Biden's energy fiasco

 The Federalist Wire:

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The Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. energy grid funding was a masterclass in incompetence, marked by a reckless rush to distribute billions of taxpayer dollars without proper oversight or staffing. An internal investigation by the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed a shocking lack of financial controls and resources in the Grid Deployment Office (GDO), which administered the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Program (GRIP). The findings expose a pattern of mismanagement that jeopardized taxpayer money and undermined the nation’s energy infrastructure.

In October 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) shoveled out $7.6 billion to 105 projects across the U.S. under the GRIP program, part of a $10.5 billion allocation from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The initiative aimed to bolster grid resilience, but the OIG’s report, released in May 2025, found that the GDO was woefully unprepared to manage such a massive undertaking. The office lacked an effective internal controls system to mitigate risks, leaving the door wide open for fraud, waste, and conflicts of interest.

“Without a robust internal controls system, GDO may not identify risks that could negatively impact the GRIP program’s outcomes,” the OIG report stated. “These impacts could include improperly reimbursed costs, fraud, waste, and undisclosed conflicts of interest.” This isn’t just a bureaucratic oversight—it’s a failure that could cost taxpayers dearly while jeopardizing the very grid the program was meant to strengthen.

The GDO’s failures weren’t isolated. The broader DOE, under Biden’s leadership, displayed a troubling pattern of financial recklessness. During a House Appropriations hearing in May 2025, Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright revealed that the DOE’s Loans Program Office issued $100 billion in loans for energy projects in the final 76 days of the Biden administration—more than doubling the $40 billion issued over the previous 15 years. These rushed agreements often lacked standard DOE clauses, raising serious questions about due diligence.

Back in October 2023, the GDO had already doled out $3.46 billion to 58 projects across 44 states, targeting grid modernization to combat extreme weather and natural disasters. The program also aimed to enhance transmission system capacity, a critical need for a nation grappling with increasing energy demands. Yet, the OIG found that the GDO failed to adhere to the Government Accountability Office’s Green Book standards for financial controls, a basic requirement for federal programs.

The Biden administration doubled down in October 2024, awarding another $4.2 billion to 46 projects across 47 states. One notable recipient was the California Energy Commission, which snagged $630 million to upgrade 100 miles of transmission lines with grid-enhancing technologies to better connect wind and solar farms. California Governor Gavin Newsom praised the move, saying, “Once again, the Biden-Harris Administration is not just talking the talk, they’re walking the walk. This funding is critical to our efforts to build a power grid that ensures all Californians have access to cleaner, cheaper, more reliable electricity.” But Newsom’s enthusiasm glosses over the chaos behind the scenes.
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Democrats pay too much attention to the climate kooks who have been serially wrong about global warming for decades.  If you believed them, the climate would not be as pleasant as it still is.  What they really want is the ability to dictate energy polices that would pander to the climate kooks instead of to the rest of the country.  Their policies would increase the cost of living for everyone and have little to no impact on the climate.