Politics

Biden Will Get Billions To Spend On Green Programs. Here’s What Happened Last Time He Had That Money

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The passage of the Democrats’ $369 billion climate package will allow President Joe Biden to pour billions of taxpayer money into green energy infrastructure and climate change prevention; despite the failure to effectively administer billions in green funds when he was vice-president during the Obama administration.

The ‘American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’, passed in 2009 during President Barack Obama’s first term, included $90 billion for similar environmental measures, according to White House archives. Then-Vice President Biden was placed in charge of overseeing the Recovery Act’s funds, which did not lead to development but instead the loss of massive sums of taxpayer money, according to Biden’s campaign website.

“As the architect of the Solyndra fiasco, it’s clear Joe Biden’s record on managing energy dollars is abysmal,” Larry Behrens, communications director of Power The Future, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Biden provided a $535 million federal loan to Solyndra, a solar panel company, in September 2009, in an effort to expand renewable energy, according to White House archives. Solyndra went bankrupt in September 2011, meaning that the loan did not go to use, this prompted a Treasury Department investigation into the company’s finances, ABC News reported.

The Recovery Act also gave nearly $42 billion to the Department of Energy (DOE) to fund renewable energy infrastructure, environmental cleanup and other climate measures. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) expressed concerns about how the DOE managed the federal money, according to a 2011 report.

GAO reported that it was not clear whether Loan Guarantee Programs (LGP) created jobs, which was an expressed goal of the program, as the DOE “lacked appropriate tools for assessing progress,” and found “reporting and quality issues” when it came to assessing job numbers created by green programs. GAO also found that the federal loan program favored some applicants over others.

The report also noted that the DOE received loan applications for at least 68 green projects, but only committed to guaranteeing a loan to one despite the fact that a number of applications, including six that the DOE deemed eligible for funding, were submitted in five years earlier.

“Now, over a decade later, President Biden is back to fleece taxpayers for another payday toward his eco-agenda,” Behrens continued.

Biden touted the passage of the Senate Democrats’ bill in a Sunday press release. If the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ passes through the House as it is expected to on Friday, Biden will have four times the money for climate programs that he had access to in 2009.

The bill will invest heavily in green energy by doubling investment in solar energy and wind power. The package will also spend up to $60 billion to reduce environmental injustice and protect low-income areas and communities of color that are more affected by pollution.

“Our family budgets are already shelling out more and more just to make ends meet, so we don’t need more compounded interest comprised of Joe Biden’s failures.”

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.