Matthew Daly
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a massive reversal, the new Environmental Protection Agency head said he would attempt to withdraw a $20 billion grant awarded by the Biden administration for climate and clean energy projects.
In a video posted to X, administrator Lee Zeldin said the EPA will cancel the “Green Bank” contract, which will fund tens of thousands of projects to combat climate change and promote environmental justice I did.
The program, approved under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, is officially known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, but is more commonly referred to as the Green Bank. The two initiatives, worth $14 billion and $6 billion respectively, will provide competitive grants to nonprofits, community development banks and other groups for projects focused on underprivileged communities. It is intended to be.
The program is a Democrat’s favorite to pass President Joe Biden’s Signature Climate Act without Republican votes, and former EPA administrator Michael Regan frequently makes it one of his major achievements. Quote in.
Congressional Republicans called Greenbank the “Slash Fund” and raised concerns about how the money will be used and whether it will be sufficiently accountable and transparent. The Republican-controlled House last year approved a bill to remove Greenbank and other parts of Biden’s climate agenda. The bill was blocked by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Zeldin said in a video posted Wednesday night that the EPA has “zero tolerance against waste and abuse” under his administration. He features former EPA staffers who say the Biden administration is “throwing gold sticks out of the Titanic” to spend billions of taxpayer dollars before President Donald Trump takes office. I quoted X’s “very disturbing video.”
“We’re over the days of not loading cash into activist groups on the far left in the name of environmental justice and climate equity,” Zeldin said. “I told the team to find your gold bars, and they found them. We’ll bring them back into government control as we pursue the next step.”
The cited video Zeldin was posted by Project Veritas, a right-wing organisation that attempts to embarrass news outlets, labor organisations and Democratic officials using hidden cameras. In this case, in the Veritas video, Brent Efron, a former special assistant to the Associate Administrator of the EPA’s Policy, spoke to people who were found to be with the group at bars and restaurants. Efron then left the EPA.
Clean Energy advocates have denounced Zeldin’s actions as a political stunt and said they are attempting to illegally revoke spending approved by Congress on partisan reasons. They promised to challenge the orders before the court.
“We’re excited to announce that we’re working hard to get the better of our customers,” said Lenamofitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, an environmental group that supports Green Bank. “The Trump team is trying to illegally cut programs aimed at helping American families fund billionaires’ tax cuts.”
The funding has already been awarded to eight nonprofit organizations, including Green Capital Coalition, Climate Unity, America’s Rewiring, Habitat for Humanity and Community Conservation Corporation.
Original issue: February 13th, 2025, 2:55pm EST
