CONTRIBUTOR
Three Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to a key Department of Energy (DOE) official on Monday following a Daily Caller News Foundation report that found his office had committed to providing a massive loan for a company that was allegedly defrauding its investors.
Citing the DCNF, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, H. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina wrote the letter to Jigar Shah, who leads the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), demanding answers about his office’s due diligence process. The DCNF reported in November that the LPO had reached a conditional commitment to loan Li-Cycle, a battery recycling company, $375 million while the company was allegedly defrauding investors.
The purpose of the LPO is to provide green energy companies with loans that the private sector would not offer, according to the office’s website.
The LPO conducts its due diligence process before offering a conditional agreement to a potential loan recipient. In Li-Cycle’s case, the loan package, announced in February 2023, would have subsidized the company’s Rochester, New York, facility. The company paused construction on that project in October, and it now faces a class-action lawsuit that alleges the company committed securities fraud by misrepresenting or failing to disclose that the facility’s construction costs were rising to the point of potentially jeopardizing the project. (RELATED: Former CEO Who Made Bad Green Energy Bets Now Doling Out Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars To Green Projects)
LPO Letter Re Li-Cycle by Nick Pope on Scribd
Shah had pitched Li-Cycle CEO Ajay Kochhar on the benefits of an LPO loan in September 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal, three months after the company had allegedly started to defraud investors. Kochhar was reportedly worried that his company would be unable to service the debt to the government, but Shah reassured him that his concerns would eventually be rendered moot because the company would be making a lot of money in the coming years.
The company’s stock price is down about 85% year-to-date, according to data from Google Finance.
Republican Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has also slammed Shah for committing to the Li-Cycle loan and pressed him for answers in an October letter.
Li-Cycle is not the only troubled company that LPO has offered to loan a massive package of taxpayer dollars. The LPO offered a $3 billion package to Sunnova, a solar company that allegedly ripped off elderly customers on their deathbeds by convincing them to sign multi-decade, five-figure rooftop solar contracts, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
Barrasso and Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley also ripped into Shah at a hearing about his continued association with the Cleantech Leaders Roundtable, a green energy trade group that Shah used to run before taking the top job at the LPO. The trade group has seen its revenues and influence surge since Shah started running LPO, and he has continued to speak at its events, some of which charge attendees a fee, according to the Beacon.
The DOE did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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I hope the next Republican President utilizes a siphon to drain the swamp, with the discharge directly into Federal Prison. There, now I feel better.
Only Congress can do that. The first step is outlawing Federal employee unions.
No. I’m sure it would go to court, but the President could direct that some Federal bureaucrats be designated as ‘policy makers’, hence subject to rules for ‘at will’ employment.
The effect of this would be to give the electorate at least some degree of recourse to unelected rule makers, which is currently not the case.
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-astonishing-implications-of-schedule-f/
I wish Congress could also outlaw state government employee unions. I wonder if it can? Probably not.
if i could up vote this to 1000 i would.
The first step is outlawing Federal employee unions.
bingo!
Outlawing federal employee unions wouldn’t be as important as taking the right to vote from all public employees.
Sometimes the most outrageous things are what is not illegal. Did the FBI break the law when they spied on Trump? When the Justice Department knew there was no Russian Collusion but they authorized a Special Council Investigation, was that illegal? When the FBI director twice interfered with the 2016 election regarding the Hillary Clinton emails, was that a crime?
Don’t misunderstand me, I think a lot of bureaucrats and officials belong in prison. But we can’t just make up laws as we go along. At least I can’t, I’m not a democrat.
In a June 2023 Pew Research poll, they found that 69 percent of Americans favored the steps to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Two-thirds of the Republicans under 30 supported finding alternate Energy sources while 42 percent of Republicans overall supported finding alternate energy sources.
Ninety percent of Democrats favored finding alternate energy sources.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/
PEW polls stink!
PEW polls are notorious for far-left bias. !
There was no question in their survey that used the term “carbon neutral”, nor was the year “2050” specified. As a matter of fact 68% answered “Thinking about the country’s energy supply, do you think the U.S. should…” with the choice “Use a mix of energy sources including oil, coal and natural gas along with renewable energy sources”. Either your interpretation is quite off or you should read the source and not make up “facts”.
Why are you spamming threads with the same copy clip comment?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/12/07/predictably-the-rush-to-electric-cars-is-imploding/#comment-3827147
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/12/07/predictably-the-rush-to-electric-cars-is-imploding/#comment-3827129
I’ll give you the same answer:
Which probably means “we’ve skewed the data to give the answer we want people to see”
There a couple of choices toward interpreting your post.
1) You believe the statistical accuracy of the poll … and therefore you are, at best, ignorant.
2) You know the poll does not reflect reality and you are a lying piece of crap.
Of course, there is always the grey are in between … you could be a bit of each, an ignorant piece of garbage.
In the future, if you follow up your cut/past & summary with your own opinion, it will be easier for readers to understand the what/why of your post.
Nick Pope. No, it can’t be the one from the Ministry of Defence (formerly in charge of UFO/UAP reporting etc)!
As we found with the offshore wind farce, you have to make it well worth their while before they even bother. The bottom line is, like public transport, unreliables are incapable of making a profit.
In the US there’s plenty of profit in wind and solar—it comes in the form of Federal and State tax credits. Without the tax credits none of the projects cash flow.
It’s… subsidised.
“you have to make it well worth their while before they even bother.”
There IS a difference between a Tax Credit and a Government Funded Subsidy
No
Tax credit is a give-away that helps an individual (or entity), without having to oversee a bunch individual programs.
Govt funded subsidy is a way to get rid of the office budget in a hurry in one lump activity without having to oversee a lot of individual programs.
Even Warren Buffet says… without the subsidies, wind and solar projects are not viable investments
ha! I see the UFO Nick Pope all the time, on the UFO channels. Don’t care for him much.
He’s done very well for himself.
Personally I don’t buy the idea that aliens travel countless light years only to crash into Roswell
Yes, that’s a common argument- but there are arguments against that argument. It’s a fascinating topic but I don’t think this site wants such a discussion. If you even use certain relevant words, it’ll go to the moderator. A superficial look at the the U*O issue is comparable to a superfical look at the climate issue.
“”If you even use certain relevant words, it’ll go to the moderator.””
I suggest, like the woke, you get creative with your language
Eg. Fnuck it
I always wondered about that. How could they be so brilliant, yet so stupid.
what else are they going to do with their free time?
They were headed for a party on Alpha Centauri and Earth got in the way.
The “Big Guy” gets 10%
At least that scheme is nearing it’s end with Hunter walking the plank because the Big Guy is playing loose with his get out of jail free card. But perhaps Hunter’s most recent charges are meant to ensure that the Big Guy follows through on whatever succession deal has been made or is an inducement to get a deal done.
That plank needs to be at least 14 months long, so The Big Guy CAN’T Pardon him!
Timing is the question. Get out of jail free = pardon.
There’s plenty of time between losing the election in November to leaving office in January to dish out pardons for all crimes committed past-present. There’s even time to resign, pass the office to the VP and have her pardon him. Neither Hunter or Joe or any of his family will ever spend a day in prison.
I bet the Big Guy has already signed pardons for Hunter and every other corrupt family member. Signed and in his desk in case they are needed.
Democrats are currently talking about Trump getting elected and writing secret pardons. That usually means they are doing it themselves.
If a recipient of a presidential pardon were indicted, the pardon would be revealed during the proceedings. The way a pardon could stay under the radar.
If Biden pardons someone before they’ve been charged with a crime, that person could have a presidential pardon in their pocket to use if they ever do get charged with a crime, but if they aren’t, the public wouldn’t necessarily ever know.
I am confident Biden has already u issued secret pardons to family members
Pardons do not erase convictions, but they erase the penalties of convictions. They do not always have to follow convictions and can be issued before or during a criminal prosecution. The president may only give pardons for federal crimes, not state crime and not civil actions.
Gruesome Newsome of California want to run for president in 2024
I do not think it is a coincidence that tax evasion charges were filed against Hunter in California just now. He’s been evading taxes since 2014.
“The purpose of the LPO is to provide green energy companies with loans that the private sector would not offer”
Risk? What risk? It’s only tax payer money.
Exactly – if the private sector won’t give them a loan due to bad risk/returns why on earth should the people fork out. The governments are just creating ways to piss taxpayers money away now – it has to stop, the national debts in the west are far too high for that kind of insanity.
“why on earth should the people fork out”
Because they literally have no choice but to do so.
This is the Parliamentary dictatorship. It takes as it needs – and it knows what is best for you.
Or else…
Reportedly, cellphones and $5000 debit cards are being handed out to illegals at the Southern border. It would appear that the U.S. is subsidizing human smuggling cartels in this manner.
Yes, Joe Biden is the Trafficker-in-Chief.
The worst president evah! Every action he takes harms the United States.
Not sure about the debit cards but heard about the phones, also calls to give illegals work permits immediately on entry; I guess the Obamas need new staff…
The unit of tax-payer money, to the tax-payer, is $1
The unit of tax-payer money, to the department spending the money, is $100m.
Politic as usual could be described as a racket. We give you campaign donations, you get elected and you reward us with contracts or laws or regulations that reward us and hurt our competitors.
That’s a very cynical take. Not all politicians are for sale; I’m going to support someone who already supports the same ideas and policies I favor. But sometimes it just looks like a RICO case waiting to happen.
The corrupt Russian representatives in the Duma are, at least, a little more open about it – they expect the bribe up front before they lift a finger.
It’s getting very difficult to determine which is the more corrupt now; Russian govt under Putin or US govt under Biden.
The government has no business backing loans rejected by private sources.
Another example of “we know what’s good for you”.
When the borrowing companies go bankrupt, those loans disappear but politicians will still have received their donations.
There must be a clue in there somewhere, that so-called green energy is unviable but I just can’t find it.
There are about 30 open positions at the LPO (Loan Programs Office), from lawyers to engineers to economists to ‘technicians’.
Almost all GS 13 & above. This appears to be a very special federal department.
On the gov LPO website there is a ‘technology sector’ section that describes 16 areas of LPO support
On the gov LPO website there is a ‘technology sector’ section that describes 16 areas of LPO support. The last one is ‘Virtual Power Plants’.
My guess is that ‘Virtual Power Plants’ is the area that provides the missing energy after coal/carbon is removed from the economy. It is make believe efficiencies like smart meter savings. It is social management and eliminating use/damand. As Program Director Jigar Shah states, “vehicle electrification is not the answer to permanently increasing the sustainability of driving, but instead that reducing societal dependence on personal driving will more directly achieve sustainability targets.”
More evidence of incompetence on the part of our government. The Department of Energy needs to be disbanded.
https://tesla-calendar.com/ Just in time for Chrissy