EPA has placed the longtime career employee in charge of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund on administrative leave, according to two people familiar with the situation.
David Widawsky, a 27-year veteran of EPA who previously worked in the agency’s chemicals office, was placed on leave on Wednesday, according to the people. No one else in the GGRF office has yet been placed on leave, they said.
EPA confirmed Widawsky has been placed on leave. The agency did not state why he was placed on leave.
The move is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to derail the $20 billion grant program created by Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act and set up by the Biden administration last year. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been increasingly critical of the climate fund, which on Thursday he characterized as “fraud and abuse by leaders who irresponsibly shoveled boat loads of cash to far-left, activist groups” in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.
