Biden administration races to approve clean energy loans before Trump takes over — here’s who is benefiting
The Department of Energy (DOE) appears to be on a loan-approval spree in the lead-up to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the winners are all companies manufacturing clean energy solutions on U.S. soil.
Trump has promised to cancel any unspent federal dollars under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a bipartisan climate law that allocated billions to building a domestic supply chain for clean energy. The IRA spurred a flurry of private investment as well. In particular, automakers and battery manufacturers have collectively invested or promised to invest around $112 billion in building domestic cell and module manufacturing plants for electric vehicles. Those factories have largely benefited Republican-led communities.
The fresh loans come from two DOE loan programs — the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program and the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program — that the IRA revived and expanded, respectively.
The ATVM program in particular, which went dormant under Trump’s first administration, once provided a much-needed $465 million loan to Tesla in 2009, helping to save the EV maker from one of several near-death experiences. It dwindled under Trump’s administration.
A joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution was the first to receive a $2.5 billion loan under the ATVM program in 2022 under Biden’s administration.
A condition of these loans is that the borrowers “meaningfully engage with community and labor stakeholders to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of the local community and workers.”
Over the past week, the DOE approved or conditionally approved four loans totaling roughly $14.7 billion. We’re keeping track of where the Biden administration’s DOE loan money is going. Here are some of the biggest recent recipients.