Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said the Biden administration’s $20 billion in climate project grants involved “a lot of self-dealing” and suggested the Department of Justice could explore whether there was any criminality at play.
The Department of Government Efficiency alleged the $20 billion “gold bar scheme,” with $2 billion reportedly earmarked for Power Forward Communities, a group linked to former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, even though the group only reported $100 in revenue during its first three months after its founding in late 2023.
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Appearing on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Zeldin detailed how the grant agreement not only provided PFC three weeks to distribute the $2 billion, but it also gave the group 90 days to complete a training course titled “how to develop a budget.”
“I would say that any entity that needs training on how to develop a budget shouldn’t be actually distributing money before they take that training, and they certainly shouldn’t be receiving $2 billion to be distributing that rapidly,” Zeldin said. “What we’ve seen is a lot of self-dealing, a lot of conflicts of interest, and instead of spending tens of billions of dollars wisely and maintaining accountability and having oversight, instead, they were rushing to just, as they said in a December video that was leaked by a Biden EPA political appointee, they were throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”
When asked if there was any criminality at play with the $2 billion grant funding, Zeldin suggested that the Justice Department would have to answer that question. In his opinion, however, the grant given to PFC was “a clear cut case of waste and abuse.”
The EPA administrator also said that the Justice Department had been investigating and asking “a lot of questions” about these missing “gold bars.” He said the DOJ expressed thanks for their collaboration in finding the funds.
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Zeldin added that he has had “a great conversation” with President Donald Trump in bringing back accountability at the EPA.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) recently referenced the $2 billion in grants given to PFC, questioning why it was receiving such an amount when “their revenue is only $100.”