Zeldin EPA discovers $2 billion Biden admin stashed away for Stacey Abrams-linked climate group
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 2 months ago • 38 commentsBy: Victor Nava (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Environmental Protection Agency recently discovered that the Biden administration awarded $2 billion to a climate group with ties to former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a fierce supporter of former President Joe Biden.
The money was earmarked for Power Forward Communities — a nonprofit partnered with multiple left-wing groups founded by Abrams and which the Georgia Democrat has stated she was "thrilled" to be part of, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday.
The funds were set aside at an outside financial institution — Citibank — before Biden left office and part of a larger, $20 billion pot of money the former president's EPA received through the Inflation Reduction Act to dole out to climate groups.
"It's extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 was chosen to receive $2 billion," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told the outlet, referring to Power Forward Communities' latest tax filings. "That's 20 million times the organization's reported revenue."
Zeldin claims the Biden administration "parked" the money at an outside bank to keep the Trump administration from clawing it back. AP
Last week, Zeldin revealed he located the $20 billion that his EPA predecessors squirreled away in an apparent attempt to prevent the Trump administration from clawing back the money and to obscure the various groups to which Power Forward Communities, and seven other entities, decide to distribute the funds.
Zeldin at the time expressed concern that the $20 billion would be handed out to "far-left activist groups" without any federal oversight, and perhaps even to groups with close ties to the Biden administration.
"I made a commitment to members of Congress and to the American people to be a good steward of tax dollars and I've wasted no time in keeping my word," Zeldin told the Washington Free Beacon. "When we learned about the Biden Administration's scheme to quickly park $20 billion outside the agency, we suspected that some organizations were created out of thin air just to take advantage of this."
"As we continue to learn more about where some of this money went, it is even more apparent how far-reaching and widely accepted this waste and abuse has been."
Abrams was a vocal advocate of the Biden administration's green energy push, and last July, as calls grew for Biden to drop out of the presidential race, she penned an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution declaring that Democrats' "path to victory lies in standing by Biden."
"It's time to stop the Joe Biden doom loop," she tweeted that same month.
Power Forward Communities was awarded the grant the following month.
Abrams has multiple ties to Power Forward Communities, the Washington Free Beacon discovered Wednesday. Getty Images
"With funds expected to start flowing into homes in early 2025, the grant will make possible the affordable decarbonization of homes and apartments throughout the country, with a particular focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities," the group said of the $2 billion grant in August 2024.
Zeldin, who has pledged to look into ways to recover the money from Citibank, described "Stacey Abrams' Power Forward Communities" as "a pass through entity for Biden EPA's $20 billion 'gold bar' scheme" in an X post Wednesday night.
Power Forward Communities did not respond to The Post's request for comment.
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Very good Lee.
Keep up the good work.
Great example of how the grift works.
No where does this article actually prove ANY GRIFT or any money going to Stacie Abrams or to Biden or any of his affiliates.
Please do provide ANYWHERE in this article that proves the Democrats or Abrams or anyone else did anything wrong in supporting the funding of non-profits and groups that are tasked with tackling climate change. Sure, some pig fucking morons claim climate change isn't happening or that man has no effect on it, but why should we listen to such useless wastes of space? Why give any credibility to known liars like Trump and his cast of what amounts to nothing but union busters, out there with their clubs ready to beat down any rational American who believe taking climate change seriously will help save lives, money and property in the long run if we invest in changing our habits now.
So perhaps they should prove the grift before making public unproven claims.
Sadly, this seed and other rightwing snot rags like this will get eaten up by the dumb shit followers of Trump and they'll swear up and down that billions in fraud were found in the EPA and that Biden and Abrams were 'stealing money' and giving billions to their friends. Sure, none of that's been proven or even claimed in this article, they just make general claims like "Abrams has multiple ties to Power Forward Communities" and "nonprofit partnered with multiple left-wing groups founded by Abrams". To a brain-dead moron who already hates Democrats and especially Abrams, a strong black woman, that's all you need to say! That's the proof! I mean "ties"? Right? She must be totally guilty of something! And they'll swear to it in court if need be, even though they have exactly zero evidence of any wrongdoing.
The money was earmarked for Power Forward Communities — a nonprofit partnered with multiple left-wing groups founded by Abrams
This is the grift. Have you no experience with how machine politics operate? This is basic stuff.
Well, I suppose that would depend on what kind of grift you're talking about. I agree that there isn't enough information in this article, not even close, that provides any evidence that Abrams or any other individual personally received money that shouldn't have.
However, I think grift did occur. The money came from The Inflation Reduction Act. It was known before the act was passed that it wouldn't have that effect. Perhaps because 70 to 80 percent of it went to climate initiatives. Now, more than two and a half years later, most economists think the act had little to no effect in reducing inflation. And they're still spending the money anyway. That's grift, in my book.
If 2 billion dollars of taxpayer dollars were being sent to an NGO set up by by say Mike Huckabee with distribution to other right wing groups he'd set up, left wingers would have no problem seeing the graft. It's all legal. But Huckabee and other right wing operatives would wet their beak each step of the way until some residual percentage get doled out to that ostensible purpose of the grant.
I don't disagree. I'm just saying there's no real evidence of actual wrongdoing in the article. I hope they come out with actual evidence.
Founded in April, gets 2 billion in taxpayer dollars in April. Good work if you can find it.
The problem is none of it's illegal. It's legalized corruption.
"Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness". Joe and Jill Biden's and Bill and Hillary Clinton's taxes are public going back for forty years. Try as they may multiple gop administrations and congresses multiple investigations never found a dollar of unreported income. With the resources available to them don't you think if there was any there there they would find it? Of course they would. And, nevermind Trump, a sitting President, selling his own cryptocurrency, huh?
Why would you quote that?
I agree. And I don't think it's completely one sided.
Um, you sure you didn't mean this for someone else? What does any of this have to do with what I said?
Really? So, if it were "a nonprofit partnered with multiple right-wing groups founded by JD Vance" then it wouldn't be grift?
Grift: verb - small scale swindling
Where is the swindle? Money was set aside for non-profits that are trying to tackle the climate change issues of today and tomorrow, only a short-sighted moron would refuse to work towards those goals. The swindle would be to give that money to ANY religious group that thinks they're going to "save" the planet by praying or religious groups who don't give a fuck about the planet because they think they're going to be whisked off to heaven before our planet turns into an unlivable climate disaster.
I don't know how I could have made that any clearer.
Money was set aside for non-profits that are trying to tackle the climate change issues of today and tomorrow, only a short-sighted moron would refuse to work towards those goals.
Lol.
You think the IRS audited them even once?
You really believe they are factual as compared to what they really earned?
You already know that the IRS and state agencies audited Trump and his businesses every damn year.
Congressional inquiries can be ignored- just depends on who the AG is. Remind us all again who the AG was for the Clinton investigations? How about the Biden investigations?
Myself I find it amusing how some on the left love to reference the Bible and faith based sayings when they think it suits the narrative they are pushing.
Especially when many of them are heathens.
Then in the next breath they mock Christians and Christianity, referring to them as thumpers and xtians.
And then immediately point out we aren't a Christian nation, The only thing atheists' worship is themselves.
Calling someone a heathen is saying they're uncivilized or barbaric.
Unlike how Christians have been nothing but kind to atheists for centuries, right?
We aren't, why is that so difficult for some to understand? Thick skulls perhaps?
At least an atheist has evidence of their own existence unlike the tens of thousands of Gods humans have invented for millennia. And Christians seem to have no problem worshiping themselves or worshiping a convicted felon and accused rapist as long as they whisper sweet nothings in the Christians ear telling them what they want to hear. "Vote for me and I'll back your abortion bans and push your rightwing conservative Christian agenda down the throats of every American!".
I wonder if that was congratulatory money for winning the Georgia governor's race. s/
It’s just a measly 2 billion …… c’mon man!
It’s a somewhat vague accusation, but if he thinks there is genuine fraud, why doesn’t he just refer the matter to DOJ?
47 months left to do that
I see no reason to wait.
How about being happy it’s finally being dug up?
I would be happy if I had reason to believe they were really finding problems AND it was being done thoughtfully, with respect for the law, the personal records of citizens, and national security. So far, it doesn’t look that way.
If I worked in any capacity in the government, and thought I had found evidence of actual fraud, I would not be tweeting or holding press conferences. I’d be contacting an Inspector General (oh wait, Trump illegally fired them. Never mind.) Or, I’d be calling the FBI.
When anyone in the Trump administration actually behaves like a person should when they find wrongdoing, I’ll give it a chance. Until then, it just looks like bullshit.
Cool, you have it all figured out then right? Until you don’t. Then we’ll see what you have to say.
Oh and Trump fired 17 inspector generals from what I read. That leaves nearly 60 to do their job. Stop being disingenuous.
Illegally.
So why has a court not told them to rehire them?
The triggered left has filed lawsuits about everything else he has done.....
And lost quite a few of them.
Because these things take time to adjudicate. Did you imagine that the imbecile you support was somehow vindicated because the courts hadn’t overturned his illegal behavior in a couple of weeks?
Yes, and the fired IGs are suing, too.
Lost what? Not much has been decided permanently. And “quite a few” is conveniently vague, isn’t it? It allows you to pretend that Trump is being proven right over and over again. Well, he’s not. Again, these things are in the early stages. For example, we probably won’t see a ruling on his birthright citizenship nonsense until June, and that was almost the first thing he did.
The only things getting adjudicated in this brief time frame are things like TROs, where the standard is “imminent, irreparable harm.” That’s a pretty exacting standard, and still only prelude to the real cases.
You know how the hillbillies of the Right love to say “do your own research?” Sadly, they never do. And any research they don’t like is dismissed. That’s why they still think vaccines cause autism. That’s why measles is spreading out of control in certain places today. That’s probably why you still think Trump isn’t actually a felon and he was tried in fake court for federal crimes, not state crimes. I suggest you do some research on these court cases and how the different stages work. The truth is not always what you would like.
So Trump didn’t fire all the IG’s then as you inferred. Right?
And by the way, Presidents nominate IG’s for Senate confirmation. These IG’s can only be removed by the President.
What’s up with that?
So much you have written is just wrong. You need to learn the difference between “infer” and “imply.” If I say say something that could be interpreted a certain way, then I have implied that thing. If you read what I write and reach a certain conclusion, you have inferred that thing.
So inferring is something done by the listener or reader, not by the speaker.
As the speaker, I know what I was trying to imply, and I can tell you that I had no intention of implying that every IG had been fired. Your inference is, therefore, in error. You are not the final arbiter of what I meant to say. I am.
Here is what’s up with that. The offices of IG were created by law (i.e., the Congress passed a bill and the president signed it, not an executive order). The process you describe is correct, but incomplete. The original law from the 70s, plus updates in later years (2008 and 2020), clarify specific requirements and limitations on how the president removes IGs.
Specifically, he must give 30 days notice to Congress that he intends to remove an IG. Trump has not done that. The president is also required to provide "the substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons" for doing so. He hasn’t done that either.
The reasoning here is that the position of IG was created to be an independent watchdog, charged with rooting out the very waste, fraud, and abuse that Trump claims he cares about. The IGs work for the people, and the rule of law, not for the executive. Yes, he can remove them, but he needs to provide adequate notice and a good reason.
Thanks for the English lesson. You implied all IG’s were fired and nothing could be further from the truth.
As noted, no debate.
Very well, I accept your surrender.
Happy to give you an ego stroke. Sounds like you need it.
Thank you. I’m sure that being stroked by you will be the highlight of my day.
Good for you!