A Senate appropriations committee hearing on 21 May found that, during the 76-day interval between Donald Trump’s election and his inauguration, the Department of Energy handed out $93 billion to various entities. This was done without any accountability or oversight and many of the entities receiving the loans did not even have a business plan or any financial reports to submit. According to the Energy Secretary Christopher White, the $93 billion is more than twice the amount that the Department of Energy had handed out in the previous 15 years.
Regular corruption + Trump-proofing
Energy Secretary under Biden was the Harvard lawyer Jennifer Granholm and DOE’s Loan Program was managed by Jigar Shah. The corruption within the department had attracted much attention in the past, like when, on 19 October 2023, Senator Josh Hawley questioned Shah about his practices. In February of the same year, the Wall Street Journal ran a story titled, “Hundreds of Energy Department Officials Hold Stocks Related to Agency’s Work Despite Warning.” The article alleged that as many as a third of the Energy Department’s senior officials or their families owned stocks related to the agency’s work.
However, in addition to the ordinary corruption, the staggering $93 billion handed out in only 76 days additionally has the stench of political Trump-proofing of various agendas by making sure that Trump couldn’t defund them on his watch. Other examples of this tactic include Biden’s pre-paying US subscription to Project Ukraine, and the Environmental Protection Agency under John Podesta giving out $375 billion, much of it to charity organizations with no record of business, formed only months prior, seemingly for the purpose of receiving government’s handouts.