What’s with the EPA seizing ‘gold bars’?
Source: The Verge
The Trump administration is attempting to take back around $20 billion of funding that the Biden administration previously awarded to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Trump’s appointee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin, posted a cryptic video last night and followed up with a press release today claiming “roughly $20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA.” He later clarified that “at this point, there is zero reason to suspect any wrongdoing by the bank,” but that “the financial agent agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated” and the money returned to the EPA.
Limited details Zeldin shared about the money seem to point to the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) created when Congress passed the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The fund is meant to prevent pollution by supporting new clean energy projects, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods, Native and rural communities, and other communities that haven’t had as much access to these technologies in the past.
“$20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution.”
“They are blocking tens of billions of dollars in public-private partnerships from investing in projects across the country. Whether it is a local credit union offering low interest loans to small businesses to install solar panels and lower their electricity bills, or a municipality securing funding to upgrade century old buildings with modern windows and HVAC systems, these projects are now uncertain,” Kyle Kammien, a policy director at nonprofit Dream.Org, said in an emailed statement.
To make things more confusing, Zeldin refers to the funding as “gold bars,” referencing a video from the right-wing group Project Veritas that filmed an EPA employee talking about distributing funding to nonprofit organizations, states, and tribes. The Biden administration hustled to disburse most Inflation Reduction Act money ahead of Donald Trump stepping into office; Trump campaigned on a pledge to “rescind” unspent IRA funds.
The employee, who appears to have been filmed without their knowledge, says “now we’re just trying to get the money out as fast as possible before they can come in and stop it all … it truly like feels we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge.”
“Fortunately, my awesome team at EPA has found the gold bars,” Zeldin says, talking about $20 billion in funding for groups including a coalition of nonprofits called Climate United. The coalition was awarded close to $7 billion through one of the programs of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, although Zeldin doesn’t specifically name the GGRF.
The EPA didn’t immediately respond to a press inquiry from The Verge about which programs Zeldin is targeting. Bloomberg and The Washington Post report that his comments indicate that the EPA administrator intends to stop GGRF funding, and the Post reports that the bank Citi is overseeing the distribution of those funds.
