Despite two court orders blocking the Trump administration’s funding freeze, the Maryland Department of the Environment said Friday that it still cannot access millions in federal grants, for everything from mining safety to electric vehicle chargers.

The Environmental Protection Agency has also “canceled related meetings, recurring technical assistance webinars, planning calls, and monitoring calls,” wrote MDE spokesman Jay Apperson in an email Friday.

About $15 million in direct grants to Maryland are frozen, Apperson said. In addition, officials in New Jersey and North Carolina are reporting that $660 million in climate pollution reduction funding is inaccessible, including $130 million for Maryland.

“Our internal federal funding portal indicates ‘suspended’ for air pollution monitoring, mining safety, expanding the vehicle charging infrastructure, restoration of forests and coastal areas and workforce training for clean energy jobs,” Apperson wrote. “The line items that are suspended continue to change since the federal memo was issued.”

Since taking office last month, President Donald Trump has issued sweeping orders aiming to restrict federal funding and cut the federal workforce that have thrust agencies such as the EPA into turmoil.

The administration offered financial incentives to the entire federal workforce in exchange for resignations, an action that was placed on hold by a federal court Thursday, hours before an acceptance deadline.

Also on Thursday, the agency confirmed that 168 employees in its Environmental Justice and Civil Rights Office had been placed on administrative leave, “as their function did not relate to the agency’s statutory duties or grant work.”

“EPA is working to diligently implement President Trump’s executive orders, including the ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,’ as well as subsequent associated implementation memos,” wrote EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou in an email.

The agency did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment about its actions impacting Maryland.

Maryland environmental groups, including nonprofits and private businesses, told The Sun this week that environmental projects, including those financed by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, remained on pause.

One former EPA official said the agency’s Mid-Atlantic office designated several Maryland communities as environmental justice areas, including the Middle East community in Baltimore, a cluster of South Baltimore neighborhoods including Curtis Bay, Baltimore County’s Turner Station and Prince George’s County’s Kenilworth corridor.

The agency had provided technical assistance and grant-making assistance to the communities, and collaborated with MDE on enforcement activities there, the source said.

With a mandate to halt any activities focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, the agency’s path forward in those communities is unclear, the former office said.

President Joe Biden’s Justice40 initiative is also in the crosshairs. The program set a goal that “40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution,” according to a White House webpage.

But the exact directive isn’t clear to employees yet, the source said.

“That’s harder to quantify, but that has a big impact on older industrial cities like Baltimore,” the employee said. “Are we not to focus on them at all? Are we to focus on 20%? It’s just really confusing. It doesn’t make any sense. These are places that overwhelmingly have environmental problems and require environmental attention.”

EPA staff members remaining from the Biden administration are grappling with whether to take the buyout offers. Some are contemplating whether to stay and push back against the new administration.

“The word people say is ‘oppressive,’ ” the former employee said.

Have a news tip? Contact Christine Condon at chcondon@baltsun.com, 667-256-6883 and @CChristine19 on X.