The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its line-by-line and program-by-program review of how the federal government has been spending your tax dollars.
Between Election Day, when President Trump won his second term, and Inauguration Day, the Biden Administration rushed to push over $3.1 billion in grant awards out the door with little vetting.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the termination of 321 financial awards supporting 223 projects, resulting in a savings of approximately $7.56 billion dollars for American taxpayers.
Of the 321 financial awards terminated, 26% were those $3.1 billion awarded between Election Day and Inauguration Day. Despite the will of the people being clearly expressed in the election, the Biden Administration continued to push the Green New Deal spending.
Following a thorough, individualized financial review, DOE determined that these projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.
The awards were issued by the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Grid Deployment (GDO), Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Fossil Energy (FE).
“On day one, the Energy Department began the critical task of reviewing billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard,” Secretary Wright said. “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellation’s deliver on that commitment.”
Secretary Wright issued a Secretarial Memorandum establishing a new policy for evaluating financial awards. The policy authorized program offices to request additional information from awardees. It also required that awards be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to identify waste, safeguard taxpayer dollars, protect America's national security, and advance President Trump's commitment to deliver affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the American people.
https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-wright-announces-new-policy-increasing-accountability-identifying-wasteful
Using this review process, DOE evaluated each of these awards and determined that they did not meet the economic, national security or energy security standards necessary to justify continued investment.