The $20 billion "Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund" lives on despite its failure to accomplish anything except fattening the wallets of climate change groups.
The Free Press investigation of the fund discovered, "the fund was supposed to be a 'first-of-its-kind' program to address the climate crisis while revitalizing communities that it considered 'historically left behind.'”
The program did not "revitalize" anything and only served as a conduit from radical left environmentalists at the EPA to dozens of NGOs and non-profit groups in what has to be the most egregious example of green pork to date.
Most of the NGOs and non-profit groups had connections to the Biden and Obama administrations and the Democratic Party. Two billion dollars went to Power Forward Communities, an umbrella group that funded several radical green groups, including Rewiring America, an organization that featured perennial Georgia Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams as senior counsel.
When Power Forward Communities received the $2 billion grant, they had less than $100 in their bank account. Yes, but at least their hearts were in the right place.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that the grants could not all be scrapped and that any grants approved before the EPA canceled the program must go forward.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, commonly referred to as a “green bank,” was authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under Democratic President Joe Biden. Its goals run counter to the Trump administration’s opposition to climate-friendly policies and its embrace of fossil fuels. Zeldin quickly made the bank a target, characterizing the $20 billion in grants as a “gold bar” scheme marred by conflicts of interest and potential fraud.
A federal prosecutor resigned after being asked to open a criminal investigation, saying there was not enough evidence to move ahead. The FBI and Treasury Department, in coordination with the EPA, pressured Citibank to freeze the grants, which it did, according to the nonprofits.
Last month, Zeldin announced the termination of the grants, saying “well documented incidents of misconduct, conflicts of interest, and potential fraud raise significant concerns and pose unacceptable risk.”
The $20 billion was never meant to reduce greenhouse gases. It was a slush fund for Biden-friendly NGOs and non-profits. It was a perfect example of crony capitalism with Friends of Biden profiting hugely from formulating schemes to bring green tech to poor communities. "Community solar power, electric transportation, and efficiency upgrades for rental housing" were among the plans that would have enriched the NGOs while leaving the communities with little to show for their trust.
But even before Trump took office, agency watchdogs warned that the statute’s tight deadlines, vast sums of money and small administrative budgets could make it vulnerable to waste and misuse.
Those concerns have come back to bite the effort, as Republicans including EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin allege — without evidence — that the program has been marked by waste, cronyism and an attempt to evade federal oversight. Democrats, in turn, charge that Trump’s appointees are bending or breaking the law in their efforts to get the money back.
“What’s at stake here is that the communities that need clean energy the most — because of the cost savings, because of the jobs, because of the health implications of reducing air pollution — those communities are the ones that have been left out of the clean energy transition that’s already well underway,” said Andreas Karelas, founder and executive director of RE-volv. Mr. Karelas forgot to mention that RE-volv had exactly one client. The grant was supposed to bring solar power to about 100 homes on tribal lands in Kansas and Nebraska.
I wish Mr. Karelas luck, but why does he need to mooch off the taxpayer to accomplish what he wants to do?
