Epa Terminates Biden-era Climate Grants Worth 20 Billion

The Environmental Protection Agency has terminated grant agreements worth 20 billion issued by the Biden administration under a so-called green bank to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects.

The action comes weeks after the EPA froze the grants, which EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has characterized as a "gold bar" scheme marred by conflicts of interest and potential fraud.

"Twenty billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution, in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight - doling out your money through just eight pass-through, politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand-new" nonprofit organizations, Zeldin said in a video shared Tuesday night.

The grants "raise significant concerns and pose unacceptable risk,'' Zeldin added. "The only way we can reduce waste, increase oversight and meet the intent of the law as it was written is by terminating these grants."

The terminations come as three of the nonprofit groups that received grants have filed lawsuits challenging the funding freeze ordered by the EPA. A hearing for one of the lawsuits is scheduled Wednesday in U.S. District Court.