EPA gives millions in handouts to China and Russia

In a transaction that's sure to anger Americans -- if the news media ever bothered to tell them -- the People's Republic of China gets millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to help with their so-called green projects. The outrageous part of the story is that the U.S. is indebted to China for almost a trillion dollars, according to a Washington, D.C. watchdog group that investigates government corruption. The Obama administrator, Lisa Jackson, who launched an enormously expensive program to make America’s minority communities green, has sent millions of taxpayer dollars to environmental causes in nations overseas, including China, Russia and India.

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Ranking members of a congressional energy committee call it “foreign handouts” amid record deficits, soaring unemployment and a looming debt ceiling in the U.S. The money -- $27 million since 2009 -- has been issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is headed by Ms. Jackson. The cash was distributed via 65 foreign grants that don’t even include Canada and Mexico, according to a report issued this week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and obtained by Judicial Watch, a public-interest group based in the nation's capital. Among the enraging foreign handouts are $1.2 million for the United Nations to promote clean fuels, $718,000 to help China comply with two initiatives and $700,000 for Thailand to recover methane gas at pig farms, according to Judicial Watch's investigation. An additional $150,000 went to help the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) combat fraud in carbon trading and $15,000 to Indonesia’s “Breathe Easy, Jakarta” publicity campaign. This sort of federal spending does not reflect the priorities of the American people, according to a letter that several lawmakers sent Jackson in the report’s aftermath. Since being appointed EPA Administrator, Jackson has gone on a manic spending spree to bring “environmental justice” to low-income and minority communities. Under the program, dozens of left-wing groups have received millions of taxpayer dollars to help poor and impoverished people increase recycling, reduce carbon emissions through “weatherization,” participate in “green jobs” training and avoid heat stroke. The EPA's budget has also surged 34% since Jackson took over to a whopping $10.3 billion. The figure includes $43 million for efforts to reduce greenhouse gases that the agency claims “endanger” public health. By the EPA's own statements, Administrator Jackson has pledged to focus on core issues of protecting air and water quality, preventing exposure to toxic contamination in U.S. communities, and reducing greenhouse gases. She has pledged that all of the agency's efforts will follow the best science, adhere to the rule of law, and be implemented with unparalleled transparency. By the same statements, she has made it a priority to focus on vulnerable groups – including children, the elderly, and low-income communities – that are particularly susceptible to environmental and health threats. She has promised that all stakeholders will be heard in the decision-making process. Nearly half of the EPA’s budget goes to grants that fund state environmental programs, nonprofits and educational institutions that help promote the agency’s agenda.