Republicans in Congress have launched an investigation into a Biden-era green energy grant program that allocated billions of dollars to climate organizations with ties to Democratic figures and allies of former President Joe Biden.
House Energy and Commerce Committee GOP leaders sent letters to the eight nonprofit groups that received grants from the $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), requesting information to determine whether the Biden EPA followed appropriate ethics and conflict-of-interest guidelines in awarding the funds. In February, the Trump administration’s EPA announced plans to recover the disbursed funds, citing oversight failures in the program’s implementation. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin referenced comments from a former Biden-era EPA political appointee who likened the GGRF disbursements to “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” alleging that officials rushed to spend the money before President Trump took office, Fox News first reported.
It was also revealed that $2 billion from the GGRF was awarded to Power Forward Communities, a group linked to Stacey Abrams that was not established until after the Biden administration opened the GGRF application process. In its early months—before receiving federal funding—the organization reported just $100 in revenue, Fox said.
Another major recipient, Climate United, received approximately $7 billion from the fund. The group employs a former Biden climate advisor who served during the final two years of his term, is led by a CEO with ties to the Obama administration, and includes a board member who attended President Biden’s 2021 signing ceremony for the multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill. Multiple GGRF grant recipients have connections to Democratic figures and former Biden advisors, with some reportedly formed shortly before or after the program was announced. According to Zeldin, these organizations were given sole discretion over how the funds were used.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), along with Republican committee members Reps. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), issued a joint statement emphasizing that their investigation into GGRF recipients will be “key” to determining whether the funds were distributed “fairly and impartially to qualified applicants.” They added that the probe will also help assess how the grant money has been used, Fox said.
“The Committee has had concerns about the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program since its creation—including concerns about the program’s unusual structure, a potential lack of due diligence in selecting award recipients, and the recipients’ ability to manage the large influx of federal dollars they received from the EPA,” the lawmakers said in their statement. “A recent Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing that examined these concerns coupled with the speed with which money was pushed out the door by the Biden Administration’s EPA heightened the Committee’s concerns and raised additional questions about certain Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund recipients.”
Several of the organizations that received GGRF funding filed lawsuits against the Trump administration in March in response to efforts to reclaim the money. In turn, Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, issued a temporary restraining order blocking the EPA from freezing $14 billion in GGRF funds awarded to three of the climate groups.