Zeldin To Claw Back $20 Billion That Biden’s EPA Dumped Into Leftist ‘Climate’ Groups
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin reviewed “stunning” documents showing former President Joe Biden’s officials worked to “purposefully limit” government oversight, Zeldin posted Sunday. The secretary is working to take back $20 billion in taxpayer dollars that Biden’s EPA shuttled to “climate” groups that share close ties with the left.
“Roughly $20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA,” Zeldin said in a video Feb. 12. “This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.”
Biden’s EPA funneled $20 billion to eight “climate” groups last year, according to a press release. Zeldin referred to a Project Veritas video from December, in which a Biden EPA staffer admitted the agency was trying to “get the money out as fast as possible before they [the Trump Administration] come in … It’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge.”
“The ‘gold bars’ were tax dollars. And ‘tossing them off the Titanic’ meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it,” Zeldin said in the video. “I’ve directed my team to find your gold bars, and they found them. Now we will get them back inside control of government as we pursue next steps.”
“How do these organizations decide how to allocate funding? How much money have they given out so far, and to whom?” Zeldin asked. “Are there any former Biden EPA staffers who are now working at these entities?”
The funding is currently “parked at an outside financial institution,” and it is unclear how much money has been disbursed to these radical “climate” groups.
“The financial agent agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated and the bank must immediately return all of the gold bars that the Biden Administration tossed off the Titanic,” Zeldin said in a statement to The Federalist. “EPA needs to reassume responsibility for all of these funds. We will review every penny that has gone out the door.”
Bankrolling Pro-Leftist Groups
The EPA’s “National Clean Investment Fund” made grants to three “climate groups” friendly with the left — the Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities.
When the Climate United Fund was designated nearly $7 billion, the group said at least 60 percent of its “investments” would be in “low-income and disadvantaged communities.” The group supports Biden’s policies, according to InfluenceWatch. It also supports Justice 40, which advances critical race theory in the federal government, and has emphasized “Building Equity through the Clean Energy Transition.” As InfluenceWatch reported, the group’s board includes former Democrat, union, and left-wing nonprofit officials.
The Coalition for Green Capital was set to receive $5 billion from the Biden EPA to “operate the first United States national green bank.” Its staff aims to create a “just and equitable clean energy transition.” Its board of directors includes top officials from the left-wing Bezos Earth Fund, the leftist labor behemoth AFL-CIO, and the shady dark money group Skoll Foundation that sponsors left-wing causes. According to InfluenceWatch, CGC is a “left-of-center ‘pass-through’ funding entity,” which channels money from leftist donors including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, McKnight Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
The Biden EPA also pledged $2 billion to Power Forward Communities, which it said would go toward a “national financing program.” The group is “dedicated to decarbonizing and transforming American housing,” according to its website. PFC partners with private and public entities nationwide, including the leftist union American Federation of Teachers and the other recipients of Biden’s EPA funding: Climate United, the Justice Climate Fund, the Opportunity Finance Network, and Inclusiv.
Pushing Climate ‘Equity’
The Biden EPA’s “Clean Communities Investment Accelerator” made grants to five such groups — the Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, the Justice Climate Fund, Appalachian Community Capital, and Native CDFI Network.
The Opportunity Finance Network was promised $2.3 billion to “invest and reinvest” in projects that “reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants in low-income and disadvantaged communities.” The group claims a “climate gap” has hurt “people of color and low-income communities,” according to its website. The group also seeks to “close the racial wealth gap” with its “Finance Justice Fund,” for which it “partners” with groups including the Bank of America, Charles Schwab, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation which, according to InfluenceWatch, bankrolls left-wing causes.
Biden’s EPA promised $1.87 billion to Inclusiv, which planned to “achieve a sweeping clean energy market transformation as a hub for the entire credit union movement … to engage in equitable climate finance.” According to its website, Inclusiv pushes “financial inclusion and equity.” It manages a “Racial Equity Grant Fund” for “Black and Brown people.” It also runs a “Financial Inclusion” program for “low income and Black and Brown communities,” and a “New Majority Growth Initiative” for “people of color.” Inclusiv is funded by left-wing groups MacArthur Foundation, Hive Fund For Climate and Gender Justice, and the New Venture Fund of dark money giant Arabella Advisors.
Biden’s EPA also dumped $940 million into the Justice Climate Fund to “create a clean and just energy transition” in communities. According to the group’s website, it “drive[s] transformative investments.” According to LinkedIn, Justice Climate Fund CEO Amir Kirkwood previously worked as chief investment and network officer for the Opportunity Finance Network.
The EPA granted $500 million to Appalachian Community Capital to launch a “Green Bank for Rural America,” which would supposedly shuttle $1.6 billion into “2,000 new energy projects.” Its website shows projects including a fleet of electric buses, solar panels on a single grocery store, and solar panels for “Historically Black Colleges and Universities.”
Biden’s EPA also funneled $400 million into the Native CDFI Network, which said it would provide “capital and technical support” to community lenders. According to its website, the group is an association of Native American banks aiming to “create climate justice” through “the energy transition.”
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
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