The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has canceled more than $29 billion in federal grants, Administrator Lee Zeldin confirmed during an interview on Fox News Tuesday evening.
Appearing on Special Report with Bret Baier, Zeldin said the cancellations targeted green energy projects funded through Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
He noted the total amount scrapped is nearly three times the EPA’s annual operating budget of about $10 billion.
“Over $29 billion of grants have canceled. Our operating budget annually is about $10 billion,” Zeldin told Baier.
“$27 billion of it was the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, part of the Inflation Reduction Act, when President Biden had one party control of Congress.”
Zeldin said the grants were distributed through a system he described as a “complex web of intermediaries,” raising questions about oversight and accountability.
“It was filled with self-dealing and conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients, reduced agency oversight, money going through pastors, through pastors, through pastors. The dollar getting diluted,” Zeldin said.
“And if the argument is going to be made that a dollar should get spent to remediate [an] environmental issue, then spend it on remediating an environmental issue. Instead, they’re giving it to their friends, former Biden and Obama officials and Democratic donors.”
Zeldin pointed to one non-governmental organization tied to former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as an example of what he described as questionable distribution of taxpayer funds.
“President Trump talks about Stacey Abrams, this one linked NGO to her that received $2 billion,” Zeldin said.
According to Zeldin, the group received just $100 in 2023 before being awarded a $2 billion grant by the Biden EPA in 2024.
“In 2023, that NGO received $100. In 2024, they got $2 billion from the Biden EPA. They had to complete training in their grant agreement, page seven, that says they have 90 days to complete training called ‘How to Develop a Budget,’” Zeldin told Baier.
“Yet, in the first 21 days, they can start spending the money, billions of dollars.”
Tax records show Abrams’ group Fair Fight Action funneled about $20.2 million to the law firm Lawrence & Bundy, run by a close associate, between 2019 and 2023.
The Biden EPA later awarded $2 billion to Power Forward Communities, a nonprofit tied to Abrams, as part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The cancellations mark a major rollback of grants tied to Biden-era climate initiatives, particularly the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which had been one of the largest single funding pools under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Zeldin emphasized that the move was aimed at restoring oversight and ensuring federal dollars are directed toward legitimate environmental remediation efforts rather than what he characterized as politically connected organizations.
The EPA has not yet released a full breakdown of the canceled grants or the organizations that were set to receive them.
However, Zeldin’s remarks suggest that political ties and financial management issues played a key role in determining which grants were rescinded.
