Trump’s climate strategy put federal agencies at ‘significant’ legal risk, his lawyers warned

Lawyers for the Trump administration knew they faced significant legal risks when they froze $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants, according to internal government emails exclusively obtained by POLITICO. Alex Guillén breaks down how the administration had internal legal qualms about its public push to regain control of the already-distributed funding. Plus, POLITICO scooped that former FERC Commissioner Willie Phillips was asked to step down from the agency last week by the White House.  Alex Guillén is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro. Nirmal Mulaikal is the co-host and producer of POLITICO Energy.  Alex Keeney is a senior audio producer at POLITICO.  Gloria Gonzalez is the deputy energy editor for POLITICO.  Matt Daily is the energy editor for POLITICO. For more news on energy and the environment, subscribe to Power Switch, our free evening newsletter: https://www.politico.com/power-switch And for even deeper coverage and analysis, read our Morning Energy newsletter by subscribing to POLITICO Pro: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter-archive/morning-energy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices