The overpriced “shrine to environmental justice and climate change” is gone for good, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video posted to X on Monday, walking through the taxpayer dollars wasted by the Biden administration. [emphasis, links added]
Zeldin has made waves with his decisions to slash government waste in his own department and walked through the latest change via a video posted to X on Monday, explaining why they are shutting down this so-called “museum.”
“If you were to visit the museum located here at EPA headquarters in D.C., you would learn a lot about the road to environmental justice and climate change,” Zeldin said.
The Biden Admin spent $4M in tax dollars on a museum to tell a selective story of @EPA history. It costs $600K per year to operate even though only 1,909 external visitors came through in the last 9 months. Today we are closing it. pic.twitter.com/ghTQ2MQX4N
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) March 31, 2025
“This museum claims EPA pursues its mission by advancing environmental justice, equity, and civil rights compliance. A timeline of key events conveniently omits any mention of President Trump’s first administration,” he said, pointing to the obvious bias and noting that the museum, where the video was filmed, was “built and curated by the Biden administration,” costing taxpayers $4 million.
Perhaps what is more, the museum costs taxpayers $600,000 per year just to operate. [CCD editor: The museum cost $300K to originally build, half its operating costs.]
“This shrine to environmental justice and climate change cost the American taxpayer $600,000 to operate annually. This agency has been spending $123,000 on cleaning, $207,000 for security, $54,000 on maintenance, and an additional $54,000 on storage,” Zeldin revealed, as Breitbart News also reported.
Zeldin said that from May 2024 through February 2025, only 1,909 members of the public visited the free museum.
“Even though it is free admission, this museum costs you, the taxpayer, $315 per external visitor,” he revealed.
“I have pledged to be an exceptional steward of taxpayer dollars, so this shrine to EJ [environmental justice] and climate change will now be shut down for good,” he said.
“I will do my part to help the American people learn more about the amazing work of our agency to provide cleaner, healthier and safer land, air and water. We will do so without paying over half a million in tax dollars on a museum that is barely visited and designed to tell an ideologically slanted partial story of the EPA,” Zeldin continued, noting that the Trump administration is continuing to end “the practice of burning tax dollars on pet projects that do nothing to help this agency achieve our mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
This is hardly the first instance of Zeldin following in the steps of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and weeding out waste [in the EPA], announcing earlier in March that his department canceled over “400 DEI and environmental justice grants,” saving nearly $2 billion.
UPDATE: I am cancelling over 400 DEI and Environmental Justice grants across 9 grant programs totaling $1.7 BILLION, bringing @EPA‘s total savings to over $2 BILLION!
This fourth round of EPA/@DOGE cuts was our biggest yet.
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) March 10, 2025
In February, the EPA also uncovered $2 billion set aside for a climate group linked to Democrat Stacey Abrams.
“Stacey Abrams’ Power Forward Communities received $2 BILLION to be a pass-through entity for Biden EPA’s $20 billion ‘gold bar’ scheme,” Zeldin announced. “They reported just $100 in total revenue after their founding in late 2023.”
Read more at Breitbart
