Essay by Eric Worrall
Solyndra mark two? Regardless of authorities debt of $31 trillion, and a looming debt ceiling standoff with the Republican Congress, the Biden DOE has chosen now to revive its tender loans for inexperienced agenda.
The person in control of how the US spends $400bn to shift away from fossil fuels
The Division of Vitality’s mortgage applications workplace was ‘primarily dormant’, says Jigar Shah, its head – however now it’s able to bankroll clear vitality initiatives
Oliver Milman
Fri 3 Feb 2023 20.00 AEDTDeep within the confines of the hulking, brutalist headquarters of the US Division of Vitality, down certainly one of its lengthy, starkly lit corridors, sits a small, unheralded workplace that’s poised to play a pivotal position in America’s shift away from fossil fuels and assist the world stave off disastrous world heating.
The division’s mortgage applications workplace (LPO) was “primarily dormant” below Donald Trump, in keeping with its head, Jigar Shah, however has now come roaring again with an enormous warfare chest to bankroll rising clear vitality initiatives and expertise.
Final yr’s huge Inflation Discount Act grew the beforehand moribund workplace’s mortgage authority to $140bn, whereas including a brand new program value one other $250bn in mortgage ensures to retool initiatives that assist lower planet-heating emissions. Which signifies that Shah, a debonair former clear vitality entrepreneur and podcast host who matches his fits with pristine Stan Smiths, oversees sources similar to the GDP of Norway: all to assist turbocharge photo voltaic, wind, batteries and a number of different local weather applied sciences within the US.
With a newly divided Congress stymieing any new local weather laws within the foreseeable future, Shah has emerged as certainly one of Washington’s strongest figures within the effort to confront world heating. Shah says such concentrate on him is “hyperbolic” however the White Home is pinning a lot of its local weather agenda on an workplace that hardly had a dozen individuals when Shah joined in March 2021. It now has greater than 200 staffers because it scrambles to distribute billions in loans to initiatives throughout the US.
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Learn extra: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/03/us-clean-energy-transition-jigar-shah-interview
Why do I describe these loans as “tender” loans? For my part, if the initiatives being financed had any business benefit, they wouldn’t have to go to the federal government for cash.
Proper now, immediately, the Republicans have an opportunity to stop no less than a few of that $400 billion of US taxpayer’s cash being wasted on advantage signalling inexperienced trash initiatives. Allow us to hope the Republicans stand their floor throughout debt ceiling negotiations.
