EXCLUSIVE: Biden's Department of Energy doled out almost $100 billion in "Green New Deal wish list" in final weeks

During the final weeks of the Biden administration, the Department of Energy closed $53 billion in loans and made an additional $40 billion in conditional commitments, a department source told the Washington Reporter.

The billions of dollars amounted to a “Green New Deal wish list,” the source said.

Between Election Day of 2024 and the second inauguration of President Donald Trump, the tens of billions of dollars sent out by the Energy Department totaled more than it had given out in the past 15 years, the source noted.

Several of the companies had financial problems ranging from pending and active bankruptcies to ties to foreign sovereign wealth funds, a department source told the Reporter.

Chris Wright, the Secretary of Energy, is testifying before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday, where the actions of his predecessor are expected to come under scrutiny by Republicans.

The Trump administration is in the process of clawing back as many of the loans as is possible and is moving to reconfigure future loans to entities that back the administration’s goals of both decreasing the cost of America’s critical infrastructure and increase its reliability, Wright said last week.

The current administration has already scored a series of high-profile wins in this field. General Motors announced in its recent earnings call that it will repay its $1.8 billion loan.

Other wins the administration is touting include that several utility companies that have received conditional commitments are now planning to use their loans to revitalize their coal production and move natural gas more efficiently.

Some of the loans from the Biden administration included billions of dollars to a company derided as “Solyndra 2.0,” which has been issued a going concern warning and is in the process of being delisted.

Another was a minerals mine that lost its equity co-investor, which said that the project was uneconomic and not worth pursuing. And a third received a $9.6 billion loan in December 2024 as part of a joint venture to subsidize electric vehicles.