1 day Ago By Lisa Friedman and Claire Brown
Over the last few months, Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has made explosive accusations against the Biden administration, accusing it of “insane” malfeasance in its handling of $20 billion in climate grants. Now, as a legal battle ensues over those funds, many of Mr. Zeldin’s claims have proven to be unsupported, and some flat-out false.
Mr. Zeldin has said that the program, which Congress approved as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, was vulnerable to “waste, fraud, and abuse.” If that claim was substantiated, it would allow the E.
P.A. to take back the $20 billion, which was awarded to eight nonprofit groups.
The money was to be used to finance projects across the country such as solar panels on community centers and geothermal systems to heat and cool subsidized housing. But so far, the Trump administration has failed to provide evidence of wrongdoing, despite a judge’s request. The agency, which has worked to block the nonprofits from accessing the money, is now being sued by several of the organizations for breach of contract.
The parties are expected in federal court on Wednesday, and legal experts said the agency’s arguments increasingly appear thin. “It’s just nonsense,” said Richard Lazarus, an environmental law professor at Harvard University. He said when he first heard about Mr.
Zeldin’s accusations about the $20 billion grant program, he was shocked. Then he read the Trump administration’s recent filings in federal court, which were supposed to provide evidence for its claims of fraud and abuse. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
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