"Biden Set To Supercharge Clean Energy Push With $40B Stash"

"The Department of Energy is poised to play an essential role as the Biden administration looks to leverage clean energy investments."

"Twelve years ago, the Department of Energy was so central to the incoming Obama administration’s stimulus plans that DOE staffers were among the first through the doors at the transition headquarters, helping the Secret Service take the plastic wrap off tables and chairs so they could get to work.

Now, DOE is poised to again play an essential role as the Biden administration looks to leverage clean energy investments toward its twin goals of pulling the economy out of a deep slump and delivering on the president-elect’s ambitious climate pledges.

And Biden, who oversaw the Obama administration’s stimulus work as vice president, unknowingly left himself a down-payment for the work ahead: $40 billion in unused Energy Department loan authority awarded under the 2009 stimulus. That pot of money could offer a way to kick start his climate and infrastructure plan at a time when a narrowly divided Congress may balk at his call to spend $2 trillion over four years."

Zack Colman reports for Politico January 1, 2021.

Source: Politico, 01/05/2021