In its final days, the Biden administration handed out billions to freshly founded “climate” outfits in a scramble to pump taxpayer money to lefty activists — and all of the slimy details are coming to light, thanks to new Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin.
Last month, Zeldin announced his team had sniffed out $20 billion in taxpayer money from this Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that had been parked at an outside institution (CitiBank, it turned out) until it could be doled out to a handful of far-left climate nonprofits.
They must have heard the dinner bell ringing.
Climate United Fund got nearly $7 billion (handed over via a check from Vice President Kamala Harris) just five months after being incorporated in November 2023.
Justice Climate Fund, which pocketed $940 million, was set up in 2023 and has yet to submit a single tax filing to the IRS.
Power Forward Communities Inc. nabbed $2 billion from the public pot, despite also being set up in 2023 and showing only $100 in revenue for that entire year.
That org is partnered with Rewiring America, where former Georgia legislator and famous election denier Stacey Abrams is employed as “corporate counsel.”
Sensing the pattern here?
The slush-fund money was doled out to brand-spanking-new, completely unproven charities that sure look like little more than shell companies for Dem-connected operators.
They were picked to act as middlemen who could then decide, with zero federal oversight, which other nonprofits or projects would get a cut of the pie, away from the public’s prying eyes.
Accountability is for suckers!
“Cynical” doesn’t begin to describe this cash-grab: In bill labeled the Inflation Reduction Act, it allocated hundreds of billions in the name of fighting climate change, with this major chunk of the outlays going straight to connected cronies with zero effort to see that it did any good beyond enriching progressive/Democratic allies.
It may not be illegal, but it’s still burning taxpayer dollars to pad your pals’ pockets.
As Zeldin told The Post: “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.”
He’s called for the EPA’s inspector general to investigate; who knows what other rank misuse that might turn up.
Retrieving $20 billion won’t put a dent in the national debt, but Zeldin’s efforts to claw it back are meaningful just the same.
The era of funneling public cash to shady nonprofits that pay lip service to the “right” causes must end — at least, if we ever want Americans to trust their government again.
