WASHINGTON — In a serious reversal, the brand new head of the Environmental Safety Company stated he’ll attempt to rescind $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration for local weather and clean-energy initiatives.
In a video posted on X, Administrator Lee Zeldin stated the EPA would revoke contracts for a still-emerging “green bank” that’s set to fund tens of hundreds of initiatives to battle local weather change and promote environmental justice.
This system, permitted beneath the 2022 Inflation Discount Act, is formally often called the Greenhouse Fuel Discount Fund, however is extra generally known as the inexperienced financial institution. Two initiatives, price $14 billion and $6 billion respectively, are supposed to supply aggressive grants to nonprofits, neighborhood growth banks and different teams for initiatives with a deal with deprived communities.
This system is a favourite of Democrats who handed President Joe Biden’s signature local weather legislation with no single Republican vote, and former EPA Administrator Michael Regan regularly cited it as one among his main accomplishments.
Republicans in Congress have known as the inexperienced financial institution a “slush fund” and voiced concern over how the cash will probably be used and whether or not there will probably be enough accountability and transparency. The Republican-controlled Home permitted a invoice final yr to repeal the inexperienced financial institution and different components of Biden’s local weather agenda. The invoice was blocked within the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Zeldin, within the video posted Wednesday evening, stated there will probably be “zero tolerance of any waste and abuse” on the EPA beneath his administration. He cited “an extremely disturbing video” on X that contains a former EPA staffer stating that the Biden administration was “tossing gold bars off the Titanic” with a view to spend billions of taxpayer {dollars} earlier than President Donald Trump took workplace.
“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” Zeldin stated. “I’ve directed my team to find your gold bars, and they found them. Now we will get them back inside of control of government as we pursue next steps.”
Clear vitality advocates denounced Zeldin’s motion as a political stunt and stated he was illegally making an attempt to revoke spending permitted by Congress for partisan causes. They pledged to problem the directive in courtroom.
“This is not just an attack on clean energy investments — it’s a blatant violation of the Constitution,” stated Lena Moffitt, government director of Evergreen Motion, an environmental group that helps the inexperienced financial institution. “The Trump team is once again trying to illegally slash programs meant to help American families to fund tax cuts for billionaires.”
The cash has already been awarded to eight nonprofits, together with the Coalition for Inexperienced Capital, Local weather United Fund, Energy Ahead Communities, Alternative Finance Community, Inclusiv and the Justice Local weather Fund. These organizations have partnered with a variety of teams, together with Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity and the Neighborhood Preservation Company.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris introduced the grant awards final yr at an occasion in Charlotte, North Carolina.