House subcommittee renews scrutiny of EPA climate grants after witnesses cite $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards

Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene opened a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on "delivering on government efficiency," saying the hearing would "bring transparency to the American people" on what she called abuses of taxpayer funding through nongovernmental organizations.

The committee’s central allegation focused on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), which Chairwoman Greene described as "a $20,000,000,000 slush fund" that she said steered "billions in US tax dollars to leftist climate NGOs." Greene cited awards to newly formed groups, singling out Power Forward Communities as an example that reported $100 in revenue in fiscal 2023 yet was slated to receive a $2,000,000,000 award under the GGRF.

Why it matters: Republicans framed the grants as an example of taxpayer money flowing to politically connected groups without adequate safeguards. Witnesses who support that view said the scale of the awards and the speed with which some groups were created to receive funds warrant congressional oversight. Nonprofit advocates…