Exclusive: GOP lawmakers press Biden EPA for details about massive payouts to orgs laden with Dem insiders

Top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are requesting documents and information about a Biden administration program that paid out billions of dollars to organizations staffed with Democratic Party insiders.

Republicans Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Buddy Carter of Georgia, and H. Morgan Griffith of Virginia wrote to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan on Monday to request documents and information about the process behind the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). The GGRF is a large EPA program created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that distributed billions of dollars to several organizations featuring senior leaders who have worked for Democratic administrations or are otherwise connected to the Democratic Party and its institutional allies.

“As you know, the Committee has questioned how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) planned to distribute the $20 billion available to selected recipients under the new GGRF program, including the $14 billion for the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF). Specifically, the Committee cited warnings that the EPA could use these large awards to subsidize favored organizations,” the lawmakers wrote. “Predictably, the EPA’s April 4, 2024, announcement of NCIF recipients confirmed our fears that this program would funnel taxpayer dollars to political allies.”

Letter to EPA Regarding GGRF NCIF Recipients by Nick Pope on Scribd

The lawmakers listed several politically connected individuals — such as David Hayes, a board member for the Coalition for Green Capital who served in senior roles for the Biden, Obama, and Clinton administrations, and Anthony Foxx, a board member for Climate United who served as transportation secretary in the Obama administration — that the Daily Caller News Foundation identified in a 2023 investigation examining the possibility that their organizations may be among those ultimately selected by the EPA. Three of the organizations that the DCNF reported on at the time ultimately were among the recipients of billions of taxpayer dollars from the program named by the agency last month.

The lawmakers concluded their letter by reiterating their request to the EPA to hand over documents and details about the “nearly two dozen targeted stakeholder meetings” that the agency held while the $27 billion program was being designed. They asked Regan and his agency to comply with their request by no later than May 28.

Meanwhile, the EPA has maintained that the process for selecting awardees was rigorous and unaffected by any potential political factors.

The EPA did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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