Project Veritas EPA Investigation Leads Zeldin to Recover $20 Billion for Taxpayers

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is taking action to recover billions in American wealth after a December 2024 Project Veritas investigation caught an EPA official on camera admitting to a mad dash to distribute billions in grants, aiming to lock in Biden's climate agenda before Trump’s potential return to office.

In one of his first actions as EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin has announced that $20 billion in last-minute Biden-Harris Administration climate grants have been found and his team is now working to recover the wasteful spending.

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Brent Efron, a former special advisor implementing Biden’s climate agenda, told Project Veritas that the agency was feverishly working to distribute billions to "nonprofits, states, and tribes" as a way to cement Biden-era climate policy under the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Now it’s how to get the money out as fast as possible before they [Trump Administration] come in ... it’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge.” - Brent Efron, EPA Advisor

Project Veritas' original video went viral on X, garnering millions of views and responses from Capitol Hill. Incoming EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin vowed to investigate this misuse of funds during his January confirmation hearing.

True to his promise, Zeldin announced on February 12th, “My team at the EPA has found the gold bars.”

Zeldin referenced Project Veritas' original reporting and shared that roughly $20 billion of these funds were discovered parked in a bank by the Biden EPA, ostensibly to hide the funds from the American people.

“The financial agent agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated, and the bank must immediately return all of the gold bars that the Biden administration tossed off the Titanic,” Zeldin said in his video announcement on X.

Zeldin stated, “This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.”

In fact, Efron told the Veritas journalist that the EPA intended to circumvent a Trump administration claw back of this funding by funneling money to ideologically aligned nonprofits who would then administer the funds for them. He described it as "an insurance policy" against Trump winning.

“We gave them [nonprofits] the money because… it was an insurance policy against Trump winning. Because they aren’t [a government agency], they’re safer from Republicans taking the money away.”

Zeldin confirmed that $20 billion was awarded "to just eight entities" that were then responsible for doling out the funds at their discretion.

He announced plans to refer the whole case to the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General.

“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” he concluded. “The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years.”

In his announcement, Zeldin also pledged to investigate if former Biden EPA staffers benefitted with new jobs at climate change organizations.

In the December report Efron expressed his interest in leaving the Biden Administration for a cushy job at one of the nonprofits he helped fund during his tenure at the EPA.

“Over the last year we’ve given out $50 billion dollars for climate things…so to go work for one of these places would be really cool.”

In a letter dated February 11, 2025, to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked about his plans to establish an oversight strategy for Biden-Harris EPA expenditures and recover any improper payments.

"You and I met in my office on January 9, 2025, prior to your confirmation hearing. I was encouraged by your commitment to promote transparency. You even shared with me that the Biden-Harris EPA's spending problem was evidenced by an EPA official's recent description that the agency had been "throwing gold bars off the Titanic," in preparation of the Trump administration taking control. Under your leadership, the EPA must investigate this wasteful spending spree and conduct appropriate oversight. This includes taking measures to recoup any improper payments to grantees who have failed to comply with their grant agreements."

Zeldin has until February 25, 2025 to respond to Grassley's request.

Follow the story on X.

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