Environmental Protection Agency Commissioner Lee Zeldin announced last week that he had discovered evidence of a massive fraud committed by the Biden administration. In the video Posted on social mediaa former Republican House member from New York said that Biden’s EPA “parked” about $20 billion in private banks, “is rushing to get billions of taxes out the door before inauguration.” He said.
Zeldin said the Biden administration’s plan is for banks to distribute money to a small number of nonprofits, which will send it to “NGOs and others” for climate-related spending. However, he vowed to stop the plan. “The days of irresponsibly squeezing cash boat roads to activist groups on the far left in the name of environmental justice and climate equity,” he said.
However, the scheme Zeldin described is neither novel nor secret. The $20 billion he is trying to recover is money passed in 2022 by Congress for a program known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, also known as the “Green Bank” initiative. This kind of program once Enjoyed bipartisan support Nevada, which opened the Clean Energy Fund under the Republican governor in 2017, and Connecticut states passed Green Bank laws in 2011 with unanimous support from both parties. At least two central Republicans, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Don Young of Alaska; National Green Bank has been approved Bill for 2021.
These banks have appealed to many Republican priorities since providing flexibility and catalytic private investment for local governments and group groups, but Republicans in Congress reduce carbon emissions through financial incentives I opposed the idea after passing the Climate Act in 2022. Now, the Trump administration is about to cancel it altogether.
“The banks must immediately return all the gold sticks that the Biden administration has thrown away from the Titanics,” he said in the video, adding that he will introduce the issue to the EPA’s internal surveillance department and the Department of Justice. . The EPA now appears to be trying to seize funds from Citibank, which received funds a few months ago, but has encountered some resistance. Freeze federal clean energy funds. Even the funded organizations themselves were not sure during the press time whether their funds had been frozen.
The Green Bank program is designed to distribute billions of dollars to nonprofit lenders, and the nonprofit becomes the bank of the Clean Energy Project. These lenders will provide low interest rate loans to tribes, businesses and local governments to build solar farms, improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Money flows to places where it was at a disadvantage or at high risk. For example, private capital can be attracted, such as the reservations of rural Appalachians or tribes with low income levels.
The program was modelled from successful funding in states such as Rhode Island and Michigan. Republicans explain this as the leftist.Slash fundLaura Haynes Gillum, a former senior policy advisor to the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee who helped draft the Inflation Reduction Act, said he has adopted the flexibility and private industry focus that has appealed to conservatives in several states. Ta.
“The intention was very clear to make the most of the flexibility of the community and to make sure that money can take advantage of private investment,” she said. As borrowers pay off their loans over time, the first $20 billion will be rolled out again and again, reducing the need for future climate spending.
Previous versions of Greenbank’s proposals have appeared bipartisanly Climate legislation introduced in 2007 by former Republican Sen. Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania. He also appeared in Ed Markey’s Cap-and-Trade bill, passing the House in 2009 and received support from a small number of Republicans before he died in the Senate. The version of the Inflation Reduction Act is “technological neutral.” This means that money will be sent to support clean energy forms such as nuclei and hydrogen that are more delicious for Republicans.
Times have changed. Zeldin now argues that the transfer of money to City and the fact that so much money has reached several agencies is evidence of “waste and abuse” by the Biden administration. The federal government has parked money in private banks through the “financial agent agreement” since the 1980s, and the Biden administration distributed money to City before Trump won the presidential election.
The metaphorical zeldin of “Gold Bar” referenced in a video posted on social media was not his own invention. This comes from a former EPA staffer named Brent Efron, who helped implement the Inflation Reduction Act during the Biden administration. In December, the right-wing media organization project Veritas is known for its Sting tactics on liberal politicians and media figures. Hidden camera video posted Efron is talking about his job to fund it.
“We’re throwing gold sticks from the Titanic,” says Efron, who drinks what looks like orange wine. “When the project’s Veritas Operative asks anyone getting a gold stick, he replies, “Non-profit, state, tribe.” Grist could not reach Efron due to comments.
Even before the Project Veritas video, Congressional Republicans were already aiming for the Green Bank program. Last January, the House of Representatives committee of Energy and Commerce called on top Biden EPA officials to testify what it called.Biden’s Green Bank Gift. “An administrative inspector (that Trump fired) pointed out the possibility of fraud in Greenbank and other programs; Letter to the Parliament in September “Press Pace [by the EPA] Not only does it escalate the risk of fraud, but the urgency of surveillance. ”
The Biden administration parked most of Greenbank money in City before Trump took office, but grantees have been barely down to date, earning only a few projects. Climate United, a coalition of financial nonprofits that received the largest single tranche from Greenbank; Issued a $32 million loan What will the development of the largest industrial sun in Arkansas history? The University of Arkansas solar system will save approximately $120 million in energy costs over the next 25 years.
Rather than risking public nausea with Trump, City could return the money to the EPA, but if that were the case, the fundraiser would end up with the administration for breach of contract and withholding mandatory funds. They can sue, said those involved in the Green Bank Initiative. For example, the state attorney general was able to sue to collect the money he was supposed to receive under the $7 billion residential solar program, which is part of the initiative. The EPA did not answer Grist’s questions about the legality of clawbacks.
With a strange twist, Efron himself predicted that the administration could withhold funds in the very video that Zeldin cites as evidence of fraud. After the “Gold Bar” comment, he predicts that Trump will try to save up the money sent by the Biden administration.
“I think they’ll come in and they’ll issue an order that all grants have to stop,” Efron says in the video. “They’ll say, ‘We’re reevaluating it,’ and Congress will pass a law that says doesn’t exist anymore, that you want to give. ”
