Administrator Zeldin is manipulating facts as a pretext to terminate a congressionally appropriated and legally obligated program that would lower household energy costs, spur economic development, and reduce pollution

Washington, (March 14, 2025) - Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), led all Democratic members of the Committee in demanding that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin cease his illegal witch hunt to claw back nearly $20 billion in congressionally appropriated and legally obligated funds that underpin the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). The GGRF would spur economic development, lower energy costs, and reduce pollution. Not only has Administrator Zeldin gaslit the American public, fabricating claims of fraud at the GGRF without producing any evidence, but he also lacks the legal authority to terminate the agreements with GGRF grantees. The Senators are demanding that Zeldin cease his unconstitutional persecution of GGRF grantees, that he and his fellow appointees at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cease their politically motivated investigation into the GGRF program, and that he withdraw his request that Citibank pause funding to grantees.

“In just six short weeks, your performance in the role of Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has prioritized lawlessness and disdain for the Constitution over lowering household energy costs, incentivizing economic growth, and reducing pollution. Your latest, baseless assault on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) grants being managed by Citibank, N.A. (Citibank) escalates your illegal attempts to unilaterally claw back Congressionally appropriated and contractually obligated funding,” wrote Senators Markey, Whitehouse, Sanders, Merkley, Kelly, Padilla, Schiff, Blunt Rochester, and Alsobrooks. 

On February 12, 2025, Administrator Zeldin announced via social media that he had “found” $20 billion in EPA funds at Citibank and falsely suggested that the use of an FAA—a commonly used financial tool that presidential administrations have used for centuries—was improper. Although the FAA between Citibank and Treasury had been announced publicly in April 2024 by the Biden administration, Administrator Zeldin promoted his so-called “discovery” as justification to call for the termination of the agreement and demanded that the GGRF funds be returned to EPA. A career prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia was forced to resign after she cited lack of evidence and refused to open an investigation into the program, and the Trump administration has now weaponized the FBI against it. Without producing a shred of evidence of misconduct, the EPA instructed Citibank to indefinitely pause disbursement of the grants, and on March 11, 2025, while the legally unfounded investigations remained ongoing, Administrator Zeldin announced he “‘ha[d] officially terminated [the Citibank GGRF] grant agreements—entirely.’”

“It is one thing to commit to rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal government programs. Everyone agrees that there should be robust oversight of major grant programs like GGRF. That is exactly why the Biden Administration engaged in a rigorous, transparent process to select Citibank as its financial agent and ensure that the various agreements that govern the arrangement provide for adequate oversight. But it is another thing altogether to manufacture problems out of whole cloth where none exist simply because the GGRF would reduce Americans’ dependence on the expensive, dirty fossil fuels that President Trump’s donors produce. The fact that you or President Trump does not like these grants is not sufficient reason to terminate them,” wrote the Senators.

EPA’s ideological crusade against GGRF’s clean energy investments is not only unconstitutional and illegal, but, if successful, it would actively undermine Americans’ safety and well-being. In Hampton, Virginia, GGRF funding was slated for investment to reduce flooding risk near many Navy and Air Force installations. Lee County, Florida, planned to use GGRF funds to build community centers to house residents during extreme weather events. While less than a year old, GGRF-funded projects were already planned in communities across the country, including in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Oregon, Texas, and Minnesota. 

“We demand that you be a better steward of the Congressionally appropriated and obligated funding with which you have been entrusted. We demand that you be a better steward of the environment. The American people deserve public servants, not paid shills,” concluded the Senators.

The text of the letter is available HERE.

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