Report: Feds spent millions on ‘Environmental Justice’ grants with 'political' motives

By Casey Harper
The Center Square 

A new Congressional report from House Republicans alleges that the Biden-Harris administration gave billions of taxpayer dollars to “Environmental Justice” grants for political reasons. 

The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee released a staff report Monday that laid out the allegations.

“As part of its radical rush-to-green agenda, the administration gave hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to activists who also engage in political activities,” lawmakers behind the report said in a joint statement. “It was empowered to do so by congressional Democrats who jammed through legislation that was designed to rush money out the door as quickly as possible with no guards against waste, fraud, and abuse.”

The report points to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a Democrat bill that, among other things, gave about $41 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency, four times its annual budget, $3 billion of which was for the environmental justice grants.

The EPA defines environmental justice as “the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people…” which includes making sure no groups are disproportionately impacted by environmental decisions.

It also includes working for “equitable access to a healthy, sustainable, and resilient environment in which to live, play, work, learn, grow, worship, and engage in cultural and subsistence practices.”

To this end, the EPA began doling out the grants, but Republicans say the money was distributed unfairly.

From the report:

The lists of organizations selected to receive funding or partner with those organizations include environmental activist organizations that work to influence public and elected officials to adopt their often-extreme views, such as completely eliminating the use of fossil fuels, which Americans recognize are an important part of an all-of-the-above energy mix. While some selected organizations include other types of entities such as institutes of high education, many are special interest environmental nonprofit organizations. These organizations’ views and missions often align with those of the administration, in effect using taxpayer dollars to promote the Biden-Harris radical energy agenda. While organizations must use these grants for specified purposes, the acceptable uses of funding are broad enough to include activities such as “public outreach” or “public education.” The IRA’s language also permits grant recipients to use awards for “facilitating engagement of disadvantaged communities in State and Federal advisory groups, workshops, rulemakings, and other public processes”

Simply put, the EPA is awarding taxpayer dollars to special interest groups committed to a radical energy agenda to “educate” others and drive public outreach, as well as assist those it engages with to influence government policymaking and outcomes,” the report said. “One might consider it akin to a taxpayer-funded lobbying operation. Given these organizations’ existing efforts to sway public opinion, they may use these awards to attempt to indoctrinate members of the communities in which they conduct outreach.

The EPA pushed back on the allegations, pointing to their vetting process for grant recipients.

“All eligible applications submitted for EPA funding go through a rigorous competitive process,” Joseph, Dominique, a spokesperson for the EPA, told The Center Square. “EPA takes program integrity very seriously and will continue delivering on the Biden-Harris Administration’s environmental justice goals in a robust and transparent manner. The agency has multiple safeguards in place to ensure grant activities are fully compliant with grant commitments and the laws Congress has directed EPA to implement.”

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