Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan claimed Wednesday that his agency has not funded a hardline activist group despite announcing them as an awardee of $50 million in December 2023.
Regan repeatedly denied that his agency has sent any cash to the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) during a Wednesday appearance in front of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Capitol Hill during a testy exchange with Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.
Despite Regan’s statements, CJA is still listed on the agency’s website as a recipient of $50 million in taxpayer cash via the EPA’s “Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program,” which is designed for recipients including CJA to act as pass-through grantmakers to fund other groups pursuing “environmental justice.”
“As part of the allocation, $600 million is devoted to the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, which has shown serious signs of waste, fraud and abuse,” Mace said as she began her questioning.
“More alarmingly, some of this money has been designated for groups opposed to the interests of the United States and her allies… Administrator Regan, environmental justice grantees have partners and affiliates who also receive funds from the EPA. Are any of these groups and affiliates who receive this money anti-American, yes or no?” Mace asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Regan replied. (RELATED: Biden Admin Hands $400K To Eco-Activists Who Fought To Block Key Gas Pipeline)
WATCH:
🔥 🔥 🔥
Rep. Mace GOES OFF on EPA Administrator Michael Regan who won’t admit to allotting $50M to a climate justice group that is anti-police, pro-Hamas.
“Does this sign protect the environment?” pic.twitter.com/8f5YIxMtPK
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 10, 2024
Mace followed up with a nearly-identical question, asking whether any recipient organizations are anti-semitic or expressly anti-Israel.
“None of these groups have received money,” Regan said.
“Are any of these groups opposed to police and law enforcement?” Mace asked.
“I think we have to establish the point that none of these groups have received money,” Regan said, before responding to an interrupting Mace by saying that “none of the groups have received money.”
“Are you familiar with the group called Climate Justice Alliance?” Mace asked, to which Regan replied in the affirmative. Mace subsequently pulled up printouts of various posters available on the CJA website meant for use by activists demonstrating against Israel, including placards that call for defunding the police, the end of prisons, make reference to the “Stop Cop City” movement and lionize convicted black nationalist cop killer Assata Shakur.
“Are you promising that this group will not receive a single dime, yes or no?” Mace asked after running through the printouts and trading barbs with Regan.
“None of these groups that you have paraded up here have received one dime from EPA,” Regan said, before doubling down on the claim several more times.
“I think it’s a ‘gotcha game’ to put posters and statements that many of us may not agree with, see for the first time and then accuse the agency of supporting something that is not true,” Regan explained in the next round of questioning with Democratic Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown on the same subject. “None of the groups that were presented there have received one dime from EPA. People have applied for resources. We’re going through a very thorough evaluation, and we have a process to determine who should and should not receive federal funding. Those are the facts.”
It would appear as though CJA — which describes itself as “building a Just Transition away from extractive systems of production, consumption and political oppression” and believes that “the path to climate justice travels through a free Palestine” — passed the EPA’s screening given that it is currently listed as a pass-through selectee of the agency’s $600 million “environmental justice” program.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reported on CJA’s general position on the Israel-Arab conflict on the day that the organization was announced as a selectee in December 2023.
CJA is not the only left-wing activist group among the various regional coalitions EPA selected as grantees for the massive program.
Two organizations partnering with Fordham University in its grantmaking coalition — the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice and the New York Immigration Coalition — push civic participation or voter registration initiatives and cater to demographics that tend to vote for Democrats, as the DCNF reported in April. The New York Immigration Coalition also advocates for local authorities not to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice has called for the closure of local ICE detention facilities and a ban on immigration detention.
The NDN Collective, meanwhile, is one of CJA’s regional partner organizations named on the EPA’s website page that provides details about the grant program. The South Dakota-based Native American activist group advocates for the release of convicted cop killer Leonard Peltier, and also envisions a “future where Black reparations and Indigenous LANDBACK co-exist” and “where BIPOC collective liberation is at the core.”
The Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, a regional grantee also set to receive $50 million from the EPA, essentially functions as an incubator for left-of-center activist groups, according to its website. Beyond environmental activism, the group has also helped activist organizations that aspire to replace “systems of incarceration and policing” and boost “voter turnout by supporting frontline voting rights organizations that mobilize communities of color, first-time voters, new Americans, youth, rural communities, returning citizens and other historically disadvantaged communities.”
The EPA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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