A government watchdog group identified $776 billion in federal programs introduced or modified during the Biden administration to fight global warming and promote green energy. That group, the Functional Government Initiative, is now calling on the White House to use its findings as a framework for clawing back funds where possible.
The group's director, Chris Stanley, shared the findings—compiled in a 51-page report first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon—with White House Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought on Tuesday. In a letter to Vought, Stanley said the report could be useful for Vought as he directs agencies to "uncover waste, fraud, and abusive federal spending in the name of climate change."
The Functional Government Initiative's report and letter to the White House come against the backdrop of a broader administration-wide effort to weed out what they consider to be wasteful government spending. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency, which has since identified millions of dollars in such spending at the United States Agency for International Development and plans to audit several other agencies.
The Biden administration's climate programs figure to be ripe for audits, considering their size and the pace at which officials disbursed funds. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, former president Joe Biden's signature climate law, allocated $369 billion for new green programs, and the infrastructure law passed one year prior devoted billions of dollars more to climate initiatives.
The funding identified in the research encompasses a large number of green energy programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act and infrastructure law. The Trump White House can slow the implementation of the singled-out programs, according to a Brookings Institution report, but a wholesale cancellation of that spending would require an act of Congress.
Programs that existed prior to the Biden administration but which were modified with climate or environmental justice objectives can be changed to exclude such objectives. The Functional Government Initiative, for example, found numerous examples of longstanding programs into which the Biden administration infused its Justice40 Initiative, requiring at least 40 percent of all energy investments to "flow to disadvantaged communities."
"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," Stanley wrote to Vought on Tuesday. "Because these programs were given so much money so quickly, there are significant concerns over transparency, efficiency, and sustainability."
"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," he added in his letter to Vought.
According to the Functional Government Initiative's research shared with Vought, the $776 billion allocated for climate policies during the Biden administration stem from 730 programs implemented by 22 different agencies. The widespread nature of the spending is because of Biden's "whole-of-government approach" to fighting global warming, which empowered every agency to take actions targeting carbon emissions and boosting green technologies.
The group noted that while some agencies are authorized by Congress to address pollution and issue environmental regulations, there has been a recent uptick in indicators of misuse, such as sending money to foreign entities, partnering with partisan organizations, and taking steps designed to evade oversight.
The Department of Energy, according to the research, oversees the largest amount of green spending—$418 billion across 160 programs. A large majority of that funding—which was earmarked by the Inflation Reduction Act—is for the agency's loan programs, like the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment, Innovative Energy, and Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing programs, which support a wide range of other green technologies like EV manufacturing and solar project development.
During the Biden administration, the Department of Energy closed on 24 loans worth $54 billion and offered conditional loans worth another $53 billion for 28 other projects. That leaves hundreds of billions of dollars in loan authority that remain unspent. The Free Beacon has reported on a number of potential conflict of interest violations committed by Biden administration officials charged with overseeing the Energy Department's green loans.
The Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Agriculture collectively oversee another $317 billion worth of climate programs.
The Transportation Department oversees the $7.5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, which has been panned for yielding just a handful of EV chargers years after it was created. The agency said last week that it had paused approvals under the program.
The Environmental Protection Agency's programs include the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, emission reduction grants, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Clean School Bus Program, and environmental justice programs.
A Free Beacon review showed that the EPA awarded $160 million to the nearly bankrupt electric bus maker Lion Electric under the Clean School Bus Program. The Free Beacon separately reported that the EPA gave hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental justice grants to organizations run by members of its environmental justice advisory council.
"One of the ways we ensure accountability deserving of the public's trust is through review and oversight," EPA administrator Lee Zeldin wrote in a memo to EPA staff last week. "This important work enables us all to be more effective in achieving the agency's mission with the resources and authorities provided by Congress."
"We have a responsibility not only to be good stewards of our earth, but of the taxpayer resources with which we are entrusted."
Since the Senate confirmed him late last month, Zeldin has repeatedly vowed to vet the EPA's spending programs and ensure transparency.
"The Biden Administration’s approach to climate change can be described in three simple words: ‘spend, baby, spend,’" Functional Government Initiative spokesman Roderick Law said. "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."
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.