by Nick Pope
The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a new report Monday detailing how the Biden-Harris administration has given huge amounts of taxpayer cash to left-wing activist groups under the guise of “environmental justice.”
The report highlights how the Biden-Harris Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) used hundreds of millions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill — to line the pockets of left-wing activist groups aligned with the administration’s sprawling climate and green energy agendas. The use of taxpayer funds to support these activist groups, some of which already receive considerable financial support from large environmentalist outfits like the Environmental Defense Fund and the Energy Foundation, is arguably “akin to a taxpayer-funded lobbying operation,” the lawmakers argue in the report.
“The lists of organizations selected to receive funding or partner with those organizations include environmental activist organizations that work to influence public and elected officials to adopt their often-extreme views, such as completely eliminating the use of fossil fuels, which Americans recognize are an important part of an all-of-the-above energy mix,” the report states. “While some selected organizations include other types of entities such as institutes of high education, many are special interest environmental nonprofit organizations. These organizations’ views and missions often align with those of the administration, in effect using taxpayer dollars to promote the Biden-Harris radical energy agenda.”
The new report highlights several instances of hardline groups receiving taxpayer cash in the name of “environmental justice,” such as the Climate Justice Alliance’s receipt of $50 million. The Climate Justice Alliance has called for the abolition of fossil fuels and nuclear energy, and the group has also advocated for Palestinians following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.
“All eligible applications submitted for EPA funding go through a rigorous competitive process. EPA takes program integrity very seriously and will continue delivering on the Biden-Harris Administration’s environmental justice goals in a robust and transparent manner,” an EPA spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “EPA has multiple safeguards in place to ensure grant activities are fully compliant with grant commitments and the laws Congress has directed EPA to implement.”
Other EPA awardees or partner organizations involved in agency “environmental justice” programs characterized as “alarming” by the committee include WE ACT For Environmental Justice, the Southern Environmental Law Center and the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, in part because each organization has participated in efforts to influence officials or policy.
Moreover, the EPA’s use of “pass-through” grantmakers to administer several of its key “environmental justice” programs, as well as the tight timelines that the agency has to work within to shell out much of the available funding, also heightens the risk for waste, fraud and abuse, the committee wrote in the report.
“It couldn’t be more clear: The Biden-Harris administration rewards its environmental special interests at the expense of the American people. As part of its radical rush-to-green agenda, the administration gave hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to activists who also engage in political activities,” Republican Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Buddy Carter of Georgia said in a joint statement. “It was empowered to do so by congressional Democrats who jammed through legislation that was designed to rush money out the door as quickly as possible with no guards against waste, fraud, and abuse. Equally as alarming is how these policies benefit the Chinese Communist Party — the world’s worst polluter.”
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Nick Pope is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Climate Justice Alliance” by Climate Justice Alliance.
