Lee Zeldin demands return of $20B parked at a financial institution by Biden EPA to dole out to climate groups

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday that he’s found $20 billion in taxpayer money that the Biden administration “parked” at a financial institution — in an apparent effort to prevent the Trump administration from cutting grants to “far-left activist groups.” Zeldin, 45, explained in a video posted on X that the Biden administration’s obfuscation was unprecedented and he demanded the unnamed financial institution to immediately return the funds to the EPA. “Shockingly, roughly 20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA,” Zeldin said.“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.”The $20 billion appears to be money that was appropriated to the EPA under the Inflation Reduction Act, which boosted government spending on environmental projects.

The EPA administrator and former New York Republican congressman said the massive pot of money was “awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out” the funds to non-governmental organizations “at their discretion.” One of the eight entities, Climate United Fund, received just under $7 billion from the Biden EPA to dole out, according to Zeldin. Climate United Fund describes itself as a “national coalition of experienced non-profit financial institutions investing in solutions that tackle our nation’s toughest economic and environmental challenges.” The group says it provides “affordable, accessible financing for clean energy projects in communities that are often overlooked by traditional investing.” Zeldin expressed concern with how Climate United and the seven other entities will decide to allocate the funds and over whether any former Biden administration EPA staffers will benefit from the “rush job.” “Let me make one thing abundantly clear: At this point, there is zero reason t...