• Between February 12 and March 26, Fox News aired at least 56 segments that discussed the Biden administration's $20 billion climate funding. The vast majority of these segments explicitly or implicitly framed the EPA's $20 billion climate funding as fraudulent, wasteful, or abusive.

Framed the funding as corrupt or criminal

Fox helped to amplify serious accusations about the $20 billion climate fund, even though no evidence of criminal activity has been presented. The funding was legally appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress, and grants were awarded through established procedures with public announcements made months before the election. On March 18, a U.S. District Court judge rejected the Trump administration's attempt to seize the funds, citing lack of evidence for fraud claims.

• On The Story with Martha MacCallum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin referenced a video of a Biden-era EPA appointee to suggest the agency was spending recklessly, saying they were “tossing gold bars off the Titanic … billions of dollars out the door before Inauguration Day.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 2/13/25]
• During the February 21 episode of America Reports, Fox Business host Larry Kudlow declared: “This has nothing to do with climate. Nothing to do with climate. This has to do with slush funds, self-dealing, and embezzlement of funds.” [Fox News, America Reports, 2/21/25]
• Zeldin was interviewed on Sunday Morning Futures and asked about the $20 billion in climate funding. After describing his efforts to “claw back” the money, host Maria Bartiromo asked, “Was there criminality here?” Zeldin replied, “I would say that it's a clear-cut case of waste and abuse. The entire scheme, in my opinion, is criminal." [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 2/23/25]

Labeled the funding as wasteful or a “slush fund”

Fox also repeatedly mischaracterized the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created to accelerate the country's transition to clean energy while prioritizing historically marginalized communities and included the National Clean Investment Fund ($14 billion), the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator ($6 billion), and the Solar for All program ($7 billion). These initiatives are aimed at mobilizing private capital, funding community lenders, and expanding solar access in low-income areas. 

• During the February 13 episode of America's Newsroom, anchor Dana Perino reported on Lee Zeldin's claim of finding “tens of billions in wasted funds.” [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 2/13/25]
• On Jesse Watters Primetime, host Jesse Watters claimed: “Right before Christmas, Biden's EPA gave the Climate United Fund $7 billion. This climate fund looks like a slush fund to funnel cash to Joe's donors for pet projects.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/13/25]
• During the February 21 episode of Special Report, correspondent Steve Harrigan aired a report about the EPA waging “a battle ... to take back more than $20 billion” from what Zeldin claimed “was basically a slush fund to reward left-wing political groups.” [Fox News, Special Report, 2/21/25]

Personalized and politicized the narrative by focusing on Stacey Abrams

Fox News repeatedly attempted to personalize the climate funding controversy by targeting  Democratic politician Stacey Abrams and misrepresenting her connection to the funding. Abrams served as senior counsel to Rewiring America, just one of five organizations in the Power Forward Communities coalition. Power Forward Communities CEO Tim Mayopoulos told Politico that Abrams was not paid by the coalition. “Stacey Abrams has not received a penny of this EPA grant,” Mayopoulos said. “It was never the plan for her to receive any money from this grant.” 

• On The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham suggested Abrams was “profiting from the EPA” and Zeldin claimed, “Power Forward Communities, which Stacey Abrams is part of, only received $100 in 2023. They then got $2 billion in this grant in 2024.” Meanwhile, an over-shoulder graphic referred to Abrams' supposed “slush fund.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/20/25]
• Fox & Friends enabled Trump administration officials to amplify the claim, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling viewers: “You look at what Lee Zeldin has found at the EPA — $20 billion that the Democrats pushed out the door in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency, $2 billion of that went to an NGO that was run by Stacey Abrams. So there is real fraud taking place in our federal government.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/26/25] 
• During the March 10 episode of Hannity, host Sean Hannity claimed that Stacey Abrams “was granted a $2 billion contract to buy energy-efficient appliances for low income Americans.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/10/25]

Portrayed judicial oversight as partisan lawfare against Trump's EPA

When court intervened to block the Trump administration's attempt to claw back the climate funding, Fox News portrayed these legal checks as politically motivated obstruction rather than legitimate judicial oversight. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's decision to temporarily block the EPA from recouping the funds was based on the government's failure to provide credible evidence of fraud. She wrote in her decision, “And when questioned at the March 12 hearing, and as discussed further below, EPA Defendants proffered no evidence to support their basis for the termination or that the sudden terminations, or that they followed the proper procedures.”

• Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade lamented that “an appeals court judge stopped the EPA from cutting $20 billion in grants,” before concluding, “Whose agenda is it? Some Obama-appointed judge? Or is it President Trump who got elected? This is an issue.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/19/25]
• On America Reports, anchor Sandra Smith said, “One judge took aim at the Environmental Protection Agency this week, blocking the EPA from cutting more than $14 billion in climate grants.” Kilmeade, in turn, as a guest during the segment, criticized judicial intervention. Smith then quoted a Wall Street Journal editorial that read “Imagine if Republicans gave the Trump administration tens of billions of dollars to dole out to right-wing groups,” stating that's what “Democrats did in the Inflation Reduction Act.” [Fox News, America Reports, 3/20/25]
• On America's Newsroom, correspondent Peter Doocy reported on court blocking the Trump administration’s actions regarding EPA climate grants before a clip showed Trump senior adviser Jason Miller calling “radical judges undermining what President Trump is attempting to lawfully do” a “threat to democracy.”  [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 3/24/25]

By relying almost exclusively on characterizations and allegations from Lee Zeldin — who appeared on Fox networks 23 times between January 29 and March 25, compared to just once on CNN — Fox News' coverage not only omitted crucial facts about the funding's origin, purpose, and recipients, but also actively mischaracterized the program. The network rarely mentioned that the grants were legally established through congressional legislation, that the distribution process followed established Treasury Department protocols, or that a federal judge had rejected seizure attempts due to lack of evidence. 

In contrast to Fox's misleading coverage, reporting on other networks took the EPA's core mission seriously and expressed alarm at the administration's actions. MSNBC's Chris Hayes characterized the EPA's attempts to seize legally distributed climate funds as “monumental” government overreach, while former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy defended the agency's crucial role in “protect[ing] our health and our safety” and “our natural resources” on CNN. 

• On CNN Newsroom, McCarthy challenged Zeldin's portrayal of the EPA as wasteful, explaining that the agency is focused on “how we protect our health and our safety” and “our natural resources.” She emphasized that EPA staff are implementing laws mandated by Congress, not arbitrarily creating regulations, and that any efficiency efforts should not “put people at increased risk” — presenting a stark contrast to Fox's framing of the EPA's mission and role. [CNN Newsroom, 2/27/25]
• During the March 14 episode of All In, Hayes reported on the EPA's attempt to seize the climate funds and described how the FBI tried to “criminalize groups like Habitat for Humanity for receiving grants.” Hayes detailed how a career prosecutor had resigned rather than pursue a case with “no evidence of a crime” and how a judge had rejected the application for a warrant to seize the funds. Nevertheless, the FBI still managed to freeze the funds at Citibank, which Hayes characterized as a “monumental” overreach by the government. [MSNBC, All In, 3/14/25]

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “EPA,” “Environmental Protection Agency,” or “agency” within close proximity of any of the terms “20 billion,” “green bank,” “grant,” “clean energy,” “climate,” “Zeldin,” or “gold bar” from February 12, 2025, when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin demanded the return of $20 billion given to climate organizations under the Biden administration, through March 26, 2025.

We included claims, which we defined as instances of an uninterrupted block of speech by a single speaker that referenced the $20 billion in funding that the Biden administration allocated for climate and clean energy. For host monologues, headline reports, and correspondent reports, we defined a claim as the speech between read quotes and played clips. We did not consider the speech within the read quote or played clip unless a speaker in the segment positively affirmed said speech either directly before or after the quote was read or the clip was played.