‘Highly Irregular’: Biden EPA Invited Well-Connected Green Groups To Chat About $20 Billion Fund, Emails Show
- September 21, 2023
Nick Pope, Daily Caller
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) met with several organizations connected to EPA and Biden administration officials to discuss a program that will shell out $20 billion worth of grants for environmentalist goals, according to emails obtained by government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust.
The EPA hosted a November 2022 meeting with groups like the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Center for American Progress (CAP) to “provide early feedback” and “ask clarifying questions” about the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), the emails show. Many of the groups invited have employed current EPA and Biden administration officials, and could be among the competitors for the grants, according to Protect the Public’s Trust.
“Whatever you think about the policy, any agency disbursing $20 billion in taxpayer funds should have the humility to ensure that the process is above question. Holding a chummy meeting with special interest organizations with deep connections to political leadership isn’t a good look,” Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, said of the discovery.
“As Protect the Public’s Trust has shown time and again, EPA ethics under this administration have been extremely lax – particularly when it comes to the ‘revolving door’ between many of these same environmental groups and the agency,” Chamberlain said. “The result is that the American public has little trust that their money won’t be going to benefit friends and cronies of agency appointees with little to no oversight.”