What is the debt ceiling? Biden admin prepares to blow $400 billion in soft green energy loans

Essays by Eric Worrall

Solyndra point two? Even though government debt of 31 trillion dollarsand dimly deadlock on debt ceiling with Republican CongressThe Biden DOE has now chosen to reinstate its concessional loans to a green agenda.

The man responsible for how the US spends $400 billion moving away from fossil fuels

It’s ‘basically not working’ – but it’s now ready to fund clean energy projects, said Jigar Shah, head of the Department of Energy’s lending office.

Oliver Milman
Friday, February 3, 2023 20.00 AEDT

Deep within the confines of the massive, brutal headquarters of the US State Department EnergyAlong one of its long, brightly lit corridors is a small, unannounced office poised to play a pivotal role in America’s diversion from fossil fuels and helping the world prevent catastrophic global warming.

of the department loan program office (LPO) was “basically dormant” under Donald Trump, according to its chief Jigar Shah, but has now returned to a frenzy with a huge war chest to fund energy projects and technologies. emerging purity.

big last year Inflation Reduction Act increased the lending authority of the former dying office to $140 billion, while adding a new program another $250 billion as loan security to retool projects to help cut planet-warming emissions. That means Shah, a former clean energy entrepreneur and podcast host who matches his clothes with the pristine Stan Smiths, oversees resources comparable to Na’s GDP. Uy: all to help boost solar, wind, battery power and a host of other climate technologies in WE.

With one The new National Assembly thwarting any new climate legislation for the foreseeable future, the Shah has emerged as one of Washington’s most powerful figures in efforts to deal with global warming. Shah says such a focus on him is “hype,” but the White House is putting much of the climate agenda in an office of just over a dozen people when Shah joins in March 2021. The office now has more than 200 employees as it scrambles to distribute billions of dollars in loans to projects across the United States.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/03/us-clean-energy-transition-jigar-shah-interview

Why do I describe these loans as “soft” loans? In my opinion, if the funded projects have any commercial value, they will not need to go to the government to ask for money.

Right now, today, Republicans have a chance to prevent at least some of the $400 billion in US taxpayer money from being wasted on ethically-signed green waste projects. Let’s hope Republicans hold their ground in debt ceiling negotiations.