Shortlist for $27 billion ‘Green Fund' handouts rife with former Obama, Biden staff and Dem ties

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Just the News

The shortlist of contenders seeking billions of dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) features several organizations with considerable connections to the Biden administration, as well as the Democratic Party and its allies.

The Coalition for Green Capital, Power Forward Communities and Climate United are three of the five consortiums that are reportedly the most serious contenders to receive billions in National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) grants from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a $27 billion EPA program established by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to E&E News. The groups are variously composed of eco-activist organizations and smaller “green banks” with political connections, and they all feature numerous individuals on their boards who work for influential organizations aligned with the Democratic Party or previously worked for Democratic administrations.

“The list of people DCNF has discovered to be involved in the organizations seeking billions of funds from just this portion of the GGRF is a veritable who’s-who of insiders connected to both the current administration and the previous administration in which the president served,” Michael Chamberlain, executive director of Protect the Public’s Trust, a government watchdog organization, told the DCNF. “This is one of the largest programs in the history of the EPA and is looking like one of the most egregious examples of the revolving door since the invention of doors.”

A “green bank” is an institution that provides financing options specifically for climate-related investments; they can be public, “quasi-public” or nonprofit companies, leveraging public and private money to back projects that are principally focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA. In addition to Coalition for Green Capital, Power Forward Communities and Climate United, the reported shortlist also includes Ecority and the Justice Climate Fund, according to E&E News.