Republicans from the House Oversight Committee released a report on Thursday alleging that a program under former President Joe Biden’s signature climate law was designed to enrich his political allies to the tune of billions, Fox News first reported.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer told Fox News that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) — a $20 billion program that awarded billions to well-connected green groups — is a “scam” that was “designed to funnel tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to enrich Democratic allies and fund partisan, politically motivated projects.”
The report outlines concerns flagged by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staffers during the review process and highlights that one grantee had planned to route almost $500 million to an organization linked to former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, according to documents reportedly obtained by the committee staff.
“In short, the Biden Administration and its Democrat allies in Congress earmarked tens of billions of taxpayer dollars for political patronage in the name of ‘environmental justice.’ This green energy scam serves to enrich the Left and push divisive and destructive policies,” the report reads. “The GGRF represents the latest but perhaps the most egregious example of ideological self-dealing with U.S. taxpayer dollars.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has put a spotlight on the GGRF over concerns of reduced oversight and self-dealing. Those issues are now under investigation by the EPA Inspector General, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Program funds went to several nonprofits loaded with high-level Obama and Biden-era officials, not to mention big Democratic donors, despite federal reviewers flagging potential conflict-of-interest and excessive executive compensation concerns. The Trump administration is continuing efforts to reclaim the funds.
Many major grantees including Coalition for Green Capital (CGC), Power Forward Communities (PFC) and Climate United Fund (CU) are all tied to big Democrat donors and insiders, some of which worked on the GGRF program.
“The EPA says there was no prejudice during the competition process, but the GGRF was never designed to be a fair process. The point of the GGRF is less about funding sensible projects than it is about making a statement on environmental justice and giving taxpayer cash to political allies,” the report reads.
Abrams was previously listed as senior counsel to Rewiring America, which is a part of the PFC coalition. PFC was awarded $2 billion from the GGRF, according to the EPA. The Oversight report also flags that Abrams allegedly had an “important role” in the grant process and that Rewiring America was set to receive almost $500 million, according to PFC’s grant application on file with committee staff.
“The evidence from publicly available sources in addition to documents obtained during the Committee’s investigation supports accusations that Abrams had an important role in receiving the grants,” the report reads.
PFC and Abrams did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comments and the CGC declined to comment.
GOP Oversight staff also noted in the report that federal reviewers repeatedly flagged “numerous, legitimate flaws” with GGRF awardees and that “other documents obtained by the Committee demonstrate outright waste, fraud, and abuse within the GGRF, such as using taxpayer resources to pay exorbitant salaries with generous travel benefits for C-suite executives.”
“What the awardees lacked in ability or direction they made up for with political connections,” the report states.
Several of the grantees have sued the EPA and Zeldin for freezing the funds in February, arguing that it was not legally justified and that the EPA’s disbursement of the funds was appropriate. A federal appeals court ruled on Sept. 3 that Obama-appointed district court Judge Tanya Chutkan abused her power in blocking the EPA from clawing back the billions in taxpayer cash in March and the grantees filed a request for a rehearing on Wednesday.
“These tired allegations distract from the fact that EPA’s illegal funding freeze will drive up energy costs for hardworking Americans across the country. When household bills are skyrocketing, Congress should be focused on deploying cheap, clean energy technologies rather than resurfacing false claims,” a spokesperson for one grantee, Climate United Fund, told DCNF. “Climate United welcomes the opportunity to explain our work and the benefits of the [National Clean Investment Fund] NCIF program to Congress, federal agencies, and to the public.”
Notably, Zeldin has repeatedly cited a Project Veritas video in which a Biden-era EPA official compared the agency rushing to release funds ahead of President Donald Trump’s second term to “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”
“EPA is grateful for Chairman Comer’s strong leadership and the Republican House Oversight Committee’s work to highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s self-dealing, conflicts of interest and intentionally reduced agency oversight,” an EPA spokesperson told the DCNF. “Administrator Zeldin canceled these grants due to these well documented concerns, and the Trump EPA will continue to work with our Congressional partners to conduct oversight over the Biden EPA’s waste and abuse.”
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