Biden EPA’s ‘Gold Bars Off the Titanic’ Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg » The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

As Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin’s primary job is to ensure that America’s air is clean and its water safe. Since his confirmation in January, however, Zeldin’s focus has been on a massive forensic inquiry into the EPA’s role in one of the most egregious cases of partisan profligacy in memory — the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) created by Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

The 2022 Biden climate bill sent $27 billion to the EPA to be dispensed to favored “green” groups with near-zero oversight. After Donald Trump’s election last November, Biden officials reportedly took the unprecedented step of planting “trigger clauses” in award contracts meant to Trump-proof the awards. Trump’s election then set off a deck-clearing frenzy within the Biden EPA that saw officials shoveling as much money out the door as possible before Trump’s inauguration.

This process was colorfully described by a Biden official, caught in a hot-mic moment, as “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”

This brazen raid on the treasury is now on pause, owing to a Zeldin freeze on $20 billion of the $27 billion in grants, a flurry of lawsuits, and a pending Supreme Court decision that may find the whole tawdry exercise unconstitutional. Whatever happens, taxpayers owe Zeldin a debt of gratitude for putting a spotlight on what he calls “programmatic waste, fraud, and abuse” in the name of “climate religion.”

Zeldin’s characterization of the abuse as being “programmatic” is exactly right. To understand why, consider the process that dispensed the $20 billion that Zeldin has now frozen and is trying to claw back. After Biden signed his climate bill, the EPA money sat for more than a year as the agency and its intended recipients got their ducks in a row. It would be distributed in billion-dollar waves to the favored non-profits who would act as conduits to redistribute further to more favored non-profits.

Many of the ultimate recipients were whole new entities that came into being for the purpose of receiving this bounty. They are called, tellingly enough, “purpose-built” entities. Some came into existence a month before the money was dispensed, some several months before. What they had in common was political connections.

Charged with disbursing the $370 billion in climate funds was the Democrats’ all-purpose operative, John Podesta, Biden’s “climate czar.” His Center for American Progress championed the IRA, and Podesta received substantial consulting fees from IRA beneficiaries, among many other ties to the bill’s architects.

GGRF’s largest stream of funds went through three non-profits that, in turn, acted as major conduits to a cluster of sub-awardees. These major conduits were Climate United, the Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities, which received $7 billion, $5 billion, and $2 billion, respectively. Their political connections were notable. (RELATED: The Green Grift: How Power Forward Communities’ $2 Billion Boondoggle Misses the Mark)

For example, the Coalition for Green Capital’s Jahi Wise left the organization to become the GGRF administrator and oversaw the disbursement of $5 billion to his former employer. Wise reportedly recused himself from the award decision. Only in Washington would that qualify as an arms-length deal.

The Coalition for Green Capital subsequently hired at least four Biden officials who played leading roles in the IRA climate caper. Biden’s “whole of government” climate policy architect, Cecilia Martinez, helped redistribute the $5 billion the coalition got from the EPA to downstream NGOs.

Climate United Fund was formed in November 2023 — roughly four months before it landed $7 billion from the GGRF — and was run by Obama Office of Management and Budget advisor Beth Bafford. Other high-powered Climate United executives and board members included Biden Energy Department strategic advisor Phil Aroneanu and prominent Democratic activist Dolores Huerta.

Power Forward Communities is a just-in-time partnership created for the climate bill largesse, bagging more than $2 billion. One of its key partners, Rewiring America, is an initiative of the “dark money” network, Arabella Advisors, and famously hired Democratic thought leader Stacey Abrams to “guide the organization” to “Inflation Reduction Act incentives.” Arabella’s hidden hand in the climate bill distributions stretches far beyond the EPA.

Regarding waste, fraud, and abuse in the name of “climate justice,” the greenhouse gas slush funds may be the tip of an even bigger iceberg. For example, last week, Trump Energy Secretary Chris Wright revealed a staggering $93 billion in loans, many “high-risk,” heaved overboard by Biden officials in the 76 days following Trump’s election and before his inauguration.

Add that to the Biden Agriculture Department’s $20 billion “Climate-Smart” program, which Arabella principal Eric Kessler massaged in favor of his network, and the politically juiced climate slush funds approach $150 billion. To say nothing of the $60 billion sent to a “clean manufacturing program.” All told, the $370 billion climate bill’s spending schemes strain comprehension.

But a clear public understanding of the scope and purpose of the bill was never the point. That’s why it was laughably called the Inflation Reduction Act.

Peter Schweizer is the President of the Government Accountability Institute and author of Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans. Follow him @PeterSchweizer.

Seamus Bruner is Schweizer’s Vice President and Executive Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute. Bruner wrote Controligarchs: Exposing the Billionaire Class, Their Secret Deals, and the Globalist Plot to Dominate Your Life. Follow him @SeamusBruner.

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