Tag Archives: Green Banks

Biden’s EV Boondoggle Enriches Himself

green plant leaves growing on coin stacking money saving business finance success wealth investment budget concept. stack coin on wood table with green blur background.

From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

The Greenest thing about the New Green Deal is the Money.

The spending on “Green Energy Projects” is enormous and uncontrolled.  Larry Behrens explains at Real Clear Energy Too Favored to Fail:” Taxpayers Bailout Biden’s Green Friends.  Excerpts in italics wtih my bolds.

While America struggles to buy groceries, President Joe Biden has a
green slush fund worth billions of dollars, and he’s not afraid to use it.

Billions Disappear with Rivian Bankruptcy

Recent revelations uncovered that the CEO and lobbyists of Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer, held a quiet meeting at the White House with Biden’s Climate Czar, John Podesta. That’s right, the same John Podesta who served as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 presidential campaign before being pulled from the ranks of profitable green consulting to oversee distribution of $369 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Biden selected a political operative with green company ties to dole out the goodies from one of the largest slush funds in history. Now green CEOs who are hemorrhaging cash are beating a path to his White House office, presumedly with hat in hand.

According to media reports, Rivian is deep in the red. Last year, they lost $6.8 billion. In 2021, it was $4.7 billion, which is in addition to the $1 billion lost in 2020. These massive losses happened as EV manufacturers enjoyed large subsidies both to build and sell their vehicles. In fact, President Biden went out of his way to praise Rivian in early 2022, even though their stock had already lost half its value on its way to losing 87% of its value since 2021. Losing over $12 billion in less than three years would normally be a problem in the business world, but in the upside-down reality of Biden’s green agenda, that gets you a meeting at the White House.

Tax dollars are flowing from the IRA so quickly that the Department
of Energy’s Inspector General (IG) may be running out of adjectives.

Earlier this month in testimony before the Senate, the IG said, “the current situation brings tremendous risk to the taxpayers.” Red flags about American dollars flowing to foreign companies or just being wasted here at home are going up, yet according to budget watchdogs, their concerns are met with deaf ears by senior Biden Administration officials. The IG notes there were “billions and billions of dollars lost or stolen” from federal Covid funds, and Biden’s slush fund is even bigger. To put it bluntly, the green vault is wide open and the grifters are lining up.

“Green Banks” Dole Out Taxpayer Cash

Here’s a particular galling example. One little known aspect of the IRA are so-called “green banks.” For greenies, the scheme is simple: regular banks will not fund their boondoggles, so they need a taxpayer backed entity to dole out cash. Unlike regular banks, these green banks do not need to make a profit to stay afloat because the government is their funder.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham was caught trying to set up a green bank without the trouble of going through the elected legislature. The board of the bank will be green non-profits who will be in charge because as the New Mexico climate czar put it, “We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars…This greenhouse gas reduction fund is a remarkable little beast.” Recently, Grisham announced the green bank anyway. The slush fund is open for business, and everyone has their hand out.

Congress is watching the “green bank” scheme because they know it is ripe for abuse. The problem is clear: The White House put a political operative in charge of what is nothing more than a political fund. For Barack Obama, they were too big to fail, but Joe Biden is taking it further. When it comes to his failed agenda, his green boondoggles are “too favored to fail.”

Biden’s Wasted EV Subsidies Eclipse Solyndra

Helen Raleigh reports at The Federalist The Biden Administration’s Electric Vehicle Subsidies Are Becoming Another Solyndra.  Excerpts in italics wtih my bolds.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made $1.6 million from
an electric car company the Biden administration boosted
that just went bankrupt.

Proterra, an electric bus and battery company that President Joe Biden touted as a success of his green energy initiative, filed for bankruptcy in August. Last week, it finally sold its embattled battery business at a rock-bottom price as part of the bankruptcy proceeding. The rise and fall of Proterra demonstrates once again that politicians should refrain from betting taxpayers’ money on business ventures to advance their political agenda.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Proterra has sold only 550 electric transit buses since its founding in 2004. Most of the sales were underwritten by government agencies with federal grants. Proterra’s electric buses were plagued with mechanical defects and other performance issues, such as limited range and long charging times. Besides government subsidies, the company only survived as long as it had due to powerful political connections. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, Biden’s energy secretary, served on its board.

Despite all the quality issues of its EV buses, Proterra went public in January 2021 and raised $650 million, more than three times its annual revenue. A month after the company’s IPO, Biden tapped Granholm as his energy secretary. Proterra’s political connection to the Biden administration paid off in many ways.

Surviving on Grants and Tax Credits

In April 2021, Biden took a virtual tour of a Proterra facility to promote his infrastructure plan. The proposal included $6.5 billion in grants to help replace diesel-powered school and transit buses with electric ones. During the tour, Biden lauded Proterra for “getting us in the game.” He predicted that Proterra and other electric vehicle companies would “end up owning the future.”

Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act further enriched Proterra’s coffer. The law had little to do with reducing inflation, but it gave massive government handouts to the green energy sector. For instance, IRA includes a $40,000 per vehicle tax credit for purchasing electric commercial vehicles and an additional tax credit for EV batteries.

Proterra admitted in its quarterly report that “the availability of this new unprecedented level of government funding for our customers, suppliers, and competitors to help fund purchases of commercial electric vehicles and battery systems will remain an important factor in our company’s growth prospects.” Proterra’s political profile rose even more after Biden appointed Gareth Joyce, CEO of Proterra, to serve on the President’s Export Council in February this year.

Backed by Biden, Buried by Biden

Excessive government spending under Biden has sparked high inflation rates that were last seen in the 1970s. To bring inflation rates down, the Federal Reserve has aggressively raised interest rates. Higher rates increased production and operations costs for many companies. As legendary investor Warren Buffett famously said, “Only when the tide goes out do you learn who has been swimming naked.” Proterra was one of those companies that had been caught “swimming naked” in this new environment.

The company struggled because it had difficulty passing rising costs on to its existing customers, since most were government agencies with little budget flexibility. Nor could Proterra outsource its production overseas or import components at lower costs. Receiving government grants comes with strings attached. One requirement is that companies like Proterra must produce at least 70 percent of their EV components in America. Proterra couldn’t afford to cut the prices of its EVs to drum up sales.

Finally, Proterra filed for bankruptcy in August. Government subsidies could not offset the financial pressure of rising inflation, higher interest rates, and falling sales. Last week, a Swedish automobile manufacturer, Volvo, bought Proterra’s battery business for $210 million, a great deal considering Proterra was valued at $1.6 billion a year ago.

Another party who got an excellent deal was Granholm. She sold her Proterra shares for $1.6 million last year. They would have been worth nothing if she had held on to her Proterra shares until this

August. The biggest loser of the whole Proterra saga is American taxpayers.

No Good News for Electric Vehicles

Proterra was not the only EV company that went under. Michigan-based Electric Last Mile declared bankruptcy in June 2022. Ohio-based Lordstown Motors went bankrupt a year later. Ironically, these companies benefited from the Biden administration’s climate handouts, but the economic consequences of the same policies eventually doomed them. Even large automobile companies’ EV units are struggling. Ford estimates it will lose $3 billion this year on its EV business. The company relies on sales of gas-powered vehicles and government subsidies to keep the EV business afloat. 

What’s In This for the Bidens?

Fred Lucas explain in his Daily Signal article Hunter Biden’s Cobalt Deal With China Increases Cost of His Father’s Push for Electric Cars.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds.

Presidential son Hunter Biden’s most recent controversy—assisting a Chinese company’s purchase of a large cobalt mine—is linked directly to a top Biden administration policy of promoting electric vehicles.

Cobalt, a relatively rare and expensive mineral, is an essential part of batteries used to power electric automobiles. The COVID-19 pandemic also made U.S. officials and the public much more aware of Communist China’s control of the supply chain for drugs and other products.

The younger Biden, 51, is a one-time partner in China-based Bohai Harvest RST, known as BHR, and reportedly remains a stakeholder. 

The New York Times first reported over the weekend that BHR facilitated mining company China Molybdenum’s $2.65 billion purchase of a cobalt and copper mine from an American company, Freeport-McMoRan. 

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo. told The Daily Signal,

The latest news [that] he assisted a Chinese company purchase one of the largest cobalt mines is another example of Hunter Biden using his influence to line his pockets and help a foreign adversary. Conducting oversight of Hunter Biden’s questionable ethics and dealings that undermine our national security will continue to be a top priority for Oversight [Committee] Republicans.

The committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., tweeted: “By helping Chinese companies mine rare minerals in Congo, Hunter Biden is helping Communist China corner the Electric Vehicle market that @POTUS is subsidizing here at home.” 

Summary:

The campaign is to force electric vehicles upon Americans who otherwise do not want them.  And why?  It’s not about climate change, not about the environment.  It’s about greed not green.

Are Green Investments so Lame they need Special “Green Banks” to Succeed?

From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

If renewables are almost always cheaper than coal, as most greens repeatedly claim, why are special government funded banks required to drive investment?

Using green banks to solve America’s affordable housing crisis – and climate change at the same time

Published: July 18, 2023 10.30pm AEST

Tarun Gopalakrishnan Research Fellow, Climate Policy Lab, Tufts University

Bethany Tietjen Research Fellow in Climate Policy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Seth Owusu-Mante Research Fellow in International Development, Tufts University

Green banks are starting to draw attention in the U.S., particularly since the federal government announced its first grant competitions under a national green bank program to bring clean technology and more affordable energy to low-income communities.

But installing more solar and wind electricity generation isn’t the only way green banks can help. 

Massachusetts is launching an innovative new green bank that could become a model as states try to manage two crises at once: lack of affordable housing and climate change.

While most green banks focus on clean energy, the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank is specifically designed to boost the state’s stock of sustainable, affordable housing. It comes at an opportune time: States can now tap into billions of dollars in new federal funding for green banks under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/using-green-banks-to-solve-americas-affordable-housing-crisis-and-climate-change-at-the-same-time-208098

If you’re wondering exactly what a green investment bank is, the OECD provides this less than helpful explanation;

Green investment banks

To leverage the impact of relatively limited public resources, over a dozen national and sub-national governments have created public green investment banks (GIBs) and GIB-like entities. GIBs are using innovative transaction structures, risk-reduction and transaction-enabling techniques, and local and market expertise to channel private investment, including from institutional investors, into domestic low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure.

POLICY PERSPECTIVES: GREEN INVESTMENT BANKS: LEVERAGING INNOVATIVE PUBLIC FINANCE TO SCALE UP LOW-CARBON INVESTMENT

Investment is growing in renewable energy and energy efficiency, but not quickly enough to get the world on track to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions globally by the end of this century. Mobilising investment from the private sector will be essential to meet climate change goals. Governments can find ways to make efficient use of available public funding to mobilise much larger pools of private capital.

The OECD report Green Investment Banks: Scaling up Private Investment in Low-carbon, Climate Resilient Infrastructure aims to provide policy makers with the first comprehensive study of publicly capitalised green investment banks (GIBs), examining the rationales, mandates and financing activities of this relatively new category of public financial  institution.

It provides a non-prescriptive stock-taking of the diverse ways in which these public institutions are helping to leverage and catalyse private investment in domestic green infrastructure, with a spotlight on energy efficiency projects. Highlighting the role of GIBs within a broader policy framework to mobilise investment, the report also provides practical information to policy makers on how green investment banks are being set up, capitalised and staffed.

A GIB is a public entity established specifically to facilitate private investment into domestic low-carbon, climate-resilient (LCR) infrastructure. Using innovative transaction structures, risk-reduction and transaction-enabling techniques, and local and market expertise, GIBs are channelling private investment into low-carbon projects. GIBs are facilitating investment in such areas as commercial and residential energy efficiency retrofits, rooftop solar photovoltaic systems and municipal-level, energy-efficient street lighting. Download the PDF version 

Green-Investment-Banks-POLICY-PERSPECTIVES-webHerunterladen

Many of the investments GIBs mobilise are undertaken in urban areas where 54% of the world’s population lived in 2014, and where 66% is projected to live by 2050.

Governments tailor their GIBs based on their unique national and local contexts. GIBs and GIB-like entities have diverse rationales and goals including meeting ambitious emissions targets, supporting local community development, lowering energy costs, developing green technology markets, creating jobs and lowering the cost of capital. Using a range of metrics, GIBs are measuring and tracking their performance. These metrics generally focus on emissions saved, job creation, leverage ratios (i.e. private investment mobilised per unit of GIB public spending), and – for those GIBs that are required to be profitable – rate of return.

GIBs are typically established in countries that do not have national development banks or other entities that are actively promoting private investment in domestic LCR infrastructure. They are relevant for both developed countries and emerging economies as a tool to help meet emissions, technology and infrastructure deployment and green investment targets. The creation of a GIB can send a signal to the marketplace and other countries that a country or region is seeking to become a leader in scaling up private low-carbon investments. To mount a serious effort to mobilise low-carbon investment and get on a path toward zero net emissions by the end of this century, governments need to consider how institutions like green investment banks can help them pick up the pace.

FURTHER READING

CONTACT

Source: OECD (content reproduction terms and conditions)

Is Massachusetts short of access to private banks which encourage sound commercial investment? Are US banks not providing the capital to drive forward the economically compelling green revolution? Or is Massachusetts spending all this money just to “send a signal”?

If private banks and private financiers don’t want to touch green investments now, at anything like the required scale, how will creating a green investment bank change their minds? Or are Green Investment Bank enthusiasts just assuming private companies need a little leadership from government, to understand what a great opportunity green investments are? What happens if that “leadership” falls flat, and private companies fail to respond the way public sector green bank enthusiasts hope they will?

I sure hope Massachusetts taxpayers are paying attention to what their state government is doing with their money. Because someone is going to have to pay for all this.

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