Tossing gold bars off the Titanic is just the tip of the IRA iceberg
Photo Credit: Getty
The Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rushed to dole out billions of taxpayer dollars before President Donald Trump took office. A former Biden EPA official explained that the agency was tossing “gold bars off the Titanic.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is rightfully concerned about these actions. He has been especially focused on $20 billion connected to a $27 billion program that CEI has been leading efforts to kill off: the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that was created under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Through the program, the EPA has what amounts to a slush fund, giving it wide discretion in how it distributes the money. As required by the IRA, the money is being given to nonprofits acting as pass-through entities that get to decide how to hand out taxpayer dollars.
In effect, it’s an EPA slush fund that requires the agency to create slush funds for nonprofits.
Congress created this entire problem in the first place by creating the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund in the IRA and setting a short deadline for the EPA (September 30, 2024) to rush the money out the door (about two years).
The Biden administration was fully on board. It fought for passage of the IRA and later the Biden EPA touted this slush fund program. When addressing criticism of the program, former EPA administrator Michael Regan defended the program and reportedly said, “I feel really good about this program.”
The Biden EPA exacerbated problems by distributing the $20 billion to just eight organizations instead of spreading it out among numerous organizations. Unless the money is clawed back, five of the selected nonprofits will each have about $2 billion or more to distribute. Of those five, one will have $7 billion and another will have $5 billion.
Unfortunately, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is just the tip of the IRA iceberg when it comes to the IRA’s “Green New Deal” waste and harmful spending.
At the EPA, there are more IRA programs than just the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The $3 billion Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Grant program also creates nonprofit slush funds. Other programs include those pushing the electrification agenda, including the $1 billion Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Program and the $3 billion Clean Ports Program.
Zeldin can try and go after these programs, but ultimately Congress created them in statute and must get rid of them. It’s up to legislators to repeal all the IRA Green New Deal-type spending at the EPA and other agencies.
Just 10 days ago, CEI led a coalition of over 50 organizations calling for Congress to get rid of the IRA’s “green” provisions. The letter sent by the organizations stated:
The IRA is filled with numerous subsidies that were designed to shift our country away from reliable electricity generation (coal and natural gas) to unreliable electricity sources (e.g. wind and solar). This comes at a time of concern about the reliability of the nation’s electricity grid, in large part because of misguided corporate welfare policies that undermine reliable baseload generation.
There are also IRA subsidies that work in conjunction with other policies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s de facto electric vehicle mandate, to kill off gas-powered vehicles – undermining the freedom of Americans to choose their cars.
These examples capture just some of the problems with the IRA “green” subsidies. In general, the subsidies will drive up prices, diminish grid reliability, compromise mobility, and disproportionately impact the poor. Not to mention, the subsidies are expected to cost over $1 trillion, and this may be a low-ball estimate…
All IRA “green” subsidies should be in the sights of policymakers. They work together as a central plan to achieve a radical and harmful shift in how our country produces and uses electricity, among other things. Given that they work together to achieve this Green New Deal, they should be eliminated together to restore freedom and ensure our country can reliably and affordably meet its energy needs.
Zeldin should be commended for seeking to address IRA waste at the EPA. He is showing leadership that hopefully legislators will follow.
As the coalition argued, all legislators, regardless of party, should make it a priority to eliminate the IRA’s Green New Deal provisions.
If legislators listen to the coalition, this will help to ensure that there won’t be future gold bars thrown off the Titanic. More importantly, it would undo radical Green New Deal policies that were shoved through Congress in the IRA without a single Republican vote in the House or Senate.