The Stacey Abrams-linked environmental coalition that received $2 billion during the Biden administration argued in court that its connection to Abrams is “alleged.” Just one year ago, the coalition’s lead group lauded Abrams for playing “a pivotal role” in the application that secured the funds.
The group, Washington, D.C.-based Power Forward Communities, filed a federal lawsuit against the EPA and its administrator, Lee Zeldin, earlier this month, asking the court to undo the agency’s termination of the $2 billion grant the Biden administration awarded it in April 2024.
In its complaint, Power Forward Communities stated that Zeldin had “claimed, without basis, that the program is tainted by conflicts of interest and disparaged [Power Forward Communities] based on alleged ties to a former democratic politician.”
Media outlets, quoting Abrams and the group, also downplayed her involvement. A spokesman for Abrams told the Washington Post, for example, that Abrams did not have any role at Power Forward Communities, and Politico reported that Abrams “has no relationship” with Power Forward Communities.
Power Forward Communities’s argument, the group’s lawsuit, and subsequent media reporting illuminate the ongoing fight led by Zeldin and other top officials to claw back funding disbursed in the final months of the Biden administration. Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump ordered all agencies to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse—Zeldin’s decision to terminate the $2 billion grant and seven others worth $18 billion awarded under the same EPA program is the most aggressive government-wide effort of its kind to date.
The group’s claim is also a tacit acknowledgment that Abrams’s involvement, which was seen at first as an asset for the group, is now a major thorn in its side.
But Power Forward Communities’s connection to Abrams is not alleged or remote.
The group was established in October 2023 as a coalition of various groups led by Rewiring America, a left-wing electrification group where Abrams served as senior counsel and as a senior adviser between early 2023 and late last year. Abrams served in those roles when Power Forward Communities applied for the EPA grant and when it received the grant.
Abrams scrubbed mention of Rewiring America from her Facebook bio in either late February or early March after a series of reports on her ties to Power Forward Communities, the Washington Free Beacon found.
After it was formed, meanwhile, Abrams proclaimed she was “thrilled” to be part of the Power Forward Communities coalition. “This is how we expand access to clean energy—by prioritizing housing, equity, and resilience,” she wrote in an X post in late 2023.
Ian Magruder, the director of partnerships at Rewiring America, specifically credited Abrams for her work on the Power Forward Communities funding application.
“For the past few months our team has been hard at work on this monumental application for $9.5 billion in funding to electrify more than half a million homes, especially in lower income and disadvantaged communities,” Magruder wrote in a LinkedIn post after Power Forward submitted its initial application for the EPA funding last year.
“Stacey Abrams played a pivotal role,” he continued.
Months later, after the group secured the $2 billion EPA grant, Magruder wrote that the money will “supercharge the communities work that Rewiring America has already been doing on a small scale in pilot projects under the leadership of Stacey Abrams.”
In fact, Power Forward Communities’s application requesting the funding was entirely based on an Abrams-led project in DeSoto, Georgia, where she delivered electric appliances to a few dozen households that had previously relied on natural gas-powered appliances. The application characterizes the Abrams-led project as “Power Forward Communities’s program.”
Abrams delivered remarks at a town hall in DeSoto touting the success of the project in January, the Albany Herald reported. “It is my hope that we recognize that irrespective of any political ideology, the cost to our communities to not have access is too great, and we should do our best to make certain they can take advantage of what’s possible,” Abrams told the town’s residents.
In April 2024, the EPA referenced Abrams’s DeSoto electrification project as the top example of why it awarded the $2 billion grant to Power Forward Communities. It is unclear if Power Forward Communities would have received the Biden-era funding if not for Abrams’s project in DeSoto.
Additionally, the Southern Economic Advancement Project and Fair Count, two left-wing nonprofits founded by Abrams in the wake of her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election defeat, are listed as two of Power Forward Communities’s “partners” who help implement its mission.
In a statement, Power Forward Communities spokeswoman Lauren Tsuboyama told the Free Beacon that Abrams is not currently “a part of” the group. She added that Abrams “has not received any funding from the grant, and was never intended to receive any funding from the grant.”
The Free Beacon first reported Abrams’s ties to Power Forward Communities in February. Zeldin cited that report when he requested an inspector general investigation into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund—the program the Biden administration disbursed the group’s grant under—on March 3 and when he ultimately terminated the group’s grant on March 11.
The report has also gained the attention of Trump, who referenced it during his State of the Union address this month, and of top adviser Elon Musk. “Is Stacey Abrams going to give back the Two Billion Dollars they funneled into her ‘environmental fund’ just prior to my assuming office,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday morning.
The House Oversight Committee opened an investigation last week into how Power Forward Communities received the $2 billion grant.
Rewiring America and Abrams did not respond to requests for comment.
Original News Source – Washington Free Beacon
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