US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday that she is ready to use $ 40 billion in her department’s Office of the Loan Program, most of which has not been used in the past four years, to promote the transition to clean energy.
“I am ready to rev up these engines so that we can catalyze the next generation of innovation and deployment,” Granholm said during CERAWeek. No details were provided on when the loans would be offered.
Granholm said Jigar Shah, an expert in clean energy financing, will head the ministry’s loan programs office. Shah was most recently the co-founder and president of Generate Capital, where he helped entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization. It also funded SunEdison, a solar energy financing company.
Granholm said, confirmed by the Senate last week, with the support of many Republicans from fossil fuel producing states. {nL1N2KV2GM}
“We are ready to invest in advanced automobiles, carbon capture, advanced reactors and more,” said Granholm, the former Michigan governor who has secured federal funding for state-owned companies to make electric cars and batteries. It is likely to play an important role in pressuring President Joe Biden to put the country on the path of total decarbonization of the economy by 2050.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Lending was established with stimulus funds in 2009 during the Obama administration. It has been borrowed and paid for by successful companies, including Tesla Inc, but has been criticized by some Republicans for supporting Solyndra, a failed solar energy company.
Granholm also said the ministry has established an energy jobs office to create jobs for communities “left behind for too long,” including “colorful communities living with the toxic legacy of air pollution.”
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