Stephen Dietrich – President Joe Biden has been out of office for over a month — but another new scandal over his mismanaged of the federal government erupted on Friday.
An independent watchdog group has identified a staggering $776 billion in federal climate and “green energy” spending that was wasted during the Biden administration, which critics suspect was littered with fraud.
President Donald Trump’s White House called the discovery a “roadmap” for investigations, spending cuts, and program reviews.
The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) compiled the findings in a 51-page report delivered Tuesday to White House Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought.
The report details 730 climate programs spread across 22 federal agencies, with the Department of Energy overseeing the largest share at $418 billion across 160 programs.
“As you work to implement President Trump’s budget priorities and promote his agenda, this report could be a helpful guide to target many areas where the previous administration allocated vast sums,” FGI director Chris Stanley wrote to Vought. “Because these programs were given so much money so quickly, there are significant concerns over transparency, efficiency, and sustainability.”
The report comes as the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) intensifies its review of federal spending.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has specifically targeted climate spending after leaked video from Project Veritas allegedly showed an EPA consultant describing a rush to distribute remaining funds before the presidential transition.
“We have a responsibility not only to be good stewards of our earth, but of the taxpayer resources with which we are entrusted,” Zeldin wrote in a recent memo to EPA staff. “One of the ways we ensure accountability deserving of the public’s trust is through review and oversight.”
Among the most controversial spending identified was $2 billion allocated to Power Forward Communities, a nonprofit with ties to former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. According to critics, the organization reported just $100 in revenue for 2023 before receiving the massive federal grant.
“When we learned about the Biden Administration’s scheme to quickly park $20 billion outside the agency, we suspected that some organizations were created out of thin air just to take advantage of this,” Zeldin said in a separate statement.
The FGI report highlights how the Biden administration’s “whole-of-government approach” to climate change shoveled billions of taxpayer funds to agencies not traditionally involved in environmental policy.
The group highlighted Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which required 40% of energy investments to “flow to disadvantaged communities,” as having misspent a fortune in government funding.
“Many of these efforts redirected vast amounts of taxpayer resources to partisan special interests and distracted government agencies from best serving the American people with respect to their core statutory duties,” Stanley wrote.
The Department of Energy’s loan programs received particular scrutiny, with FGI noting the agency closed 24 loans worth $54 billion and offered conditional loans worth another $53 billion during Biden’s term. The Transportation Department’s $7.5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program was also highlighted for reportedly yielding “just a handful of EV chargers years after it was created.”
While the Trump administration can modify or slow some of the sapending, complete cancellation of funds given out by the so-called 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and earlier infrastructure legislation would require congressional action, according to a Brookings Institution analysis cited in the report.
“The Biden Administration’s approach to climate change can be described in three simple words: ‘spend, baby, spend,’” FGI spokesman Roderick Law said about the funding scandal.
“We expect that, like the rest of the new administration, Director Vought and his staff will hit the ground running, and we hope this roadmap to President Biden’s reckless climate spree will help provide momentum.”
SF Source The Horn News Feb 2025