The Biden administration is in a hurry to finalize more than a dozen green energy loans worth more than $25 billion before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in mid-January—a frantic effort that lawmakers and industry officials are warning could lead to fraud and abuse of taxpayer money.
Through the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, the administration is working to finalize a total of 16 pending loans worth a total of $25.1 billion, a Washington Free Beacon analysis found. Those loans figure to be in serious jeopardy—Trump repeatedly vowed to "terminate" green energy spending on the campaign trail—and, in recent weeks, Biden officials have picked up the pace finalizing pending commitments.
Over the last two months, the Loan Programs Office closed on seven loans worth $5.9 billion, including two that were closed after the election. Those two loans went to EV battery component plants in Michigan and New York. By comparison, the office closed on five loans worth $6.5 billion during the prior 27 months.
The quick pace carries risks, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.) told the Free Beacon.
"Now that the election is over, the Biden administration wants to triple the amount of money passed out to politically connected firms," Barrasso said. "Congress and the incoming Trump administration will act to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted on insider payoffs and green pipe dreams."
"President Biden’s Department of Energy is rushing billions of dollars out the door as a last-ditch effort to advance its failing rush-to-green agenda," added McMorris Rodgers. "This effort only increases the risk for Solyndra style waste and abuse—which is why the administration should immediately end its reckless spending spree."
Early in the Obama administration, the Loan Programs Office was responsible for providing $535 million to solar panel maker Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy just two years later. Solyndra has since become synonymous with wasteful federal spending and is often cited by critics as a cautionary tale when Congress earmarks taxpayer funding for new green energy programs.
The Loan Programs Office's operations ground to a near halt during the first Trump administration. The office approved just one loan between 2016-2020, an up to $3.7 billion loan guarantee for a Georgia nuclear power plant project in 2019.
But Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 reactivated the office, giving it hundreds of billions of dollars in additional lending power, a massive increase that quickly made it a centerpiece of the Biden administration's broader climate agenda. In addition to the $25.1 billion in pending loans, the office is sitting on loan applications requesting a total of $303.5 billion, a number larger than the gross domestic product of nearly 30 states.
Overall, the Loan Programs Office has announced loans worth a total of $37.6 billion for 29 green energy projects since 2022. Officials have been able to close on just 12 of those loans.
"This is an egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars," said Tom Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research and member of the 2016 Trump transition team. "Not one additional loan should go out the door between now and the inauguration. President Trump ran on an energy platform that included repealing the subsidies in the IRA and yet Biden is trying to rush this money out the door before he rides off into the Delaware sunset."
"On day one, I hope the Trump administration will halt all loans that are not closed and audit all of the projects that have been approved, but especially the ones they are attempting to rush out the door since the election," he continued.
Mike McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who worked in the Trump White House, added that the incoming administration should "retrieve and redirect unspent money at DOE and in other places."
"The loan program at DOE is too likely to devolve into corruption," he told the Free Beacon. "It needs to be shuttered."
Among the loans pending before the Department of Energy, the largest is a $9.2 billion conditional commitment to BlueOval SK—a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and South Korean battery firm SK Battery—to fund multiple EV battery manufacturing facilities in Tennessee and Kentucky. The conditional commitment was announced in June 2023.
A BlueOval SK spokeswoman said the company is actively working with the Department of Energy on final loan approval and "will share details upon conclusion of that process." Ford declined to comment.
The Department of Energy is also reviewing conditional loan commitments worth a combined $9 billion to the following companies: EV battery company Redwood Materials, hydrogen power company Plug Power, green ammonia producer Wabash Valley Resources, green jet fuel company Gevo Net-Zero 1, South Korean solar panel maker Hanwha QCells, and battery maker KORE Power.
The Free Beacon reported in January that Loan Programs Office director Jigar Shah held a financial stake in Plug Power through his green investment firm before joining the Biden administration, raising conflict-of-interest concerns.
And KORE Power has its own share of concerns—the Free Beacon reported in February that the company is co-owned by Chinese battery company DFD New Materials, which is run by a Chinese Communist Party official. In response, KORE Power said "reducing the equity stake of Chinese shareholders has been a priority of KORE."
"DOE’s LPO has provided a bridge to bankability for American entrepreneurs and innovators for almost 20 years," a Department of Energy spokesman told the Free Beacon in a statement. "Utilizing funding provided by Congress, LPO has accomplished tremendous progress in a short amount of time on bipartisan priorities including advanced nuclear, geothermal, advanced fossil energy, and critical minerals."
"As a result, there is steel in the ground and job openings at new or expanded facilities around the country," the spokesman continued. "It would be irresponsible for any government to turn its back on private sector partners, states, and communities that are benefiting from lower energy costs and new economic opportunities spurred by LPO’s investments."
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