Governors Wind Energy Coalition
DOE program may save or thwart Biden’s energy plan Source: By David Iaconangelo, E&E News reporter • Posted: Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), President Biden’s nominee for secretary of Energy. Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS/Newscom
A Department of Energy program considered critical to President Biden’s clean energy agenda is changing focus and may open the administration to political attack, analysts say.
When Biden was vice president, the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) distributed tens of billions of dollars in loans and loan guarantees intended to scale up new clean technologies. The office helped launch the first utility-scale wind and solar farms in the country. And it made a $535 million loan to Tesla Inc., now the world’s most valuable automaker, to open its first factory in Silicon Valley.