House GOP leaders are calling on the Biden-Harris administration to immediately freeze its behemoth green energy loan disbursements, which officials have accelerated in recent weeks ahead of President Donald Trump's upcoming term, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.), Morgan Griffith (R., Va.), and Jeff Duncan (R., S.C.), all of whom serve in top positions on the Energy and Commerce Committee, penned a letter Wednesday to the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, arguing that its recent flood of loans presents substantial financial risks to taxpayers. They added that the accelerated spending appears motivated by looming cuts to green energy loan programs, which Trump has promised to "terminate."
The Republicans cite a recent Free Beacon analysis that tracked all pending and closed green loans dished out by the Loan Programs Office. Since that analysis was published last month, the office's total financial commitments have increased from $37.6 billion to nearly $57 billion, a jump driven in large part by multibillion-dollar loans promised to automakers Rivian and Stellantis for electric vehicle projects.
The office is also reviewing applications requesting an eye-popping total of $324.3 billion, up from the $303.5 billion reported last month.
The letter underscores the risks of fraud and abuse of taxpayer funds posed by big-budget green programs, something Republicans have raised the alarm about since the Biden-Harris administration made green spending programs a centerpiece of its aggressive climate agenda. Those concerns have been amplified by the newfound urgency in disbursing green loans ahead of the Trump administration, leaving lawmakers to worry if such loans are receiving proper vetting.
"The last-minute drive to expedite loans exposes the federal government—and American taxpayers—to tremendous risk," McMorris Rodgers, Griffith, and Duncan wrote to Loan Programs Office director Jigar Shah, according to the letter obtained by the Free Beacon.
"On election day, the American people rejected the Biden-Harris administration’s rush-to-green agenda," they continued. "To honor the will of our electorate and facilitate an orderly transition, we insist that the Biden-Harris administration cease its campaign to quickly distribute federal funding before the incoming administration takes office."
The Loan Programs Office's spending, meanwhile, was flagged by the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General in a report last month highlighting how the office's loan authority has skyrocketed from $17.2 billion in 2021 to at least $402.2 billion, thanks to President Joe Biden's landmark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act.
The inspector general found that near-term deadlines may create pressure to cut corners; innovative projects that can only receive government funding, not private sector investment, come with "inherent risks;" accelerated due diligence of a proposal's financial viability may fail, and the Loan Programs Office may fund foreign adversaries. Altogether, the spending comes with an outsized risk of loan default "with the taxpayer picking up the bill."
Overall, since September, the Loan Programs Office has announced conditional loan commitments worth a total of $25.5 billion for nine projects, Department of Energy data shows. It has closed on another $6.2 billion worth of loans for eight other projects in that same time span.
And since the election one month ago, the office has announced or closed on loans worth $20.6 billion to the following companies: Sunwealth for solar systems across 27 states, Grain Belt Express for a wind energy transmission line, Rivian for an EV assembly plant, Stellantis for a joint project with battery maker Samsung, Li-Cycle for EV battery materials processing, SK Siltron CSS for EV battery components manufacturing, and Eos Energy Enterprises for a battery storage systems project.
By comparison, between January 2021 and September 2024, it announced commitments worth less than $20 billion and closed on loans worth roughly $6 billion.
"This is an egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars," Tom Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research and member of the 2016 Trump transition team, told the Free Beacon last month. "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," Pyle said.