For all the efforts of Elon Musk and the DOGE, there's still a massive amount of taxpayer money being wasted on all sorts of things. One of the more egregious examples of government spending on flat-out horse squeeze is the amount of money spent on fostering climate-change panic.

Yes, that's right. We're paying for a group of "consultants" whose funding depends on their spreading climate panic. I'd love for anyone to show me in the Constitution where this is an enumerated power of any portion of the federal government. Hint: It isn't, but that's never stopped the left and big-government advocates (but I repeat myself) from spending more and more of our money.

I first wrote about this group in March:

Previously on RedState: Targets for the DOGE: The US Global Change Research Program Begs for Scrutiny

Now, a piece in the Daily Wire not only provides us with more details; it indicates that despite the Trump administration and the DOGE, they are still spending our money.

More than three decades ago, Congress launched an initiative called the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Today, it spends billions of dollars a year empowering liberal climate scientists to spread climate change doom. 

The government group says its role is to provide the “scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States” on climate change. It’s done so by producing five National Climate Assessment reports, which are considered the “crown jewel” of climate research.

And what's in this "crown jewel?" Well, the production of this report, as it turns out, is outsourced almost entirely to a group called ICF. And they are raking it in.

Despite taking funding from at least ten separate government agencies, producing the report seems to be the group’s sole function. The most recent iteration — published in 2023 and still prominently showcased on its government website — warns that “severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow.” The next report is due out in the next couple of years, according to E&E News. 

This group, mind you, has a defined budget nearing $2 billion, and, as I wrote in March, takes money from a variety of government sources:

There are reports that funding from our federal government to ICF runs as high as $7.4 billion. There certainly are a pile of grants going IDF's way:

EPA Awards ICF $75 Million Environmental Support BPA

EPA Selects ICF for $33 Million in New Environmental Assessment Contracts

EPA Selects ICF for $31 Million Health Risk Assessment Contract

U.S. Air Force Selects ICF for $25 Million Environmental Services Contract

EPA Selects ICF for $5.7 Billion Environmental and Climate Support BPA

Note that most of those are taken directly from ICF's website. They are bragging about this.

They are bragging about it, and they are taking steps to ensure the continuation of that unearned increment of taxpayer dollars:

And ICF is an incredibly partisan firm. Its website boasts about its “corporate citizenship,” “culture and belonging,” and “environmental justice.” Several blogs are posted on its site about how to infuse “equity” into “climate discussions,” support EV mandates, and advance “environmental justice.” Perhaps most telling, nearly all of the officials its website lists as being part of the ICF Climate Team are Democrat donors, giving to candidates including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The Daily Wire was unable to spot any contributions to Republicans.

They hit all the buzzwords: "Corporate citizenship," "culture and belonging," and, of course, "environmental justice." They have fallen into the trap of leftists everywhere, thinking you can take a weak cause and make it compelling by sticking the word "justice" on the end of it.

See Also: Trump’s EPA Chief Just Trashed a Biden-Era Shrine to ‘Environmental Justice’ – Done ‘Burning Tax Dollars’

And this is where things stand today: Our government is outsourcing the climate agenda to a shadowy group that is raking in billions in grants to perpetuate climate scoldery.

Not only is there no constitutional reason for this to be going on, but there's no scientific reason. Yes, the climate is changing. Yes, the trend has been slightly upward. It has been for some time, according to data from sources like ice cores, tree rings, and preserved lake varves. We should remember that, 30,000 years ago, much of North America was covered with mile-thick ice sheets, and we are now in an interglacial period, when the climate is a little warmer than during a, you know, ice age. 

The climate won't doom us. If it grows a little warmer, there will be some effects on humanity; some already warm areas will grow a little warmer, and so will some cooler areas; Siberia may become a breadbasket. We also have our own way of dealing with anything climate-related; technology, technology that requires inexpensive, reliable, abundant energy; the energy that the climate scolds want to shut down, and as we see in this report, we - you and I - are paying for the people who want this to happen. We are paying billions.

There does not, as of this writing, appear to be any indication that the DOGE or the Trump administration has their eyes on this waste. That needs to change; after all, a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we're talking real money.

Elon Musk and DOGE are bringing much-needed accountability to our out-of-control bureaucracy as they take a chainsaw to rampant waste, fraud, and abuse.

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