Joe Biden Was the World's Best (Worst) Money Launderer, Especially When It Came to Climate!
Guest Post by Bonner Cohen, Ph. D. of CFact.
The uncovering of an elaborate money laundering scheme that quietly funneled $20 billion in taxpayer funds to well-connected environmental groups as the curtain fell on the Biden administration provides fresh justification for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to root out widespread waste and corruption in the federal bureaucracy.
An audit conducted by DOGE whiz kids and a team overseen by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin found that $20 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants earmarked for climate and environmental justice groups had been deposited with Citibank, where it would presumably be shielded from the prying eyes of the Trump administration.
After being parked at Citibank, the money was to be transferred to eight “green banks,” defined on the EPA’s website as “public, quasi-public, or nonprofit financing entities that leverage public and private capital to pursue goals for clean energy projects that reduce emissions.” In practice, green banks serve as pass-throughs where federal funds can be funneled to political allies on the outside. Green banks also have a network of subcontractors that gleefully participate in the taxpayer largesse.
As widely reported, one of the green banks receiving the Biden EPA loot is Power Forward Communities, a coalition of climate groups linked to two-time losing Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Ms. Abrams’s outfit was awarded $2 billion in August, even though it was less than one year old and, thus, had no record of performance to justify such a generous grant. Indeed, its revenue for 2023 amounted to $100.
Other green banks pocketing EPA money included United Climate ($6.97 billion) and Justice Climate Fund ($940 million). Mr. Zeldin canceled another $50 million earmarked for the Climate Justice Alliance after it was revealed that one of the group’s slogans is “Climate justice begins with a Free Palestine.”
The $1 trillion 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which authorized the creation of green banks, made such vast sums set aside for the Biden administration’s political allies possible. By commingling climate policies with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under “environmental justice,” the previous administration sought to serve its green and minority constituencies.
Minority and low-income communities stand to lose because of the green policies pushed by EPA grant recipients. Power Forward Communities, the green bank affiliated with Ms. Abrams, said in a press release that it will use the funds to outfit homes with heat pumps, heat pump water heaters and induction stoves.
These electric appliances are more expensive to purchase and operate than their natural-gas-powered counterparts, placing a financial burden on a segment that can least afford it. What the group says is “securing our climate future” turns out to be a highly regressive way to benefit politically favored, if otherwise uncompetitive, household appliances.
It was politically favored until Jan. 20, when President Trump began aggressively rolling back green mandates, including those that would replace gas household appliances with electric appliances. In that spirit, Mr. Zeldin has vowed to claw back the money that outgoing Biden officials were so eager to lavish on carefully selected recipients.
“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,” he said. Citing a video on the internet showing a Biden political appointee at the EPA talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” Mr. Zeldin added, “The gold bars were tax dollars, and tossing them off the Titanic meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it.”
The FBI has launched an investigation, and three green banks acknowledge they have been unable to draw money from their accounts with Citibank since mid-February, suggesting the accounts may have been frozen. The Washington Post reported that EPA acting inspector general Nicole N. Murley testified on Feb. 27 before a House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee that her office was reviewing concerns over the proper vetting of grant recipients, proposed projects and the monitoring of funds.
A misbegotten EPA grant from over a quarter-century ago may give Mr. Zeldin and the FBI legal guidance. In the late 1990s, the EPA — under Clinton-appointed Administrator Carol Browner — awarded a noncompetitive cooperative agreement (a type of grant) to the Maryland-based nonprofit Center for Chesapeake Communities. After questions arose about the grant’s alleged irregularities, including how the fledging nonprofit was selected to receive the funds, the EPA’s inspector general for the mid-Atlantic division launched an investigation. In an audit report dated March 31, 1999, the EPA’s inspector general concluded: “EPA awarded a noncompetitive cooperative agreement to the CCC without adequate justification. Awarding the cooperative agreement noncompetitively, without adequate justification, created an appearance of preferential treatment that compromises the integrity of the Chesapeake Bay Program.”
The audit recommended terminating the cooperative agreement with the Center for Chesapeake Communities, and the nonprofit later returned the funds. Though the two cases are far apart in time and the amount of money at stake, each involved questionable EPA behavior in awarding the grants.
DOGE eager beavers will no doubt find more “gold bars” thrown overboard by other agencies just before the Biden administration descended to the bottom.
This article originally appeared at The Washington Times.
Bonner R. Cohen is a senior fellow at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, where he concentrates on energy, natural resources, and international relations. He also serves as a senior policy adviser with the Heartland Institute, senior policy advisor at National Center for Public Policy Research, and as adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
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