During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) questioned EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin about the agency's freezing of congressionally appropriated funds.
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00:00Senator Markey, you are recognized.
00:07Thank you, Madam Chair.
00:13Just want to get to this crocodile care concern, which the Trump administration has, the oil
00:20and gas boys have, about the greenhouse gas program.
00:28The Green Bank and the Solar Bank, you know, they're both programs that are very effective,
00:34but being stopped by this administration.
00:38I just wanted to point out the $170 billion of fossil fuel giveaways that are already in
00:45the pipeline for the Trump administration for the fossil fuel industry.
00:49Meanwhile, we had the Green Bank and the Solar Bank, which is a grand total of $27 billion,
00:56which McKenzie says is going to unleash $250 billion worth of private sector investment.
01:05Meanwhile, the richest industries in the world are getting $170 billion worth of giveaways,
01:11royalty relief, tax breaks, over the very same period of time.
01:16I don't hear anybody saying that we should be taking those breaks away from the oil and
01:22gas and coal industry.
01:25They just want to kill the competition, wind, solar, all electric vehicles, anything that
01:31would be reducing the need for oil and gas in our country.
01:35So that's, unfortunately, the state of affairs that we have with this administration at this
01:43point in time.
01:44They're terminating the very programs meant to face the challenges that are being presented
01:51on a nightly basis on every television station in America of these tornadoes, these violent
01:56storms that are intensifying.
01:59So let me just move to the bank and what the administration has been saying and doing.
02:11In a recent study, we can see that it's going to save a lot of money, a lot of funding for
02:22families across our country if we move in that direction.
02:27You have decided, Mr. Administrator, to carry out a baseless witch hunt against the Green
02:37Bank and against the Solar Bank.
02:40These funds have been frozen now for months.
02:43And we already know what you're going to say, that there was, quote, rampant waste fraud
02:47and abuse and conflicts of interest.
02:50When the district court judge asked if EPA could offer any evidence of a violation of
02:56a federal criminal law, your lawyer responded, I cannot do so, your honor.
03:03Are you willing to admit here today, Mr. Administrator, that you don't have any evidence of waste,
03:08fraud, and abuse?
03:09I'm happy to go through the list.
03:12Would you like me to, Senator?
03:13Why was that evidence not presented in court?
03:15If you have it.
03:16Oh, it was.
03:17I'll do it right now.
03:18You ready, Senator?
03:19You want me to?
03:20I could go through the entire list right now.
03:22Would you like me to?
03:23Why was it not presented?
03:24Do you want it?
03:25I'm going to do it.
03:26I'll start.
03:27Let's see how far down the list you'll let me go before he cut me off.
03:29It was asked yesterday.
03:30It was a Biden EPA official cut me off before the first example of evidence.
03:34It was asked in court yesterday.
03:36Do you want to know the evidence, Senator, or not?
03:39When your lawyer was asked to present it before a federal district court judge yesterday, there
03:42was no evidence.
03:43The Biden EPA official says now it's not allowed to get the money out as fast as possible before
03:46the Trump administration comes in.
03:48It's like we're on the Titanic and we're throwing gold bars off of the edge.
03:52I'll give you another example.
03:53I'm going to give you an example.
03:54Appalachian Community Capital.
03:55I'm going to reclaim my time, Madam Chair.
03:59I can't go through the evidence.
04:01I'm going to reclaim my time.
04:03Madam Chair, please bring this hearing to order.
04:05It's not a court.
04:06Okay.
04:07Yeah.
04:08You've said that-
04:09You want to declare there's no evidence, but you don't want me to go through the list
04:13of evidence.
04:14You've said that there are grants that are unqualified recipients.
04:16You've said-
04:17Yes, let me talk about it.
04:18The EPA hunt for shady deals and gold bars.
04:20And yesterday, yesterday in federal district court, your lawyer defending a lawsuit by groups
04:26that want access to their own funds, which this Congress appropriated, said repeatedly
04:31that the EPA was not claiming there has been any violation by any of these groups.
04:38That's your lawyer yesterday in court.
04:41And I quote-
04:42I'm standing right in front of you.
04:43You have the EPA administrator right here offering to go through a list of evidence,
04:46and you're saying you don't want me to go through it.
04:48Your lawyer was in court yesterday-
04:50Biden panel reviewing an application-
04:51And your lawyer said-
04:52Your lawyer said-
04:53A non-profit coalition-
04:55Here's what your lawyer said to a judge yesterday-
04:57Your lawyer yesterday, Mr. Roth said, I am not accusing anyone of fraud.
05:04You can filibuster this, Mr. Zeldin, but you can't run from the truth.
05:11Your lawyer yesterday said in court, I am not accusing anyone of fraud.
05:15The gentleman's time has expired.
05:16But you keep using-
05:17The gentleman's time has expired.
05:18You keep using this inflammatory language-
05:19The gentleman's time has expired.
05:20Without any evidence-
05:21The gentleman's time has expired.
05:22Being presented in court in order to defend these public accusations you make-
05:26Wasted your entire five minutes without allowing me to answer-
05:28The gentleman's time has expired.
05:32The chair recognizes, Mr. Zeldin.