Joe Biden's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded a $2 billion grant to a nonprofit linked to the former Democratic candidate for Georgia governor, Stacey Abrams.
The group was given the money as part of the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which doled out $20 billion in grants to just eight organizations. Power Forward Communities was one of the recipient organizations. It served as an umbrella group for a dozen other nonprofit green energy groups, including Rewiring America, where Abrams served as senior counsel.
Power Forward Communities received the $2 billion grant in April 2024. It came into being in October 2023, and at the time the grant was given, had $100 in its bank account.
"I made a commitment to members of Congress and to the American people to be a good steward of tax dollars and I’ve wasted no time in keeping my word," Zeldin told the Washington Free Beacon. "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."
"As we continue to learn more about where some of this money went, it is even more apparent how far-reaching and widely accepted this waste and abuse has been," the EPA administrator continued. "It’s extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 was chosen to receive $2 billion. That’s 20 million times the organization’s reported revenue."
They weren't trying to hide it or anything, do ya think?
"For an organization that has no experience in this, that was literally just established, and had $100 in the bank to receive a $2 billion grant—it doesn't just fly in the face of common sense, it's out and out fraud," Daniel Turner, the executive director of energy advocacy group Power the Future, alleged in an interview with the Free Beacon.
The fact-checking website Snopes.com looked into the claim and found it "a mixture of "truth and undetermined information."
Snopes is not disputing the fact that the grant was awarded to Power Forward Communities. But they say that Abrams only has a tangential connection to the grant, and the information was not "discovered" by DOGE, because the information about the grant to Power Forward Communities was right there, in black and white, on usaspending.gov, "an official source that tracks U.S. government spending."
So the grant to Power Forward Communities and Rewiring America is old news, right? One question: How the hell would we even know to look for it if DOGE hadn't brought it to our attention? How would we have searched the database without any reference to the $20 billion grant?
More from the Free Beacon:
Power Forward Communities lists a large number of partners on its website that it works with to implement its mission. Among its partners are the Southern Economic Advancement Project and Fair Count, two left-wing nonprofits founded by Abrams in the wake of her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election defeat.
The Southern Economic Advancement Project, which seeks to boost racial equity and "economic power" in the South, is a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center, a group known for giving millions of dollars to left-wing environmental and social activist organizations, according to Influence Watch.
Power Forward Communities' list of partners also includes the American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO, two powerful Democratic-aligned labor unions.
Why would the EPA give $2 billion to a fly-by-night operation such as Power Forward Communities? It's no accident that the grant was awarded when it was. The federal government has strict rules about minority participation in federal grant programs. A certain percentage of the grant money must go to "underserved communities."
Abrams was hired at Rewiring America in March 2023 because of her celebrity status in the Democratic Party and the fact that she represents an "underserved community." A few months after she was hired, Rewiring America joined the Power Forward Communities nonprofit. In April 2024, Power Forward Communities received the $2 billion grant.
Stacey Abrams is going to appear before a couple of committees, and she better have some good answers.
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