For years, Americans suspected their tax dollars were funding radical activists disguised as government watchdogs.
Now they have proof.
And Trump's DOT just caught this "safety" group funding eco-terrorism with your tax dollars.
Biden's DOT Handed Millions To Pipeline Opponents
The Department of Transportation announced it's investigating the Pipeline Safety Trust after catching the organization red-handed using federal grants to bankroll attacks on American energy infrastructure.
The group pulled in $5 million in taxpayer funding since 2021 supposedly for pipeline safety work – but operated as a left-wing climate activist organization fighting Trump's energy agenda while cashing government checks.
"The Department has a duty to protect American taxpayer dollars," a DOT spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon.¹
The agency is now examining the group's financials to determine exactly how much grant money funded radical activism instead of actual safety work.
And it's referring the matter to the inspector general for potential criminal violations.
Pete Buttigieg's Department of Transportation handed the Pipeline Safety Trust a massive $1 million annual grant in 2021 – a twentyfold increase from typical awards.
Buttigieg renewed that million-dollar paycheck every year through 2024.
That's $4 million in Biden-era money flowing to an organization actively working to destroy the pipelines it claimed to monitor.
The Board Members Endorsing Terrorism
Carl Weimer, the Pipeline Safety Trust's longtime executive director, didn't hide his agenda.
He argued that America's need for new pipelines "needs to be questioned."²
As a Washington county commissioner, Weimer crafted a policy explicitly designed to "put a stop to future fossil fuel development."²
Your tax dollars paid his salary while he sabotaged American energy independence.
Beth Wallace, president of the organization's board, called support for Trump's Keystone XL pipeline "shameful" and labeled the Line 5 pipeline "unneeded" despite it supplying propane to millions of Americans.²
But Jeffrey Insko, the board's vice president, took things to a whole different level.
Insko publicly endorsed "How to Blow Up a Pipeline," a 2021 book by Swedish professor Andreas Malm that explicitly calls for eco-terrorism.
He cited the radical manifesto in an article titled "How to Dream Beyond Oil" and listed it as recommended reading on a public syllabus.²
The book doesn't mince words about its goals.
"Damage and destroy new CO2-emitting devices. Put them out of commission, pick them apart, demolish them, burn them, blow them up," Malm wrote. "Let the capitalists who keep investing in the fire know that their properties will be trashed."²
The FBI issued a terrorism alert in 2023 warning that a film adaptation of the book could inspire attacks on energy infrastructure.³
Federal law enforcement identified 35 separate warnings from 23 different agencies about the domestic terrorism threat.³
And a board member of a taxpayer-funded "safety" organization was promoting it as required reading.
How Democrats Rigged The System
Trump's DOT renewed the $1 million grant in September – and before you ask why, here's the dirty truth.
Democrats trapped Trump with the PIPES Act of 2020, which mandates the DOT provide $1 million annually to an eligible technical assistance applicant.
The law also explicitly prohibits using those funds for lobbying, litigation, or anti-pipeline advocacy.⁴
Democrats wrote a blank check to activists, then banned them from doing exactly what they planned to do anyway.
The Pipeline Safety Trust violated federal law by using grant money to oppose the Keystone XL expansion, demand the shutdown of existing infrastructure, and fight Trump's energy policies across the board.
"Reports about the Trust have called into question their spending," the DOT spokesman explained. "That's why PHMSA commissioned an audit to get to the bottom of the Trust's activities."⁴
The audit raised major red flags – the Pipeline Safety Trust abused taxpayer dollars to fund anti-energy advocacy, failed to provide proper financial documents, and didn't properly track employee time cards.⁴
They weren't even trying to hide it.
The group's own strategic plan states its role means it must "work toward a rapid and just energy transition" away from oil and gas, with fighting climate change as a "central pillar" of its work.⁵
Trump Fights Back Against The Energy Saboteurs
President Trump made his position crystal clear from day one.
"We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!" Trump posted on Truth Social in February.⁴
The Trump Justice Department intervened in September to stop Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer from illegally shutting down the Line 5 pipeline.
"President Trump has made clear that the United States will not tolerate state overreach that interferes with American energy dominance," acting assistant attorney general Adam Gustafson stated.⁴
Trump is also pushing development of an 807-mile gas pipeline in Alaska that he called "truly spectacular" during his State of the Union address.⁴
Lois Epstein, a Pipeline Safety Trust board member, responded by writing an op-ed suggesting the project's cost estimates were too optimistic.⁴
A taxpayer-funded board member was actively trying to kill a presidential priority.
Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, summed up the scandal perfectly.
"Ensuring that pipelines are safe is a worthy endeavor, but it is clear that this organization has veered far off course from its supposed mission," Pyle said. "There is a difference between advocating for safe pipelines and advocating for the elimination of them altogether."⁵
"With a vice president touting books that advocate blowing up pipelines, the DOT has no business funding this activist organization," Pyle added.⁵
This is exactly what Trump meant when he talked about draining the swamp.
Radical activists embedded throughout the federal bureaucracy, collecting government paychecks while working to destroy American energy, jobs, and national security.
The Pipeline Safety Trust investigation is just the beginning.
How many other "watchdog" groups are really just left-wing activists living off your tax dollars?
¹ Thomas Catenacci, "Taxpayer-Funded 'Pipeline Safety' Group Works To Thwart Trump's Pipeline Policies," Washington Free Beacon, December 12, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
