Sec. Lee Zeldin. Credit: Gage Skidmore
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Sec. Lee Zeldin has this week unveiled numerous actions to roll back climate-related efforts by the Biden Administration.
On March 11, the EPA announced it is terminating $20 billion in grant funding under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator. The $7 billion Solar for All grant program is also funded by the GGRF, but is not mentioned in this release.
On March 12, the agency said it will terminate the Environmental Justice and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion arms of the EPA.
“Some believe that so-called ‘environmental justice’ is warranted to assist communities that have been left behind. This idea sounds good in theory and receives bipartisan support. But in reality, ‘environmental justice’ has been used primarily as an excuse to fund left-wing activists instead of actually spending those dollars to directly remediate environmental issues for those communities,” said Administrator Zeldin.
The EPA also announced plans to reconsider the mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) and Clean Power Plan 2.0, as well as emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles.
The EPA is touting March 12 as “the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in the history of the United States.”
