We always knew the federal government 1) wastes an enormous amount of money, and 2) slides large amounts to leftists of various stripes. “Defund the Left” was a Newt Gingrich battle cry in 1994, but it never happened.
So we knew it was bad, but this is ridiculous. In the dying days of the Biden administration, the EPA shoveled $20 billion out the door to left-wing nonprofits in the name of “climate justice.” Project Veritas recorded an EPA employee who was involved likening it to “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.” We know the $20 billion went to Citibank, which has been collecting interest on it, and we know the nonprofits who were slated to get it. But to do what?
Newly-confirmed EPA Director Lee Zeldin:
Biden EPA political appointee was talking multiple times about “throwing gold bars off the Titanic” and at one point also talks about how they are giving out billions of dollars to these recipient NGOs with an eye towards getting themselves jobs at them — which added a whole other layer of massive concern.
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The $20 billion only goes to eight entities, and we want to know if any of those eight entities have any recently employed Biden administration officials and EPA employees.
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As far as exact dollar amounts of each of the eight pots, we want to know not just how much has been sent but also how much has been obligated and how much is currently available and not yet obligated.These questions highlight one of the concerns with the lack of oversight with this scheme — these questions should all be instantly available and handy for us to have the answers on. They’re not.
And there are many, many other questions that we have that we are going to get answered.
Zeldin is going to try to get the money back. I have no idea whether he will succeed.
So who is being showered with all that money? The Coalition for Green Capital is supposed to get $5 billion. That would be quite a step up for this 501(c)(3) organization, which hauled in a grand total of $3.46 million in 2023. I’m sure they are geared up to make intelligent use of $5 billion on behalf of the taxpayers.
Then there is the Native CDFI Network, which is supposed to get $400 million. Again, quite a step up: in 2023, this tiny South Dakota nonprofit brought in a whopping $1,691,067. Also Inclusiv, whose 2023 revenue was $10,119,825. Biden EPA grant: $1.87 billion.
The madness goes on and on. There is Rewiring America, Inc, which in 2023 reported $621,317 in revenue. They are on the $20 billion list, but I haven’t seen how much they were supposed to get.
Is there any coherent plan for what these nonprofits are going to do with $20 billion? To advance “climate justice”? Did Congress actually specify anything in particular that was to be done with the money? I don’t think so: the EPA announced “eight selections” for what it intended to do with the $20 billion. I don’t think Congress had anything to do with it. And now, the Democrats howl at the idea that the Trump administration should exercise any oversight over these still-unspent funds.
The one thing we know for sure is that the money is going to Democrats. The extent of federal government corruption is vastly worse than most of us had understood.
