Trump’s EPA vs. Biden’s Dark Climate Money
- March 19, 2025
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal
Imagine if Republicans gave the Trump Administration tens of billions of dollars to dole out to right-wing groups to sprinkle around to favored businesses. That’s what Democrats did in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The Trump team’s effort to break up this spending racket has led to a court brawl, which could be educational.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin recently canceled some $20 billion in grants that his Biden predecessors rushed out to leftwing groups from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Democrats established this quasi-private green bank in the IRA to avoid government oversight of climate spending.
Mr. Zeldin claims the freeze is needed because of “substantial concerns regarding program integrity, the award process, programmatic fraud, waste, and abuse, and misalignment with the Agency’s priorities.” He’s right that the program is rife with political conflicts. In one example, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund director Jahi Wise oversaw a $5 billion grant to his former employer, Coalition for Green Capital.
The Biden EPA awarded another $2 billion to Power Forward Communities, an umbrella group of climate outfits that was formed in 2023 supposedly to “finance home energy efficiency upgrades.” But the IRA includes tax credits and other grant programs for this purpose. Power Forward’s real purpose is to spread taxpayer funds to progressives.