Dept. of Energy’s Inspector General Wants Biden Admin to Halt its Green Energy Giveaway

Dept. of Energy’s Inspector General Wants Biden Admin to Halt its Green Energy Giveaway

Back in August, I reported that one intriguing sign that eco-activists in Washington, DC, anticipated a different political climate after the November election was the number of massive grants being given to “climate crisis” projects.

Team Biden flooded eco-activist organizations with billions from the public coffers.

Subsequently, Project Veritas released an incredible video confirming my suspicions that the green energy giveaway was designed to “Trump-Proof” Biden’s “Green New Deal.”

Brent Efron, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) special advisor implementing Biden’s climate agenda,  reportedly told Project Veritas that the EPA is rapidly distributing billions of dollars in grants to nonprofits as an “insurance policy” against Trump winning the election. He described the situation as “throwing gold bars off the Titanic,” referring to the urgency with which the agency allocates funds.

There is some good news to report. It now appears at least one bureaucrat in the nation’s capital may be genuinely more interested in serving the American people than supporting a political agenda.

The Department of Energy’s Inspector General, Teri Donaldson, has urged the Biden administration to halt its $400 billion green energy loan program due to significant fiscal risks and little oversight.

The US Energy Department’s independent watchdog is recommending the agency’s $400 billion green bank stop work on loans after finding improper management of conflicts of interest.

The interim report by the department’s inspector general urged the agency’s loan program “put into abeyance” all pending loans and loan-guarantee packages after concluding the Loan Programs Office wasn’t conducting proper oversight of third-party contractors or conflict-of-interest information from contractors.

NEW: The Department of Energy’s inspector general is calling on the Biden admin to halt its rapid-fire green energy loan program.

The IG says the program “poses a significant risk of fraud, waste, and abuse” and notes that the DOE has failed to *track conflicts of interest.* pic.twitter.com/UDISwmZ15S

— Thomas Catenacci (@ThomasCatenacci) December 17, 2024

The Inspector General’s assessment in October painted a disturbing picture related to the lack of oversight and serious risk management.

Donaldson — whose remarks were delivered during testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday — said the current structure of the Department of Energy’s massive loan program brings “tremendous risk to the taxpayers.” She further warned that there is substantial risk federal green energy awards will be made to entities with foreign entanglements that may go undetected.

“You have massive amounts of money moving quickly,” Donaldson said. “All of these things happening at once create a level of risk that may, candidly, be unprecedented in terms of amounts of federal money moving in such a complicated landscape.”

“On the issue of not funding our adversaries, I am greatly concerned about how things are going in that regard,” she added. “The department has set up a vetting center, which is a step in the right direction. But it is now six months old, it has three employees, it has no written procedures. There is no clear path on what projects will be vetted, what the criteria will be used when they are vetted. It has a very, very long way to go, and that’s of huge concern to me.”

The Inspector General specified other serious concerns:

• The intense pressure to disburse approximately $290 billion over the next three years, which has no precedent.
• Many projects being funded are not considered acceptable by private equity investors, which indicates the market isn’t there for them in the first place.

The Inspector General’s damning assessment of the Biden green energy came hard on the heels of an equally scathing review published by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) titled “Irresponsible, Reckless, Alarming: IRA Will Make the United States Poorer and China Richer“.

This report stressed that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) must be considered one of the most economically disastrous pieces of legislation ever enacted. The document stresses several key points:

• The Biden administration’s climate agenda has led to massive government spending.
• The de facto “Green New deal” increased reliance on China.
• The IRA has dramatically undermined American energy security and leadership

It might be worthwhile for the Republicans to argue that shutting down the government to halt all of the Biden-era spending is necessary if that is the current budget deal’s direction.

However, I certainly hope the are plans to stop the disbursement of funds for programs that do not properly serve our nation’s best interests.

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