Energy

Trump EPA Refers $20 Billion Biden Slush Fund To Agency’s Internal Watchdog

Flickr/U.S. Department of Energy

The Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially referred potential mismanagement of a $20 billion Biden-era program to the office of the EPA’s inspector general on Monday.

The EPA’s acting inspector general, Nicole Murley, will be looking over the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a massive Biden EPA program that sought to award billions of taxpayer dollars green groups loaded with Democrat insiders and donors, according to a Monday letter to Murley from acting Deputy EPA Administrator W.C. McIntosh. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are also probing the GGRF for potential fraud or mismanagement in their own investigations.

“Recent findings reveal a pattern of reckless financial management, blatant conflicts of interest, astonishing sums of tax dollars awarded to unqualified recipients, and severe deficiencies in regulatory oversight under the prior administration,” the letter states. “The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) plays a critical role in eliminating waste and abuse, and we stand with your office in our shared mission to restore accountability and prevent further misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

EPA OIG Referral – GGRF by Nick Pope on Scribd

“While these issues can be fully investigated, we will continue to aggressively pursue enhanced oversight, answers, and accountability,” McIntosh added in his letter. “We stand firmly alongside the Office of the Inspector General in our shared mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse with the EPA. I look forward to your recommendations.”

McIntosh’s letter highlights specific concerns the Trump EPA has about the GGRF, such as finding that contracts signed between awardees and the Biden EPA — some of which appear to have been inked or amended in the final days of the Biden administration’s tenure — effectively decreased the EPA’s oversight of GGRF dollars. Also of concern was the Biden EPA’s decision to park the $20 billion in GGRF cash at Citibank, a move that the Trump EPA describes as “an unprecedented arrangement” for the agency.

The Daily Caller News Foundation has reported extensively on the political connections of board members and officials for three GGRF awardees, the Coalition for Green Capital, Power Forward Communities and Climate United. Many board members of these groups are former Biden, Obama or Clinton administration alums, or have worked at large organizations that are known to be institutional supporters of the Democratic Party.

“It is my pledge to be accountable for every penny the EPA spends. This marks a stark turn from the waste and self-dealing of the Biden-Harris Administration intentionally tossing ‘gold bars off the Titanic,'” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.  “The American people deserve accountability and responsible stewardship of their tax dollars. We will continue to deliver.”