A Biden official who first uttered the now-infamous “gold bars” phrase sparked ethics concerns after seeking a transfer to a major grant office while expressing interest in a potential role with one of the groups receiving billions in taxpayer funds, according to documents obtained by watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT).
The documents include communications between Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials regarding Special Advisor for Implementation Brent Efron after he considered “permanent reassignment” to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) office, which doled out $20 billion to green groups stacked with Democratic donors and insiders under former President Joe Biden. A December 2024 video, covertly recorded by conservative activist group Project Veritas, captures Efron comparing the EPA’s rush to get taxpayer funds out the door as “throwing gold bars off the Titanic” and was internally flagged for potential ethics concerns as Efron mentioned he might want to work for one of the green groups receiving Biden’s billions.
“After watching so many others travel through the revolving door between the EPA and entities in the climate industry cashing in from the massive Greendoggle giveaways, it’s not surprising that the guy who so matter-of-factly discussed throwing ‘gold bars off the Titanic’ might have been looking for a similar opportunity for himself,” Michael Chamberlain, director of PPT, told the DCNF. “It’s become more and more apparent with each revelation that the potential for waste, abuse, and cronyism was a feature, not a bug, of the GGRF. The American public certainly might be forgiven if they assumed the ‘green’ in the green agenda of the last few years was the enormous volume of cash being shoveled out the door.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has flagged the GGRF for conflict-of-interest concerns, which remains under investigation by the EPA’s inspector general, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Program funds went to several nonprofits laden with high-level Obama and Biden-era staffers as well as Democratic donors despite federal reviewers flagging potential conflict-of-interest and excessive executive compensation concerns, and the Trump administration continues fighting to claw back the funds.
Efron did not name any specific group or grantee he hoped to work for in the video. The Biden EPA determined he had not violated ethics rules, but officials still flagged the Project Veritas clip, according to the documents.
Efron said it would be “really cool” to work for “one of those places” the agency had given billions of dollars to for “climate things” in the video, listing that the recipient categories getting Biden’s billions, which included “nonprofits, states [and] tribes,” and added that the program designs were “an insurance policy against Trump winning.”
