Oh, look, more attempts at playing hide-and-seek with taxpayer dollars. Democratic lawmakers are now in full damage-control mode, trying to derail a federal watchdog investigation into the Biden administration’s $400 billion green energy loan program. And why? Because this long-running probe seems to be uncovering some less-than-flattering truths about how the Loan Programs Office is throwing money around like confetti at a party no one was invited to.
For over a year, the Department of Energy’s inspector general, Teri Donaldson, has been digging into allegations that the Loan Programs Office handed out billions in taxpayer-funded loans to politically connected recipients, some on the brink of bankruptcy, and even groups tied to foreign adversaries. That doesn’t sound shady at all, right?
But here’s where it gets weird—or, as energy insiders put it, “weird weird.” Instead of waiting for the inspector general’s report to drop, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have decided to turn the tables. They’re now investigating the investigator. Their big issue? Donaldson hired an outside law firm, Rabalais & Associates, to help with her probe, which they claim bypassed competitive bidding rules. Because obviously, the real scandal here isn’t billions of dollars in questionable loans—it’s how someone hired their lawyer. Sure.
This “investigate the investigators” routine screams of preemptive damage control. One former DOE official didn’t mince words: “They’re trying to discredit the report before it’s even released.” Translation: panic mode activated. And who can blame them? After all, the Loan Programs Office has gone from near-obscurity to wielding a lending authority that rivals Wells Fargo, thanks to a Biden-era cash infusion that swelled its budget by over 2,200%.
Donaldson, for her part, isn’t backing down. In her response, she described her probe as long overdue, given the loan office’s “checkered history” and its infamous 2012 Solyndra scandal, where a politically connected solar company burned through a $500 million government loan before going belly-up. Fast forward to 2023, and the Loan Programs Office is back in the hot seat, this time with whispers of conflicts of interest and shaky oversight swirling around.
Democrats’ frantic scramble to sink the IG investigation is doing nothing but cranking up the curiosity—and the suspicion. What’s buried in that report? Mismanagement? Corruption? Or just another chapter of “green” energy turning into a big, red-faced debacle? Whatever it is, the watchdog isn’t backing down—and for once, taxpayers might actually get their money’s worth in accountability.
