James OKeefe, an American conservative political activist and founder of Project Veritas.
Project Veritas released an undercover video this week showing Brent Efron, special advisor for implementation at the Environmental Protection Agency, discussing an effort at the agency to “get as much money out as fast as possible” before there’s a change in administration.
The video was captured surreptitiously by a Project Veritas investigative journalist at what appears to be a bar while Efron drank an orange cocktail. Efron told the journalist that billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act was going to “nonprofit institutions that are making it more financially feasible to build renewables and climate projects,” as well as states, tribes and cities. This rushed doling out of cash would continue until Jan. 20 when Trump is inaugurated, when Efron said the new administration could immediately halt the process.
The video appears to confirm suspicions that agencies are spending as much money as possible before President-elect Donald Trump could put the brakes on it.
“The fact that some obnoxious little child is drinking a fruity cocktail in the middle of winter and laughing at a bar about how he’s throwing out billions of dollars, it says a lot about how corrupt and woefully mismanaged our government is,” Daniel Turner, executive director of Power the Future, told Just the News.
The EPA didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Shovelfuls
Trump’s reelection, and the rightward shift voters took on Nov. 5, signaled a lack of support for the Biden-Harris administration’s policies. Since his win, Trump has nominated department heads in the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior and Department of Energy, each of whom show little alignment with the previous administration’s climate agenda. That’s on top of the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, (DOGE) tasked with cutting government waste.
Supporters of Biden’s climate agenda have been quite vocal about their plans to pursue their goals through whatever avenues remained open to them, despite the issue overwhelmingly being rejected by voters in the presidential election.
Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, which by some estimates will cost $2 trillion to $4 trillion by 2050 if it’s not repealed, earmarked buckets of taxpayer dollars to support green energy initiatives. While most of that money hasn’t been spent, federal agencies appear to be trying to shove as much cash out the door as they can before Trump can clamp down on the river of subsidies.
Power the Future, an energy advocacy nonprofit, began tracking some of this effort. The initiative, called Lame Duck Watch, catalogues several articles detailing a race to shell out taxpayer dollars before Trump takes over. Some of this effort started even before Trump won the election.
“The Biden administration is shelling out billions of dollars for clean energy and approving major offshore wind projects as officials race to secure major climate initiatives before President Joe Biden’s term comes to an end,” the Associated Press reported in October.
A week after the election, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the Department of Energy quadrupled its lending budget to over $240 billion so that the agency could approve as many “green energy” loans as possible before Trump takes office. Troubled electric car manufacturer Rivian got a $6.6 billion conditional loan just after Thanksgiving in support of a production facility in Georgia, according to Reuters.
The anti-fossil fuel activist publication Canary Media reported Thursday that the DOE approved a $303.5 million loan guarantee to help an energy storage company scale up its production, a planned $7.5 billion loan to finance two electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants in Indiana, and a $5 billion conditional loan guarantee for a transmission line.
“With Inauguration Day looming, the office has increased its activity in recent weeks,” Canary Media reported.
The DOE’s Loans Program Office, according to Canary, has sent out $55 billion funding for battery and EV manufacturing, nuclear programs, hydrogen facilities, critical minerals projects, and other green energy projects.
The Institute For Energy Research (IER) also collected a number of these stories in a recent report, including a $290 million conditional loan guarantee to deploy up to 1,000 solar and battery facilities in a virtual power plant across up to 27 states. A virtual power plant, IER explains, are networks of small-scale, distributed energy resources, such as solar panels, battery facilities, and EV batteries set up to feed into the grid when needed.
“The Biden-Harris administration is doing all it can to make things more difficult for the incoming Trump administration by shelling out money to pet projects when it is clear that the Trump administration will change direction on these projects,” the IER reported.
Bought and Paid
Turner, with Power the Future, said it’s likely to get worse before the Trump administration can do anything about it.
“I think we’re just starting to see the very beginning of how much waste there is, how much bought and paid corruption there is, and how much damage the Inflation Reduction Act will do,” Turner said.
The Lame Duck Watch initiative includes dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests on Biden Administration appointees to shed light on any acts of corruption, which Power the Future said in an announcement on the initiative that it would post publicly or turn over to Congressional investigative committees.
They’ll also be looking for “revolving door” activities in which Biden officials find positions at environmental groups that the agencies they’ve worked at have been funding.
Efron, the EPA employee featured in the Project Veritas video, appeared to suggest that he might find himself working for one of the places that have received some of the funds being rushed out the door.
“To go to work for one of these places I think would be really cool,” Efron told the Project Veritas reporter.
Power the Future’s Turner said that the whole effort is a huge waste of taxpayer money that will produce nothing of value to justify the spending. He said the philosophy that spending tax dollars will somehow automatically translate into positive outcomes is a big reason why Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election.
“What are we trying to solve here by writing $50 billion checks? What? How are we making the environment better? Or, how are we fixing the climate? It’s just a complete disconnect with reality,” Turner said. Turner added that besides the wasteful spending, the headlong rush to dole out tax dollars will lead to lax oversight and likely result in fraud and abuse, as happened with the rapidly deployed pandemic-response funding. “That money has already been spent. It’s not getting recovered. And that’s what they’re trying to do with this green money,” Turner said.
There is one possible reprieve for tix. The Department of Government Efficiency is talking about clawing back the loan to Rivian. It’s possible that, if that loan is revoked, other monies rushed out the door can be reclaimed, too.
Kevin Killough is a reporter for Just The News.
Reprinted with Permission from Just The News – By Kevin Killough
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
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