Biden Gives $27 Billion for Clean-Energy Deals in Final Days

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration has distributed at least $27.6 billion of dollars in financing to clean-energy companies in its final days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. 

The moves — including a $15 billion loan guarantee to California utility PG&E Corp. for a host of clean-energy projects announced Friday — mark President Joe Biden’s last-ditch efforts to secure his climate legacy before Trump takes charge, with a promise to rescind unused green funds. The Biden administration also on Friday finalized a $1 billion loan for Ioneer Ltd.’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada and closed a nearly $600 million loan guarantee for a Puerto Rico solar project by Convergent Energy and Power Inc.

Other deals finalized by the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office in the past month include a $6.6 billion loan to Rivian Automotive Inc., a nearly $1.7 billion loan guarantee for hydrogen producer Plug Power Inc. and $1.67 billion for biofuel maker Calumet Inc.

“The pace of announcements is unprecedented,” said Kennedy Nickerson, who formerly worked as a policy adviser in the Loan Programs Office. “It really demonstrates the uncertainty around how the Trump administration is going to operate the program.” 

The Energy Department’s loan program, which became a $400 billion green bank thanks to an infusion from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, has been a powerful tool to fight climate change and help commercialize emerging green technologies. In all, the department said Friday, the program had closed on more than $60 billion in financing for 25 projects during Biden’s four years in office.

Despite a mandate to finance inherently riskier technologies, the program’s loan loss rate is on par with major financial institutions and it has generated billions of dollars in interest payments for the government. 

But the program has come under criticism from congressional Republicans and faces an uncertain future under Trump, who asked Congress during his first administration to eliminate the program. This time, some in Trump’s inner circle want to get rid of or retool the Loan Programs Office to finance fossil fuels and other energy sources favored by Republicans.

Already, one of the two leaders tapped by Trump to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy, has said the incoming administration will scrutinize billions of dollars in “11th-hour transactions,” including the loan offer to Rivian.

The Energy Department said in a separate statement Friday it had committed more than $170 billion for grants and loans through funding made available in the Inflation Reduction Act and a seperate bipartisan infrastructure law representing 82% of the total grant funding available through those laws.  

(Updates with details of additional financing deals, Energy Department statement.)

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