WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing titled Examining the Biden Administration’s Energy and Environment Spending Push. 

“This Oversight and Investigations hearing provided a critical opportunity for the Committee to examine the Biden-Harris Administration’s reckless spending spree under its energy and environment grants and loans programs during their final months in office,” said Chairman Palmer. “We will continue our work to scrutinize the potential misuse of federal funds to ensure American taxpayer dollars are well spent and not subjected to waste, fraud, or abuse.”  

Watch the full hearing here.

Below are key excerpts from yesterday’s hearing: 

Subcommittee Chairman Gary Palmer (AL-6): Asked the DOE OIG witness about Interim Findings the IG released in December 2024, highlighting key takeaways from the report that “the DOE LPO is administering more than $385 billion in new loan authority without ensuring a regulatory and contractually compliant and effective system to manage the organizational conflicts of interests.” The Chairman continued, noting that “[i]n the Interim Findings report, the IG stated that the Loan Programs Office seems to be asserting that as long as it does not compile, track, update, or reconcile relationships it maintains a 100% compliance rate across the Loan Programs Office. Also referring to it as ‘trust but don’t verify.’”  

Subcommittee Vice Chairman Troy Balderson (OH-12): “It’s clear that the Biden Administration was trying to get as much money out the door as possible before President Trump’s inauguration. For example, a senior Biden Administration official was quoted saying in early December 2024 that the Administration was on track to exceed its goal of obligating over 80% of available IRA grant funding by the end of Biden’s term. Moreover, former secretary Jennifer Granholm was quoted in October 2024, as saying that she is racing to commit funding and get contracts signed. Many of us are also familiar with the video in which a special advisor for implementation within the Biden Administration’s EPA was caught on camera saying that it’s truly like we’re on the Titanic, we’re throwing gold bars off the edge. The special advisor also said that they were trying to get this money out as fast as possible before they come in and stop at all. It is clear from the video that the individual was referring to the Trump Administration.”

Congressman Rick Allen (GA-12): “This body has a duty to conduct oversight on all the money sent out through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and so-called Inflation Reduction Act. It’s imperative that we do our due diligence to see just where that money went. It’s also important to understand, what people, their job roles, what they’re doing, and actually what they’re producing which seems to get lost in all this. These laws added to our out-of-control government spending and as we have seen in prior hearings some of this funding went to special interest groups. With billions of dollars being given out rapidly it is critical that we see where American taxpayer dollars are going and that they are properly vetted.” 

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