Biden’s unfinished business - POLITICO
Republicans have similarly lambasted the infrastructure law’s $42 billion effort to make fast internet service available to all Americans by the end of the decade. No households have been connected under the program after initial bureaucratic delays gave way to haggling between the Commerce Department and states over requirements like affordability.
“That program has achieved nothing. Deleted,” Musk wrote on his social media network X in mid-November, just after Trump tapped him to spearhead a government efficiency commission. (One of Musk’s other businesses, the satellite internet provider Starlink, is a potential recipient of the broadband cash.) Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who leads a caucus supporting Musk’s efforts, argued that Trump should “pull the plug.” More than half of the program’s funding, or $24.7 billion, has been obligated as of early December, according to federal spending data.
The administration says that it has connected millions of households to the internet through other pots of money, such as the pandemic relief packages, and that the $42 billion program has brought other benefits, such as returning some telecom manufacturing to the U.S.
At the Energy Department, the loan office — once known for the Obama administration’s failed $535 million loan guarantee to the solar company Solyndra— has transformed under Biden to support emerging clean energy technologies key to the president’s agenda. It has announced $74 billion in financing for major clean energy and advanced technology projects, including handing out nine conditional awards worth more than $35 billion since the presidential election. The office has finalized financing for 18 projects worth $32.5 billion.
The pace of the office has increased in recent weeks as borrowers race to lock financing ahead of the incoming Trump administration. But opponents of the office’s Biden-era policies have called for it to halt spending until Trump enters office. Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-lead the incoming administration’s efficiency panel with Musk, has said agreements such as DOE’s recent $6.6 billion conditional loan to Rivian are “high on the list of items” he would seek to undo.
Leading or being left behind
Many clean energy executives and industry analysts said they still expected low-carbon technologies to keep growing under Trump, propelled by falling costs, blue-state climate policies and the growing demand for energy. But some said they would wait to see how the dust settles in Washington before moving ahead with major projects.
Joe Mastrangelo, the CEO of the Pittsburgh-area battery maker Eos Energy Enterprises, said he was confident Republicans would preserve tax credits for domestic energy manufacturing, if only simply to meet the growing power demand from artificial intelligence and data centers while preserving economic competitiveness with countries like China. Trump could also benefit the energy industry by cutting permitting bottlenecks that slow deployment of new projects, Mastrangelo said.
Eos, which employs nearly 400 people, was awarded a $303.5 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department last year, and it stands to benefit from IRA tax credits.
Mastrangelo warned that the U.S. shouldn’t follow the path of once-dominant corporate giants that failed to embrace the future.
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