Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin says he has made several criminal referrals after uncovering a major political-enrichment scandal that routed billions in Biden-era green-energy grants to Democrat cronies. [some emphasis, links added]
“It’s about self-dealing,” Zeldin tells Just the News.
Zeldin said he has canceled or stopped about $29 billion in EPA grants – including a $2 billion grant to a nonprofit tied to longtime Georgia Democrat election activist and failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams – after unmasking a series of pass-through groups used to route taxpayer monies to the politically connected.
“As you look through all of these pass-through entities, you’re seeing so many connections to former Obama and Biden administration officials and Democratic donors, people who were former Cabinet members, other high-ranking administration officials,” he said during a wide-ranging interview Monday on the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Zeldin: “Blatant waste and abuse.”
Zeldin said he has referred several of the transactions to the EPA inspector general, the agency’s chief watchdog, and the Justice Department for possible prosecution or further investigation.
“Those referrals have been made,” he said.
Zeldin said some of the allegations have their roots in legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act, when Congress and the White House were both in Democratic hands.
“They included all of this funding in this so-called Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund [GGRF]. And then they would work with these different agencies of the Biden administration to get it out to their unqualified friends. The whole thing just feels criminal,” he said. “[…] This is clearly something that falls into the category of blatant waste and abuse.”
Zeldin has repeatedly singled out the Biden administration’s $2 billion grant to Power Forward Communities, a nonprofit tied to the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abrams.
The funds were awarded in 2024 to finance “residential decarbonization,” which was an effort to replace gas furnaces and other appliances with electric ones.
Abrams reportedly “played a pivotal role” in establishing the group, according to Fox News.
The award came under scrutiny after it was revealed that Power Forward Communities had reported only $100 the year before the award.
The Trump administration’s EPA announced in February 2025 that it was taking measures to get the money back as part of an overall effort to claw back funding rushed out the door in the final days of the Biden administration.
Abrams, who worked for a group called Vitalizing De Soto that was tied to Power Forward, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying the grant was intended to help homeowners buy eco-friendly appliances.
“Based on that program, a coalition of organizations – famous organizations – came together and said to the EPA, ‘If we can do this here, we can do this for millions more Americans,'” Abrams explained in a 2025 interview on MSNBC. “‘Let us invest the money of America in lowering the cost for Americans.'”
Group says Biden shoveled billions to left-wing interest groups on exiting the White House
Judicial Watch has sued to obtain more information about the grant.
“As the Biden administration was collapsing in 2024, it lawlessly rushed out billions in cash to left-wing interest groups in a way that encouraged fraud and abuse. The Trump EPA team should disclose and expose every single document about this massive Biden corruption scandal,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
Zeldin’s quest for accountability began in spring 2025 when his agency revealed that Biden rushed out $20 billion in the GGRF to be held in an account by the New York-based Citibank, with just eight nonprofits having the right to spend it.
Top: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin participates in an Oval Office announcement. Official White House photo by Joyce Boghosian.
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