The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to recover $20 billion in climate funding approved by the Biden administration. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin revealed the decision in a social media post Wednesday, alleging that the funds were distributed hastily with “reduced oversight”.
This decision intensifies President Donald Trump’s broader efforts to freeze climate funding across federal agencies. It also defies a federal judge’s recent ruling, which stated that the administration had been violating a court order requiring the release of billions in grants.
Zeldin stated in a video posted to X that the EPA would terminate its contract with the bank overseeing the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a program established under former President Joe Biden’s 2022 climate law. The fund was designed to drive investment in clean energy technologies such as solar panels and heat pumps by leveraging public and private capital.
“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” Zeldin declared. “The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years.”
Zeldin cited a December video in which an EPA official suggested the Biden administration had rushed to allocate the funds before Trump’s team could intervene. He said that it seems like the previous administration was “trying to get the money out as fast as possible before they (the Trump administration) come in and stop it all…It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing, like, gold bars off the edge”.