The Biden administration is rushing to finalize a dozen green energy loans worth more than $25 billion before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in mid-January — a frantic move that lawmakers and industry officials warn could lead to fraud and Abuse of taxpayers' money. [emphasis, links added]
Through the Department of Energy's Office of Loan Programs, the government is working to finalize 16 pending loans with a total value of $25.1 billion. washington free beacon Analysis found.
Those loans are expected to be in serious jeopardy — Trump repeatedly vowed on the campaign trail to “end” green energy spending — and Biden officials have accelerated the pace of finalizing pending commitments in recent weeks.
The loan program office has closed seven loans worth $5.9 billion in the past two months, including two after the election.
The two loans went to electric vehicle battery parts factories in Michigan and New York. By comparison, the office closed five loans worth $6.5 billion in the past 27 months.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Kathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) told The Washington Post that the rapid pace brought Here comes the risk. free beacon.
“Now that the election is over, the Biden administration wants to triple the amount of money going to politically connected companies,” Barrasso said. “Congress and the incoming Trump administration will take action to ensure taxpayer dollars are not wasted on internal bribery and green dreams.”
“President Biden’s Energy Department is rushing to spend billions of dollars in a last-ditch effort to advance his failed green agenda,” Added by McMorris Rodgers.
“Such efforts only increase the risk of Solyndra-style waste and abuse, which is why the government should stop its reckless spending spree immediately.”
In the early days of Obama's administration, The loan program office was responsible for providing $535 million to solar panel maker Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy two years later.
Since then, Solyndra has become synonymous with wasteful federal spending, and critics often view it as a cautionary tale when Congress earmarks taxpayer funds for new green energy programs.
Operations at the loan program office virtually ceased during the first Trump administration. The office approved only one loan between 2016 and 2020, a loan guarantee of up to $3.7 billion in 2019 for Georgia's nuclear power plant project.
But Democrats' 2022 inflation-reduction bill reinvigorated the office, giving it hundreds of billions of dollars in additional lending authority, a massive increase that will soon make it the centerpiece of the Biden administration's broader climate agenda.
In addition to $25.1 billion in pending loans, The office is processing loan applications totaling $303.5 billion, a figure greater than the gross domestic product of nearly 30 states.
Overall, the Loan Program Office has announced loans totaling $37.6 billion for 29 green energy projects since 2022. Officials succeeded in closing only 12 of the loans.
“This is a gross misuse of taxpayer funds,” said Tom Pyle, director of the Energy Institute and a member of Trump’s transition team in 2016.
“No additional loans should be made between now and the inauguration. President Trump ran on a platform that included abolishing IRA subsidies, but Biden is trying to do so before he rides off into the sunset in Delaware. The money is driven out.
“On day one, I want the Trump administration to stop all outstanding loans and conduct an audit of all approved projects, especially those they have tried to rush out since the election,” he continued.
Mike McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who works in the Trump White House, added that the incoming administration should “reclaim and reallocate unused funds from the Department of Energy and elsewhere.”
“The Department of Energy's loan program is likely to be mired in corruption,” he told Free beacon. “It needs to be closed.”
The largest of the Department of Energy's pending loans is a $9.2 billion conditional commitment to BlueOval SK, a joint venture of Ford Motor Co. and South Korean battery company SK Battery, to supply multiple electric vehicle batteries in Tennessee and Kentucky. Manufacturing plants provide financing. Conditional commitment announced in June 2023.
A BlueOval SK spokesperson said the company is actively working with the Department of Energy on final loan approval and “will share details once the process is complete.” Ford declined to comment.
The Department of Energy is also reviewing conditional loan commitments totaling $9 billion to:: Electric vehicle battery company Redwood Materials, hydrogen energy company Plug Power, green ammonia producer Wabash Valley Resources, green jet fuel company Gevo Net-Zero 1, Korean solar panel manufacturer Hanwha QCells and battery manufacturer KORE Power.
this free beacon It was reported in January that Jigar Shah, director of the loan program office, held a financial stake in Plug Power through his green investment firm before joining the Biden administration, raising conflict of interest concerns.
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