Trump cuts off the money spigot to a Chinese-tied climate group that’s been plotting to take away your gas stoves while pocketing millions in taxpayer dollars.
At a Glance
- The Department of Energy canceled $6.8 million in climate grants to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank with Chinese government ties
- RMI has been actively pushing for gas stove regulations while receiving millions in Biden administration funding
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin terminated a larger $20 billion “green bank” program, calling it a “gold bar scheme” with potential fraud
- Trump has already begun withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement while declaring a national energy emergency
- Democrats are fighting back with lawsuits claiming the funding freezes are illegal and unauthorized
America First Energy Policy Takes Shape
Ladies and gentlemen, the adults are back in the room. President Trump’s administration is wasting no time cutting off the flow of your hard-earned tax dollars to leftist climate groups that have been gorging themselves at the government trough while pushing radical environmental policies.
The Department of Energy has canceled two climate grants totaling $6.8 million that were awarded to the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a far-left climate organization with troubling ties to the Chinese government. This organization has been working overtime to regulate your kitchen appliances while cashing government checks.
One grant worth $5.3 million was intended for retrofitting a building in Massachusetts with “green energy technology” – because apparently, we needed to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a fancy eco-friendly showcase. The second grant, valued at $1.5 million, was for research on electric vehicle carshare programs focusing on “equity” – because nothing solves America’s pressing problems like studying how to share EVs fairly. Meanwhile, the Rocky Mountain Institute has been at the forefront of the push to ban your gas stoves, claiming they’re harmful to public health.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 17, 2025
Chinese Connections and Gas Stove Crusades
What’s particularly disturbing about this entire affair is the Rocky Mountain Institute’s cozy relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. RMI maintains an office in Beijing and is a member of the China Clean Transportation Partnership. These connections have been so concerning that they’ve triggered congressional investigations.
Yet somehow, the Biden administration thought it was perfectly reasonable to funnel nearly $7 million to this organization while it simultaneously worked to eliminate the gas stoves that Americans prefer by a wide margin.
“The Department of Energy is focused on delivering on President Trump’s pledge to lower energy costs, unleash American energy dominance, and promote the more efficient use of taxpayer dollars,” explained DOE spokesman Ben Dietderich.
It’s a breath of fresh air to hear a government official talk about lowering costs and using taxpayer dollars efficiently, rather than rushing to pour money into every green scheme that comes along. But the Rocky Mountain Institute grants are just the tip of a $20 billion iceberg that the Trump administration is targeting. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has put the brakes on the so-called “Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund,” a Biden-era slush fund created through the absurdly named Inflation Reduction Act.
The $20 Billion “Gold Bar Scheme”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin didn’t mince words when describing what he found after taking over from the previous administration. The green bank program operated with virtually no oversight, with $20 billion “parked at an outside financial institution” and flowing through “politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand-new nonprofit organizations.” If this sounds like a recipe for corruption and waste, that’s because it absolutely is.
Zeldin aptly described it as a “gold bar scheme” riddled with conflicts of interest: “Twenty billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution, in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight — doling out your money through just eight pass-through, politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand-new nonprofit organizations,”
Democrats, predictably, are howling with rage that their green cash cow is being led to slaughter. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has accused Zeldin of acting “without a shred of evidence” while climate nonprofits have rushed to the courts to file lawsuits against the funding freeze.
The Maryland-based Climate United Fund is particularly upset that they’re being denied access to $7 billion that they apparently believe is their divine right to spend. When taxpayer money becomes an entitlement for activist organizations, you know we’ve gone too far down the rabbit hole.
Making America Energy Independent Again
These targeted funding cuts are just part of a broader energy policy shift taking shape under President Trump. He’s already begun the process to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time, a pact that effectively allows China to “pollute with impunity” while hamstringing American industry.
Trump has also declared a national energy emergency and revoked Biden’s climate change executive orders that have contributed to higher energy prices across the board.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off. The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”
The Biden administration had claimed to be “in an all-out sprint to beat the climate crisis,” as former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm put it. But their sprint looked more like a mad dash to spend as much money as possible on dubious organizations with questionable ties and even more questionable results.
Americans can now look forward to a return to common sense energy policies that prioritize affordability, reliability, and true energy independence – without sending millions to groups working with the Chinese government to regulate your kitchen.
