Both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have stopped over $21 billion in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) “Climate Smart” funding.
In July, Liberty Matters reported that the USDA had rescinded 69 projects representing $1 billion out of the $1.5 billion IRA funds Biden had scheduled to go into USDAs Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to implement his 30×30 agenda.
And, earlier this year, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin cancelled $20 billion worth of Biden administration grants that went to 16 of Biden’s crony environmental groups as political payoffs.
Those recipients immediately filed a lawsuit claiming the EPA violated the law and the Constitution. However, earlier this month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the EPA has the authority to cancel those contracts issued under the Biden administration.
This ruling stops any funding of climate grants issued from the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).
The Court decision indicated that the month before Biden left office, the EPA modified the grant agreements and deposited the $20 billion dollars at an outside financial institution deliberately diminishing the ability of EPA to conduct future oversight making it more difficult to terminate the grants.
Zeldin claims the termination of the grants was based on “substantial concerns regarding the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program integrity, the award process, programmatic fraud, waste, and abuse, and misalignment with agency’s priorities.” He also stated the recipients were not qualified to receive such large sums and that the groups had connections to prominent Democratic members of Congress and Biden administration officials.
Zeldin said the limited oversight of the spending led him to terminate the entire program. Unfortunately, EPA officials had already disbursed $3 billion worth of grants from the fund before the Trump administration took over the agency. Zeldin intends to claw back the $3 billion.
It now appears that most of the $69 billion IRA funds delegated to the EPA and most all the other billions of dollars funded through Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act weren’t for programs to solve the climate “crisis” and save the planet, but payoffs to their supporters and even members of Congress, explaining why so many members are screaming at the Trump administration for taking away their climate scam gravy train.
In addition to winning the case, Zeldin and the EPA have referred the matter to the Office of the Inspector General to review any and all financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and oversight failures stemming from the GGRF. The GGRF is also undergoing concurrent investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
