‘Death of the Green New Scam’: Zeldin declares end to left’s climate ‘grift’

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday on Fox News that the Trump administration will put an end to the “Green New Scam,” adding that Democrats will no longer be able to waste billions in taxpayer dollars.

Since Zeldin’s confirmation in January, the EPA administrator has implemented massive budget cuts to the agency, triggering Democratic pushback against the new leadership. Playing a clip of Democratic Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree expressing her “deep concerns” about the Trump administration’s approach to the climate crisis, Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked Zeldin on “The Ingraham Angle” for his thoughts.

“The death of the Green New Scam is upon us, and there are people who are congressional Democrats who are not going to be happy with our actions,” Zeldin said. “I am here to fight for, as part of that Trump mandate earned November 5, the people across this country who have seen a Green New Deal that, if fully implemented, will cost tens of trillions of dollars. People who cannot afford to be able to heat their home, to purchase a car. Small businesses are struggling to operate. People have been put out of work, and it’s going to end.”

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While speaking on the House floor Tuesday, Pingree said she was concerned that the “Republican majority is giving the administration a free pass to abandon programs that protect the public from pollution, that safeguard human health and that address the climate crisis.”

The Democratic lawmaker’s statements came after Zeldin announced the cancellation of more than 400 diversity, equity, inclusion, and environmental justice grants in a social media post Monday. With cuts to the nine grant programs, the EPA amassed $1.7 billion in savings, bringing the agency’s total savings to over $2 billion.

“This whole grift of being able to get tens of billions of dollars of tax dollars to your friends, it’s over,” Zeldin said. “They’re not giving their friends, you know, $100,000 here or $2 million there. They’re giving friends billions of dollars.”

Before the agency’s recent cuts, Zeldin said he was shocked over the agency’s mismanaged waste during a Fox Business interview on Feb. 19, adding that billions from the EPA are “fronted to eight entities” and highlighting how money went to aid some Democrat groups.

In August 2024, the Biden-Harris EPA was found to have given $2 billion in taxpayer money to Power Forward Communities, a left-wing nonprofit consortium linked to Democratic voter mobilization efforts, including former Democratic Georgia Rep. Stacey Abrams’s get-out-the-vote initiative.

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