Members of Congress want answers about how far-left groups pocketed billions of dollars meant for climate change, according to a letter dated Nov. 5.
The letter sent to Lee Zeldin, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was signed by Congressman
Brett Guthrie
, KY-02, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Congressman John Joyce, M.D., PA-13, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and Congressman Gary Palmer, AL-06, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment.
The letter said that far-left organizations received billions of dollars in the final days of the previous administration through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund GGRF.
“In the final days of the Biden-Harris Administration, the EPA put their far-left allies ahead of the American people, giving away Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants worth nearly $30 billion to recipients who were not equipped to receive such large amounts of funding,” said Chairmen Guthrie, Joyce, and Palmer. “By requesting documentation about this grant process from the EPA, Republicans on the Committee on Energy and Commerce are continuing our work to root out waste, fraud, and abuse while being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
This letter follows requests sent to eight nonprofits that were awarded more than $20 billion earlier this year through the GGRF.
“The Committee finds the potential for financial mismanagement particularly worrisome, as some of the grantees’ previous revenues were only a small fraction of the GGRF funds they received, which raises questions about whether the grant recipients can adequately manage grant amounts that are significantly larger than their previously documented revenue.”
The letter said that the lawmakers wanted to combat waste, fraud, and abuse within the EPA.
The lawmakers asked for the companies to answer six questions by Nov. 19.
The complete grant file for the three NCIF grantees and the five CCIA grantees, including the application submitted by the organization with all supporting documentation and appendices, any additional information requested by EPA, and any memos on changes to the grant terms and conditions.
The scoring breakdown and rational for each score for all the NCIF and CCIA applicants included in the final rankings lists for the top-ranked applications, including any changes to scoring or rescores and rationale for why those changes occurred.
Any checklist or guidance for EPA grants employees on what steps they should be taking to conduct appropriate pre-award due diligence and to ensure all required paperwork and documentation is submitted and verified. This should include briefing materials used to advise the Administrator, Deputy Administrator, Chief of Staff, General Counsel, Associate Administrator for Mission Support, and Associate Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation about the selection of NCIF grantees and CCIA grantees.
Any reports received from Citibank or the U.S. Treasury regarding the account balances or transactions histories of the GGRF accounts for the three NCIF grantees and the five CCIA grantees and any of their sub-awardees.
Any progress reports received from the three NCIF grantees and the five CCIA grantees.
The names of all panel chairs, senior review panels, selection officials, and all individuals involved in the review panels for all the NCIF and CCIA applicants included in the final rankings lists for the top-ranked applications.”
The Inflation Reduction Act authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to create and implement a $27 billion GGRF program. Of this appropriation, $20 billion was awarded to just eight grant recipients; with $14 billion awarded to three grant recipients under the National Clean Investment Fund program and $6 billion awarded to five grant recipients under the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator program.
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