One of the larger spending items that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found early on was the Biden Administration’s massive set aside of taxpayer dollars on “Climate Grants’ via Biden’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) grants.
The EPA said, “The Biden EPA parked $20 billion dollars at an outside financial institution in a manner that deliberately reduced the ability of EPA to conduct proper oversight. The termination of these grants reflects EPA’s duty to protect public funds and maintain the integrity of its grant programs.”
The Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia ruled in favor of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin saying the injunction against the grant cancellation should not have been issued by the lower court. Judge Rao said in the decision, “… the equities strongly favor the government, which on behalf of the public must ensure the proper oversight and management of this multi-billion-dollar fund.”
EPA issued a statement saying, “It’s fantastic to see reason prevail in the court system. EPA has a duty to be an exceptional steward of taxpayer dollars. Administrator Zeldin cancelled these grants due to well-documented concerns about self-dealing and conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients, and intentionally reduced agency oversight.”
The judges further remarked on the Biden Administration’s EPA making inappropriate moves to protect their climate agenda, “The month before President Trump’s inauguration, EPA modified the grant agreements—with no apparent consideration from the grantees—to make it more difficult for the government to terminate the grants.”
“Our jurisdiction, however, rests on law, not on the severity of the alleged wrongdoing claimed by the grantees and reported by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Politico, ” said the Court.
Zeldin’s statement calls attention to other parts of the court decision as well, “The district court also ignored the government’s evidence of mismanagement of the grant funds, such as the damning ‘gold bars’ video, which further supports EPA’s good faith in deciding to terminate the grants and recommit the funds with proper supervision and accountability.”
This all began back in March when Zeldin notified National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator recipients of the termination of the $20 billion grant agreements under the Biden-Harris Administration. EPA identified substantial concerns regarding the program integrity, the award process, wasteful spending, and misalignment with agency’s priorities.
Contracts Update:
Over the last 4 days, agencies terminated 74 wasteful contracts, with a ceiling value of $920M and savings of $398M, including:
- $915k Millennium Challenge Corp. personal services contract for “Associate Director for Gender and Social Inclusion”.
- $1.1M Millennium Challenge Corp. contract for another Associate Director in its Dept. of Compact Operations for “Gender and Social Inclusion”.
- $3.2M EPA environmental consulting contract for “business process improvement”.
- $6.7M DoT contract for “the management and administration of the FHWA Summer Transportation Internship Program for Diverse Groups”.