Biden accused of giving $27BN to firms with 'questionable ties'

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Republicans in Congress are investigating ties between a Biden-era $27 billion green fund at the Environmental Protection Agency and former Democratic staffers. The EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), created in 2023 after Joe Biden 's Inflation Reduction Act passed, was responsible for doling out the billions to nonprofit organizations to help them champion climate causes. From start to finish the application process for the $27 billion in taxpayer-backed fund only lasted months. Many of the nonprofits that received billions in funding had been established after the application process was announced, according to Republican lawmakers.
Reports indicate that up to $20 billion of the GGRF was obligated after Donald Trump won the 2024 election but before he was sworn in on January 20. A former Biden EPA official likened the fund to 'tossing gold bars off the Titanic' - a mad dash to hand out federal dollars to anyone that would accept them. President Donald Trump's EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has ordered an internal investigation into the matter , and the Justice Department is also probing the GGRF. Republican lawmakers claim firms that were incorporated after the GGRF application process opened - and which employed staff with ties to Democrats - were granted billions without proper oversight.
'The Biden Administration's EPA rushed through $27 billion in grants with little transparency, minimal vetting, and troubling political ties,' Chairman Brian Babin of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee claims in a letter to Zeldin about the GGRF exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail. 'The American people deserve fairness and accountability in how their money is spent — especially at this scale,' he wrote in the letter sent to Zeldin on Tuesday. 'We're demanding answers and pushing for real reforms to ensure this never happens again.' Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick, who also signed the letter, claimed the grants were given to organizations with 'questionable ties.'
'I'm deeply concerned that the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund has prioritized speed and political favoritism over competitive merit and fiscal responsibility,' he wrote. 'This $27 billion program has bypassed critical oversight safeguards, awarding massive grants to organizations with limited experience and questionable ties.' Most of the cash went to eight main grant recipients that were then responsible for giving out smaller loans to other nonprofits, according to the letter to Zeldin about the GGRF.
PFC reported just $100 in revenue in its first four months of operation before receiving the billions, according to nonprofit tracker Influence Watch. A spokesperson for PFC told the Daily Mail the 'group formed in 2023 to apply for the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy funding.' Stacey Abrams, a former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate, was later brought on to nonprofit Rewiring America, a firm that was allocated $490 million under the Biden-era GGRF program. 'Abrams, an attorney, joined Rewiring America, one of the coalition's members, in March 2023 as a senior counsel,' a spokesperson said. 'Abrams did not have a role at Power Forward Communities beyond her position at Rewiring America.' She left Rewiring America at the end of 2024.
'Hope Enterprise Corp., awarded approximately $94 million, is led by CEO William Bynum, who served on the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team and was later appointed to the Department of the Treasury's Racial Equity Advisory Committee,' the Republicans wrote in their letter to Zeldin. In a statement to the Daily Mail, HOPE President Ed Sivak responded: 'The $94 million award will be used to support increased access to solar power in Arkansas. In Arkansas, HOPE was one of two applicants and the only statewide applicant.' The effort is projected to save money for Arkansans, Sivak claimed, though it is not yet up and running.
'Groundswell, Inc., recipient of $156 million, is led by CEO Michelle Moore, who served as President Obama's Chief Sustainability Officer and a Biden-appointed board member for the Tennessee Valley Authority,' the lawmakers wrote. The Republican lawmakers' letter went on: 'These improper relationships between federal agencies and grant recipients reinforce concerns that considerations other than merit influenced the selection process.' The EPA is now working to claw back cash given out in the last days of the Democrat administration, but since the officials sent billions out of federal coffers to a Citibank account, it is already out the door.
Zeldin and his team are currently litigating the matter. The case is before a federal appeals court after a judge ruled that EPA must allow the obligated funds to flow to the grant recipients. 'The agency's inability to ensure regulatory compliance further underscores the structural problems surrounding the GGRF,' the letter continues. 'The EPA's accelerated $27 billion grant process appears to have bypassed many of these critical safeguards.'
The Republican lawmakers requested a meeting to discuss with Zeldin how to prevent grants being awarded in such a manner again. Earlier this year, the EPA administrator shared he is prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court. 'The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, so if a district court judge makes a decision, we are not going to assume that the United States Supreme Court is going to agree with that district court,' he testified before the Senate. Groundswell did not immediately return the Daily Mail's request for comment.