The Biden administration's green loan czar is looking to loan more than $1 billion to a green technology company that is connected to his old trade association and his current federal office.
Department of Energy Loan Programs Office Director Jigar Shah announced Tuesday that his office has reached a conditional commitment to loan Entek, a company that makes electric vehicle components, $1.2 billion in taxpayer funds.
Entek has supported the Cleantech Leaders Climate Forum, the "Sister nonprofit" of a trade group that Shah started before joining the Biden administration and a co-host of a 2023 green energy conference organized in tandem with LPO. Entek was a "Giga level" supporter of the Demonstrate Deploy Decarbonize 2023 conference, a green technology conference held in Washington, D.C. in September 2023.
Each have essentially alleged that the trade group has functioned as a de facto gatekeeper of access to Shah and his $400 billion war chest at LPO. Specifically, Republicans Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington stated in an October 2023 letter to Shah that the links between DOE and the Cleantech Leaders Roundtable "[give] rise to perceptions of a pay-to-play scheme, where access to DOE loans could be potentially influenced by affiliations with Cleantech Leaders Roundtable.
"Once again, a recipient of funds from DOE's Loan Programs Office appears to have a tie to Jigar Shah, the man who heads the office," Michael Chamberlain, executive director of a government watchdog group called Protect the Public's Trust, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
LPO loan packages have previously been offered to troubled firms or entities linked to the trade group during Shah's tenure at the DOE's green energy financing office.
Republicans have pressed for documents and information regarding Shah's continued association with the trade group, which has seen its membership and influence grow considerably in the time that Shah has taken charge of LPO's loan portfolio, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
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