Bank, and the Ford Foundation. ^{23 24}

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2. “Background and History.” Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed September 23, 2025. https://www.epa.gov/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund/background-and-history.
3. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces $20 Billion in Grants to Mobilize Private Capital and Deliver Clean Energy and Climate Solutions to Communities Across America.” Environmental Protection Agency, April 4, 2024. Accessed September 23, 2025. https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-20-billion-grants-mobilize-private-capital-and.
4. Ajasa, Amudalat. “EPA knew it wrongfully canceled dozens of environmental grants, documents show.” Washington Post, March 25, 2025. Accessed September 23, 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/03/25/epa-environment-grants-wrongful-termination/.
5. Kavate, Michael. “Philanthropy Helped These Climate Groups Win Funding. Trump Is Trying To Take It Back.” Inside Philanthropy, April 16, 2025. Accessed September 23, 2025. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/philanthropy-helped-these-climate-groups-win-funding-trump-is-trying-to-take-it-back.
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12. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). New Venture Fund. 2020. Schedule I. Part II – Grants and Other Assistance to Domestic Organizations and Domestic Governments.
13. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). New Venture Fund. 2023. Schedule I. Part II – Grants and Other Assistance to Domestic Organizations and Domestic Governments.
14. “Harold Pettigrew.” Opportunity Finance Network. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://www.ofn.org/cpt_teammembers/harold-pettigrew-jr/.
15. “Inclusiv Funders & Investors.” Inclusiv. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://inclusiv.org/our-partnerships.
16. “Hive grantee partners win $8B in federal funding.” Hive Fund, April 11, 2024. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20240522111714/https:/hivefund.org/news/hive-grantee-partners-win-8b-in-federal-funding.
17. “Advisory Bodies.” Hive Fund. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://hivefund.org/advisors-2.
18. “Environmental Justice.” Windward Fund. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://www.windwardfund.org/impact-area/environmental-justice/.
19. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Justice Climate Fund. 2023. Part VII – Information About Officers, Directors, Trustees, Foundation Managers, Highly Paid Employees, and Contractors.
20. “Community Builders of Color Coalition.” African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://aaacdfi.org/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund/.
21. “Justice Climate Fund Selected by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Clean Communities Investment Accelerator Program.” PRNewswire via Justice Climate Fund, April 4, 2024. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/justice-climate-fund-selected-by-us-environmental-protection-agency-for-clean-communities-investment-accelerator-program-302108282.html.
22. “Grant to Justice Climate Fund.” USASpending.gov, February 13, 2025. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_84094101_6800.
23. “The Team.” Appalachian Community Capital. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://appalachiancommunitycapitalcdfi.org/the-team/.
24. “Mission & History.” Appalachian Community Capital. Accessed September 24, 2025. https://appalachiancommunitycapitalcdfi.org/about/.