At least $20 billion was funneled by the Biden administration to environmental groups. Most had only been founded months earlier.
One such group, called Climate United Fund, based in Bethesda, Maryland, which does neither appears in the IRS’s charities database nor has any federal filings, was given a check for almost $7 billion by then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The fund was only incorporated in Delaware in November 2023 and the check was given in April 2024.
The group then announced “the historic investment” in a press statement and said that it “delivers benefits like cleaner air…and increased energy security” through its work. But since the company is so new, no public accounting information exists on how the money will be spent.
There were projects, including a $10.8 million “pre-development loan” solar project on Tribal lands in eastern Oregon and Idaho and a $32m solar energy project at the University of Arkansas, announced, however that is a tiny amount in comparison to the rest of the grant.
“Ethically speaking, it’s concerning. What was the purpose of creating middlemen entities when there are so many established groups in the climate space with good track records? What was the value-added in [by] doing it this way, especially with such large sums of taxpayer funds?” said Laurie Styron, CEO of the independent charity watchdog group Charity Watch.
John Podesta, a political consultant who was chair of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 bid for president and White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton, oversaw the $370 billion climate slush fund, where the cash for the charity came from.
Podesta was named by then-President Joe Biden to head the slush fund in 2022, which came from the Inflation Reduction Act.
EPA advisor Brent Efron was caught on video last year talking about how the agency doled out a $20 billion climate fund held by Citibank before the Biden administration ended.
“Get the money out as fast as possible before they [Trump Administration] come in … it’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge,” Efron has said in the video.
However, an attorney representing Efron, Mark S. Zaid, told the New York Post that Efron “was acting in his private capacity,” when he made the comments, which “expressed [his] personal views,” adding that the comments “had nothing to do with” the funds that had been parceled out.
EPA Director Lee Zeldin now is attempting to get the money back and called on the agency’s inspector general to investigate on Monday.
“The Biden EPA ‘gold bar’ scheme was designed to limit government oversight while doling out funds to far-left organizations pushing DEI and Environmental Justice. Of the eight pass-through entities that received funding from the pot of $20 billion in tax dollars, various recipients have shown very little qualification to handle a single dollar, let alone several billions of dollars. I have zero tolerance for waste and abuse at the EPA,” Zeldin told the Post.
The Biden-controlled EPA “encouraged groups to work with coalitions” to receive the money, according to a Climate United Fund spokeswoman.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that both the FBI and the Department of Justice have both launched investigations into the grants and that bank accounts holding billions of dollars have been frozen as the EPA attempts to retrieve them.