The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to claw back around $20 billion in grant funding approved for climate projects under the Biden administration’s signature Inflation Reduction Act.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced the move in a video shared on X on Wednesday evening, claiming the funds were “parked” at a financial institution under a “scheme” to rush money to left-wing activist groups without oversight. The funding drew notice late last year when an EPA employee compared the funding to gold bars being thrown off the Titanic.
“EPA needs to reassume responsibility for all of these funds. We will review every penny that has gone out the door. I will be referring this matter to the inspector general’s office, and we’ll work with the Justice Department as well,” Zeldin said in the video. “The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over.”
What are the funds?
Zeldin explained that the EPA found roughly $20 billion worth of funds at an “outside financial institution” that were later awarded to eight different nonprofit organizations. Slightly under $7 billion of those funds had been awarded to the Climate United Fund, the administrator said.
While Zeldin did not name the financial institution, documents reviewed by the Washington Post indicate that Citi Bank had an agreement with the Biden administration to release $20 billion to various nonprofit organizations and states.
The funds reportedly stem from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a program created through the Democrat-passed IRA, the 2022 bill that provided hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy. A majority of the grants allocated through the program were issued last spring, with an obligation deadline of the end of September.
The nonprofit organizations, which also include the National Clean Investment Fund, Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities, were expected to use the grants toward funding green projects such as electrifying affordable housing or installing solar panels on small businesses.
Why is this important
In the Wednesday video, Zeldin accused the Biden administration of rushing out these funds and said they should remain under the control of the government.
He referred to the funds several times as “gold bars,” referencing a December 2024 video put out by the conservative group Project Veritas in which a former EPA employee told an undercover member of the group that the administration was attempting to distribute as much of the promised funds as possible before President Joe Biden left office.
The former employee said in the video, “It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic, and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge.”
“The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years,” Zeldin said this week. “We take our obligations under the law as seriously as it gets. 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.”
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The EPA administrator has said the agency plans to “instantly” terminate the agreement with the bank and require the institution to return “all of the gold bars.” Zeldin may face some difficulties in retrieving the funds, as they appear to have already been issued and distributed by Citi Bank to the eight recipients.
Zeldin noted that he and his team found “zero reason” to suspect the bank of any wrongdoing in distributing these funds. He said, though, that he still intends to refer the matter to the Office of the Inspector General and the Justice Department.