It is going to be very hard to name the M.V.P. on President Donald Trump’s current team.
This week, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin is making a play for honor. In an exclusive interview with New York Post’s Miranda Devine on the latest episode of “Pod Force One”, Zeldin charged that the Biden White House deliberately crippled the agency by dumping billions into its budget, only to direct the money to liberal-aligned nongovernmental agencies (NGOs).
We already touched upon the issue earlier this year, when we reviewed the Now Project Veritas video confirming my suspicions that the massive Biden-era climate giveaway was designed to “Trump-Proof” Biden’s “Green New Deal.”
Brent Efron, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) special advisor implementing Biden’s climate agenda, made many controversial statements during an undercover video about the agency’s actions in anticipation of a potential Trump administration.Efron reportedly told Project Veritas that the EPA is rapidly distributing billions of dollars in grants to nonprofits as an “insurance policy” against Trump winning the election. He described the situation as “throwing gold bars off the Titanic,” referring to the urgency with which the agency allocates funds.
During the “Pod Force One” interview, Zeldin offered a great deal of clarity on where the money went, as well as the shell game that was played to manipulate the funds and to get them into the hands of liberal activists.
“They decided … to have that bank send the money through eight pass-through entities, all these NGOs [were] pass-through entities that were riddled with self-dealing and conflicts of interest, former Obama and Biden officials, Democratic donors … and the EPA was a party to the account control agreement with those prime recipients,” he said.“But here’s the thing, when the money goes through the prime recipients to others — in many cases, also pass-throughs — EPA no longer is a party of the account control agreement,” Zeldin went on. “EPA is losing oversight by design intentionally.”One example of a beneficiary from the so-called “slush fund” cited by Zeldin is Power Forward Communities, a coalition of nonprofits — including one linked to two-time Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams….“Many of the costs are just presented [with] little or no explanation as to why they are reasonable,” Zeldin went on. “They’re paying their CEO $800,000 or COO, $450,000, [they have] 22 people receiving over $150,000, and there’s all different kinds of complaints, concerns expressed by Biden EPA officials saying, ‘Executive salaries appear excessive.’ Another added that ‘Senior management salaries are seemingly high without justification.’”
It’s wonderful seeing details on the corruption of the climate programs continue to be featured in the news. Americans must not be allowed to forget the complex funding schemes used to promote and sustain wildly progressive and highly destructive programs.
Meanwhile, Zeldin is helping New Yorkers fight the opening of massive lithium battery energy plants in their neighborhoods.
Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman, will be holding a press conference in Hauppauge Monday to discuss environmental safety issues posed by “Battery Energy Storage Systems,” which are hazardous when they catch fire.While not explicitly opposing BESS, Zeldin is set to issue a new EPA guidance for communities and local governments to consider regarding the environmental risks of such facilities.“Calling a technology ‘green energy’ does not mean there are no environmental impacts,” Zeldin, the 2022 Republican candidate for governor, told The Post.He blasted the “delusional” and unrealistic green energy goals advanced by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats amid the backlash against the proliferation of battery storage plants across New York, including Staten Island, Queens, the Hudson Valley and upstate.
I suspect New Yorkers got a good look at the lithium battery plant fire disaster in Monterey, California and decided they wanted to part of this green energy turd.
As Zeldin noted in his remarks, New Yorkers are becoming aware that the state’s Net-Zero goals are unattainable. Their wake-up call to the “green energy dream” is going to be in the form of a huge spike in electricity bills, estimated to be $600/year for many residents.
Downstate, Con Edison is seeking an 11.4% hike to electric bills and 13.3% gas hike — largely thanks to green-energy mandates that Gov. Kathy Hochul embraced along with the rest of the party.The “climate agenda” is delivering pain we’ve long warned of, in New York and New Jersey.Across the Hudson, electric bills as much as tripled this summer — and could cost Democrats the Jersey governor’s race.“Once they realize that Democrats’ bungled energy policies are to blame for their exploding utility bills as well, it could blow November’s race wide open,” warned Bethany Mandel last week.
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