Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator and a lawyer himself, plans on implementing an ambitious agenda that will be lawsuit-proof as he consults lawyers to undo the damage from President Joe Biden’s and various states’ climate regulations and policies. Zeldin is mandated to carry out an aggressive deregulatory agenda aimed at increasing domestic energy production and bolstering supply for the nation’s power needs, including those of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. According to Zeldin, “Being able to work with the Trump administration to unleash energy dominance, bring back American auto jobs, pursue permitting reform, and make America the AI capital of the world are just some of the very important ways the EPA can help implement an agenda that helps make America prosperous again.” Zeldin has also “been greatly concerned with the lack of accountability on tens of billions of dollars that have gone out the door of the EPA during the Biden administration.” At his January 16 confirmation hearing, he said, “We must ensure we are protecting the environment while also protecting our economy.”
Withdrawal of California’s EV Mandate
Zeldin recently announced that decisions on special privileges for California regarding emissions standards will be submitted for Congressional review, which will be quicker than reversing the rule administratively. Automakers, dealers, and fuel producers have raised concerns regarding California’s law, which they find very challenging to meet. The regulations stipulate that starting in 2026, at least 35 percent of vehicles sold in the state should be zero-emission. The Biden administration allowed California to implement its own stricter emissions standards for both passenger and heavy-duty vehicles, which amounted to a backdoor move towards forced electrification. The California Clean Cars program requires a complete ban on selling conventional gasoline-powered cars in California by 2035. And a dozen other states have adopted California’s electric vehicle (EV) rule by following their emissions standards.
In December, the Biden Administration approved a waiver letting California set its own vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions standards via the Clean Air Act (CAA). The CAA allows EPA to grant waivers to California to regulate smog. Still, carbon dioxide does not cause smog and so California does not have a more compelling reason to regulate vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions than any other state. Using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a majority of both chambers can overturn a regulation, which the President can sign into law. The CRA also bars judicial review of resolutions and forbids future administrations from reissuing a rule “in substantially the same form.” This would effectively block similar attempts to limit consumers’ choice in vehicles in the future via an “end-around” by some other device.
Electric vehicles made up only 13% of car sales in California in 2023 and even less in other states, latching onto California’s rule: Massachusetts (8%), New Jersey (7%), and New York (6%). According to automakers, they will have to reduce deliveries of gas-powered cars to California and the other states adopting the rule to meet the quotas. In other words, Americans will lose the option to choose what cars best meet their needs because governments have outlawed certain vehicles. Automakers who are seeing steep losses from their electric cars are countering them with sales of gasoline vehicles, which may need to increase in price if EV quotas are allowed, hurting American car buyers who must then subsidize the sale of electric vehicles through higher prices on their internal combustion vehicles.
Biden Administration Money Laundering
In Biden’s rush to spend everything he could before leaving the presidency, his administration parked $20 billion in taxpayer money at a financial institution to hide the dollars, which Zeldin has identified. The Biden administration chose to do so because they could not finish all the paperwork to distribute the money in time. Zeldin said, “This scheme…was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.” The funding was for Biden’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a large spending program designed to provide money to coalitions of green groups that theoretically use the funds to finance green technology and other similar projects. Among the awardees were Climate United, the Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities, three groups awarded almost $14 billion combined to establish financing operations for a wide variety of green technology and energy projects under the GGRF’s National Clean Investment Fund.
For example, in April 2024, Biden’s EPA awarded Power Forward Communities a $2 billion grant as part of the agency’s GGRF program. Power Forward Communities was founded in October 2023 as a coalition of groups led by Rewiring America, a left-wing group that advocates for electrification policies and a transition from fossil fuels. Stacey Abrams serves as Rewiring America’s senior counsel. According to its latest tax filings, the absurdity of the award is that Power Forward Communities reportedly managed just $100 in total revenue during its first three months in operation. This has every appearance of a politically connected “non-profit” that is stood up with the sole purpose of being the recipient of billions of taxpayers’ dollars.
While the eight recipients of the funding have only tapped into a small amount so far, the arrangement restricts the Trump administration’s ability to get the funds back. However, Zeldin is prioritizing getting the funds back. The issue was brought to light when a Biden EPA advisor was caught on video boasting that the administration was “tossing gold bars off the Titanic” in its haste to get taxpayer money into the hands of politically aligned outside groups. The Trump EPA wants to terminate the underlying agreement with Citibank in which the Biden EPA parked the $20 billion.
Social Cost of Carbon
Trump has given Zeldin until March 21 to issue guidance on the “social cost of carbon,” which is essentially a carbon tax used to assess future projects that raises the cost of projects using or producing fossil fuels. Trump’s order directed the EPA to consider eliminating the social cost of carbon — a metric devised by the Obama administration to push out fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy, preferably intermittent wind and solar power that require expensive backup power.
Conclusion
Lee Zeldin, a lawyer, is hard at work as EPA Administrator finding Biden’s “money laundering” funds and removing special waivers for California. California received a waiver from the Biden EPA in December that allows it to ban gasoline vehicles in favor of electric vehicles essentially. Zeldin has asked Congress to remove that waiver as part of the Congressional Review Act. Zeldin has also found $20 billion parked at Citibank by the Biden EPA to fund Biden’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund projects. Zeldin is trying to retrieve most of those funds that have not already been spent — $2 billion of which were awarded to an agency affiliated with Stacey Abrams, a past gubernatorial candidate in Georgia.
