Tag: green new deal

OMB Director Russ Vought Strikes Again: Eliminates $8 Billion in Green New Scam Funding to Liberal States

Russ Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (ONB), stripped $8 billion in funding for green new scam projects in numerous far left states.

The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, and WA.

This comes after Vought announced this morning on X that he had frozen about $18 BILLION in infrastructure projects for New York City, saying he was trying to ensure such funding would not go to fund DEI projects.

“Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles,” Vought wrote.

“More info to come soon from @USDOT.”

As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Schumer Shutdown took effect at 12:01 am after two measures to avert the government shutdown failed in the Senate.

The measures needed 60 votes to pass. The GOP-backed measure failed to pass in a 55-45 vote – Rand Paul voted with the Democrats.

The Democrat Party and Paul decided to put the welfare of illegal aliens, surgeries for transgender minors, and more garbage ahead of keeping the government running.

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Funding for green groups soared after 2009 endangerment finding, nonprofit finds

Changes to the Environmental Protection Agency’s strict regulations on the automobile industry could cost nonprofit groups that reported a 267% funding bump in the years since the federal agency’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, a rule that provided a legal basis for the agency to regulate vehicle emissions and the energy industry through the Clean Air Act.

Democracy Restored, a nonprofit dedicated to showing how government works, reviewed the tax returns of more than 75 of the top nonprofit organizations focused on climate change. Funding for those 75 groups has increased significantly since 2009 with their bottom lines moving from about $3 billion to $8 billion, since the most recently available tax returns were made public, said Houston Keene, director of Democracy Restored.

Government grants to those same 75 organizations increased from $350 million in 2009 to nearly $1.4 billion in 2023, the most recent year for which records were available.

“The endangerment finding seems to have given a very big boost to these groups,” Keene told The Center Square.

In July, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to rescind an Obama-era environmental finding, or endangerment finding, impacting the automobile industry. Trump’s EPA boss, Lee Zeldin, says the endangerment finding cost the industry $1 trillion in regulations. Trump’s EPA blames the 2009 Endangerment Finding for the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate, which aimed to reduce the production of gas-powered vehicles.

Zeldin’s EPA says that if the proposal is finalized, it will lead to the repeal of all “resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines,” resulting in consumer choice and affordability. The agency says that it will save over $54 billion a year.

In support of the proposal, the EPA cited new scientific data it says challenges “the assumptions behind the 2009 Endangerment Finding.” The EPA chief contends the Obama and Biden administrations used “warped science” to cram through new emission standards.

Other groups disagree. Former vice president and environmental activist Al Gore says the move ignores reality.

Keene said the groups are pushing policies out of touch with Americans.

“They’re pushing policies that the majority of Americans wouldn’t want to live under or even agree with at this point,” he told The Center Square.

Keene said that such spending needs to be carefully examined going forward.

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Europe’s not the only one failing because of the Green New Deal; so is New Jersey

Thomas Kolbe has written about the collapse of the German economy, something pretty shocking to those of us who remember when the German economy seemed unstoppable. What’s slammed the brakes on that juggernaut is central planning that revolves around the whole Green New Deal theory. Other European countries are doing the same. Spain and Portugal had a catastrophic power outage thanks to their green energy policies, and, in England, people are getting cold and dirty in a very 19th-century way because of the UK’s drive for “Net Zero.”

Had Kamala been elected last year, America would almost certainly have gone down that path, too. As it is, California’s Gavin Newsom is now begging the refineries that he closed to reopen.

And it’s not just Crazifornia. According to an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, the policies of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (a Democrat, of course) have been disastrous for residents of that state:

Despite flat electricity demand for the past two decades—and some of the lowest energy usage per capita among the 50 states—New Jersey residents pay some of the highest retail power prices in the country. As of April 2025, the Garden State ranked No. 12 in the nation, with prices more than 15% above the U.S. average. This gap has widened further in the wake of the recent decision by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to approve an additional 17% to 20% rate increase for most utility customers starting in June.

How in the world did that happen? Well, according to Paul H. Tice, who wrote the WSJ piece, the troubles began in 2017, when Murphy took office. Under his aegis, “New Jersey has shut down all its coal plants, reduced its natural gas-generation capacity, and increased its reliance on intermittent wind and solar power.” Trenton, the state capital (population 91,193), plans to have 100% clean electricity (that is, based on renewables) by 2035. I foresee that Trenton residents will soon be as cold and dirty as the British are.

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Trump’s ‘big’ and ‘beautiful’ tax bill retains hundreds of billions (maybe trillions?) in ‘Green New Deal’ spending

Congressional Republicans are the absolute worst, for many reasons, but this time, it has to do with the “big” and “beautiful” tax bill that’s working its way toward Donald Trump’s desk—Republicans, despite holding both houses, as well as the Oval Office, are set to retain hundreds of billions of dollars in Green New Deal provisions, if they get their way. Here’s the context, from Adam N. Michel and Joshua Loucks at the Cato Institute:

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was pitched as a climate solution. In practice, it turned the tax code into a multi-trillion-dollar energy entitlement program, creating subsidies without caps, sunsets, or accountability. The recently passed House Ways and Means Committee tax bill repeals eight of the IRA credits, phases out five, and keeps or expands several others.

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Buckling under to the Green New Deal

In an earlier article for American Thinker, I wrote about the Conservative Climate Caucus in Congress, providing proof that bad ideas can flourish on both sides of the political divide. I concluded the article by warning readers that it was important to eliminate all vestiges of the Green New Deal and stop subsidy-seeking companies from manipulating the political environment to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.

To my dismay, the forces arrayed against this happening have prevailed. With Trump’s electoral victory and the Republican’s success in winning the Senate and House, I would have thought that there was a chance of rolling back the Green New Deal. I was wrong. Alex Epstein writes about it in his substack of May 19th, describing how Republicans got roped into a deal that keeps the IRA (a.k.a. Green New Deal) intact. The details that he describes are rather involved but the upshot is that the Republicans folded like a house of cards when they came under pressure from the wind and solar lobbies.

I have written at length about the value proposition of renewables; what I mean by value proposition is the negative value that renewables add to the energy sector. They increase cost and decrease reliability, but continue to be pushed by green crusaders and subsidy-seeking companies (read Baptists and Bootleggers) who have powerful influence in government. Speaking out against them are myself and others like Alex Epstein, but it does not seem like a fair fight. The amount of money invested by parties in the status quo is so immense that they will not go quietly into the night. They are squeezing congressmen by telling them that their districts will lose federal funds, their constituents will lose jobs, and the planet will perish. It takes a strong principled man to stand up to that type of pressure.

I recall two times in recent memory when politicians buckled under such pressure. One was during the mortgage crisis of 2008 when Wall Street bankers and their friends at the Fed and Treasury painted a picture of an economic meltdown to Bush Jr. if he did not go along with the bailout. The other was in the early days of COVID when Fauci and company painted a picture of widespread death if Trump did not go along with the lockdowns. Saving the Green New Deal constitutes a third instance that is just as bad as the others.

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EPA officials prepare to ditch fiction justifying Green New Deal

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to bury the unscientific idea that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. Dropping this “endangerment finding” represents the beginning of the end for the great global warming hoax.

Under President Barack Obama, the agency in 2009 declared the molecule that enables plants to grow and humans to breathe an enemy of the planetary thermostat. This decree vested the EPA with authority to regulate CO2 as if it were a nasty substance equivalent to black soot, lead, radon or asbestos.

But the public never embraced any of the austerity measures peddled as a remedy for this supposed ailment. Consumers didn’t want to pay extra taxes on cars, nor did they endorse the abolition of affordable sources of electricity. Even Senate Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the Green New Deal.

The package of socialist measures designed to “achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions” flopped 57-0 in 2019 before being crushed 99-0 in the Senate two years later. Undeterred, President Joe Biden implemented the deal’s main provisions administratively. His Inflation Reduction Act allocated billions to the EPA for distribution to any organization claiming to have a “climate solution.”

Nonprofits signed up for cash rewards for spreading the global-warming gospel. A vast array of public subsidies was lavished on economically unsustainable energy projects. These endeavors had a remarkable tendency to be staffed by the friends and political allies of progressives.

Newly sworn-in EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin pulled the plug on the scheme. “We will review every penny that has gone out the door. The days of irresponsibly shoveling boat loads of cash to far-left, activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” he said earlier this month.

In one instance, an individual who left a company to take a position at the EPA “tossed his former employer $5 billion of your tax dollars,” Mr. Zeldin wrote on X, referring to a large EPA grant the firm received.

Mr. Zeldin’s review discovered a $20 billion EPA slush fund the prior administration had moved into private financial institutions as officials sought to empty the agency piggy bank before President Trump’s team arrived. This dubious use of public resources has been referred to the agency’s inspector general.

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There Is Nothing Green About the ‘Green’ Agenda

Now that the Democrats have lost their lock grip on power, what’s a green activist to do? It’s almost comical how the climate left is trying to cloak their agenda in terms they think will melt in Republicans’ ears. For example, Jennifer Granholm, energy secretary in the Biden administration recently penned an opinion piece arguing that President Trump is playing right into Communist China’s evil hands by killing off America’s green economy.

Translation: The left is furious that Trump has halted the flow of billions of taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize electric vehicles that nobody wants and only the well-off can afford. The new president is killing the “green economy,” as Granholm puts it.

There is nothing green about the climate left’s solutions.

If the climate movement was truly sincere and intellectually honest in its desire to stop actions contributing to global environmental degradation, it would stand fast against solar panels and electric vehicles. There is nothing green about the climate left’s solutions.

There is nothing environmentally friendly about using enslaved children in the Congo to mine cobalt for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries used in EVs. They labor with crude tools and bare hands, breathing in cobalt’s toxic dust in cramped pits. Runoff infused with cobalt and other chemicals contaminate the water supply. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, green activists sit blithely unaware or unconcerned in the comfort of their own homes. They are saving the world, they smugly assure themselves, while children suffer in an environmental hellhole.

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Biden and Harris Raided Medicare to Fund Green New Deal: Premiums Are Now Set to Spike

When Democrats rammed through the Inflation Reduction Act during the days they controlled all of Washington, D.C., it ignited a chain reaction that led to higher Medicare costs for America’s senior citizens.

“Nearly two years after its passage, the IRA has diverted nearly $260 billion from the projected Medicare ‘savings’  to pay for special interest handouts like large tax credits for costly electric vehicles, enormous subsidies paid to big health insurer-PBM corporations, and funding health care programs for illegal immigrants,” Ron Fitzwater, Chief Executive Officer of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, wrote in an Op-Ed in the Missouri Times.

“The Biden-Harris administration is not protecting Medicare; they’re stealing from it,” he wrote.

According to Politico, the chain reaction began when the act shifted the burden of paying for prescription medicine from seniors to insurance companies.

Then came what could have been predicted: Insurance companies hiked their premiums for 2025.

Fitwater, in his Op-Ed, said increases were coming in at 179 percent.

But since that was going to hit right before the election, there was one more step – a federal bailout that has the taxpayer-funded federal treasury taking the hit for what the IRA caused.

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Radical Enviros Finally Endorse Harris Because They ‘Can Pressure And Move’ Her On Energy Policy

A radical climate protest group called Climate Defiance endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, citing their belief that she will be able to be pressured on energy policy.

The activist group initially held back its endorsement of Harris, appearing to condition its support on her acceptance of a list of demands that included a complete moratorium on new oil and gas projects and a ban on new fossil fuel leasing on federal lands and waters. After meeting with a top Harris adviser earlier in September, Climate Defiance — which once targeted Harris with one of its signature disruptive protests in 2023 — is now backing her candidacy because she “is the leader we can pressure and move” on key energy policies, the group announced in a Wednesday social media post.

“Climate Defiance is endorsing Kamala Harris for President of the United States,” the group wrote in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Harris is not the visionary we need, but she is the leader we can pressure and move. A Trump Presidency would be a full-fledged disaster for our climate & our water & our lands. Trump would gut the [Environmental Protection Agency], tearing down regulations on cars and power plants and farms. He would sell out our sacred public spaces to his billionaire cronies. This is a nonstarter.” 

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Analysis: Green New Deal will make your electric bill SURGE by at least 28 times its current cost

An analysis has found that the Democratic Party’s Green New Deal plan could see electric bills multiply by as much as 28 times.

This is according to a report by the think tank the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, which found that the Green New Deal’s proposed plan to shift the United States’ energy system to be run solely on renewable energy could make electricity bills soar to 28 times its current cost.

Dr. David E. Wojick, a journalist a policy analyst, breaks down some of the major costs that come with implementing the Green New Deal.

The first is the need for massive amounts of battery storage. Replacing fossil fuels with energy harnessed from renewable sources like solar and wind power would require that there be around 250 million megawatt-hours worth of storage capacity in the United States.

If battery storage costs $300,000 per megawatt-hour, the total price tag for these batteries comes to a staggering $75 trillion. Spread over 20 years, that amounts to $3.75 trillion each year.

With U.S. households using about 1.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity yearly, this cost translates to roughly $26,250 per household annually – 14 times higher than today’s average bill of $1,800.

Electrifying transportation and heating would double the electricity demand – potentially pushing costs up even further to $52,500 per year per household, or 28 times the average.

While these figures paint a grim picture, it is important to remember that they are based on current estimates and assumptions. Battery costs could decrease or new technology might improve efficiency. However, the sheer scale of this shift presents a significant challenge and it is unlikely economic changes or technological shifts would suddenly make the Green New Deal a profitable endeavor for American households.

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