(Washington, D.C.) – Yesterday, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Brian Babin and Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Rich McCormick sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin and EPA Acting Inspector General (IG) Nicole Murley requesting more information regarding the Biden Administration’s concerning implementation and allocation of the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).
In 2022, the EPA received an astonishing $27 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act to establish and manage the GGRF, a massive climate spending program. These taxpayer funds were distributed across three initiatives:
- $14 billion through the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) to three recipients,
- $6 billion via the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) to five recipients, and
- $7 billion under the Solar for All program to sixty recipients.
However, recent federal court filings, investigative reports, and testimony from Acting IG Murley have raised significant questions about the transparency, competitiveness, and impartiality of the grant-making process.
Babin and McCormick wrote in the letter, “Despite the unprecedented scale of these awards, Acting IG Murley testified in February 2025 that the EPA conducted minimal due diligence on the qualifications of NCIF and CCIA recipients. The IG further revealed that the grant competition lasted just twelve weeks from announcement to application deadline, with funds hastily obligated in December 2024, immediately preceding the Presidential Transition. Independent investigations have uncovered similar concerns within the Solar for All program. This highly compressed timeline raises serious questions about whether the process allowed for adequate competition and thorough evaluation of applicants based on merit.”
The Chairmen also highlighted several troubling examples in the letter, including billions awarded to newly formed organizations, instances of blatant conflicts of interest, and obvious signs of political favoritism:
- Power Forward Communities, awarded $2 billion through NCIF, was incorporated only after the GGRF grant application was announced and reported merely $100 in revenue in its first four months of operation.
- The Coalition for Green Capital, which received $5 billion through NCIF, has significant connections to previous EPA leadership. Their former policy director became a Senior Advisor at EPA, overseeing the GGRF program under the Biden Administration.
- Grid Alternatives, awarded over $311 million through Solar for All, was founded by a “White House Champion of Change for Solar Deployment” during Joe Biden’s vice presidency. The non-profit also centers its business model on “commitments to equity,” making it a particularly politically attractive awardee to the previous administration.
Further compounding transparency issues, the EPA bypassed the standard Treasury payment system and disbursed funds using a “Financial Agency Agreement” with Citibank. “Unlike ASAP, which allows grantees to request funds through a public Treasury portal with clear expenditure tracking, the Citibank arrangement places funds in private accounts, limiting public transparency and real-time oversight,” Babin and McCormick wrote. “This arrangement is unprecedented for the EPA and raises significant questions about whether standard federal oversight protocols were adequately adopted to mitigate the unique risks of this novel approach.”
Given the structural concerns, rushed timelines, and overall lack of oversight, Babin and McCormick are requesting separate briefings from both Administrator Zeldin and Acting IG Murley to better understand how the EPA structured and implemented the GGRF program.
“As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we must address GGRF's structural vulnerabilities through administrative and congressional reforms. Transparency, impartiality, and competitive rigor are not optional features of federal spending. They are prerequisites.”
Read the letter to Administrator Zeldin.
Read the letter to Acting IG Murley.
Read more coverage via the Daily Mail.