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Zeldin Announces the Cancellation of the Biden EPA 'Gold Bars' Grants, Mar. 12, 2025

March 12, 2025 · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · 0:02:11

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What happened

In a video message released by the EPA on March 12, 2025, Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that he had officially terminated the grant agreements in what he calls the Biden EPA “gold bars” scheme. As Zeldin stated the case: $20 billion of taxpayer dollars were parked at an outside financial institution in a deliberate effort, as he put it, to limit government oversight, and doled out through just eight pass-through entities that were, as he described them, politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand new NGOs; the money has since been frozen, and the Department of Justice and FBI have been investigating, as he stated it.

He gave two examples, as he stated them: a group linked to Stacey Abrams received $2 billion after reporting a mere $100 in total revenue the year before; and the founding director of the EPA’s program directed $5 billion to his former employer after shaping the legislation that created the program from his White House post. The termination, he stated, is based on substantial concerns regarding program integrity, objections to the award process, programmatic fraud, waste and abuse, and misalignment with the agency’s priorities.

Why it matters

The “gold bars” termination is the Zeldin EPA’s highest-profile stewardship action and the fraud-hub centerpiece of its first months — recorded here on the Administrator’s own statement of the figures and the grounds, as he states them, for the scoreboard and fraud records to test as the litigation and investigations he cites proceed.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the termination of the “gold bars” grant agreements Zeldin announced on March 12, 2025, with the $20 billion figure and the two award examples as he stated them. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces the Cancellation of 8 Biden EPA ‘Gold Bars’ Grants” (Mar. 12, 2025, embedded above; remarks as delivered by Administrator Zeldin; figures and characterizations are the Administrator’s, as stated).