By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2025-04-04 22:10:51 | Updated at 2025-04-05 02:43:10
5 hours ago
For too long, politicians and bureaucrats have been fleecing the public purse under the guise of “environmental justice” — a favorite leftist buzzword.
Instead of directly fixing actual environmental problems with our precious taxpayer dollars, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency lit them on fire to fund cronies and activist groups.
Under the Trump administration, that’s coming to an end — and as EPA administrator, I’ve gone on the road to help put the president’s promises into practice.
Many American communities are suffering with serious unresolved environmental issues, but under the “environmental justice” banner, the previous administration’s EPA showered billions on ideological allies, instead of directing those resources into solving environmental problems and making meaningful change.
Take, for example, a group called Climate Justice Alliance, which argues that environmental justice “travels through a Free Palestine.”
No surprise, the Biden administration tossed CJA an obscene award of $50 million to “confront the legacy of environmental harms” — not to take any action related to cleaning America’s air, land and water.
In fact, that was 50 million fewer dollars dedicated to protecting our environment.
I canceled this grant as soon as I was confirmed as the 17th administrator.
Self-dealing and conflicts of interest tainted billions of dollars in grants dispersed in a swift effort by the Biden EPA that purposefully reduced government oversight.
One Biden EPA staffer described the agency’s frantic multibillion-dollar spending spree at the end of the administration’s term as “tossing gold bars off the Titanic.”
Those “gold bars” were awarded to just eight pass-through nongovernmental organizations — including one tied to Georgia activist Stacey Abrams.
That group received $2 billion, more than 20 million times the organization’s 2023 reported income of $100.
Another beneficiary group had a man on the inside, former EPA employee Jahi Wise, who created and ran the “gold bar” fund — and dished out $5 billion to his former employer. This was just the tip of the iceberg.
It is fundamentally disturbing how far-reaching and widely accepted this waste and abuse has been in our federal government.
So-called leaders and public servants placed their own agendas ahead of the needs of Americans.
Under President Trump, it’s a dereliction of duty we will not tolerate. That’s why I have canceled over $22 billion in environmental-justice and DEI grants and contracts at EPA.
This administration strongly believes in clean air, land and water for every American.
“Environmental justice” is no substitute for actually resolving environmental challenges directly. We will no longer allow this abuse to continue.
Instead of handing off the responsibility of environmental stewardship to unqualified NGOs, or prescribing every last solution from behind a desk in Washington, DC, I am visiting communities across our country, working with our state and local partners on the ground and meeting with Americans to understand the issues they face.
Last month I traveled to St. Louis, Mo., where residents are still paying the price for decades of mismanaged radioactive waste left over from the Manhattan Project over 80 years ago.
Community members living near the West Lake Landfill Superfund site told me and Sen. Josh Hawley about their struggles with an array of radiation-linked diseases.
Hopeful newlyweds have been denied their dreams of having children, and many feel their only path to the American Dream and a healthy future is to leave the homes they love.
Neighborhoods like this have been ignored for far too long. The Biden EPA preferred to fill the pockets of leftist cronies rather than take care of long-overdue cleanups like this.
EPA’s core mission is to protect human health and the environment.
Nationwide, we need federal funding to advance that core mission: for new water infrastructure to ensure safe waterways and drinking water, air monitoring to ensure clean air, Superfund and brownfield remediation to protect community health and emergency responses to help rebuild in the face of unthinkable disaster.
Tens of millions for “climate justice through a free Palestine” doesn’t do a thing to help Americans overcome real-world environmental challenges.
When President Trump speaks about a golden age for America, it is for everyone.
Under this administration, EPA is serving all Americans with equal dignity and respect — and providing real environmental solutions, not false “justice.”
Lee Zeldin, who represented Suffolk County in the US House of Representatives, serves as administrator of the EPA.
