By SUZANNE DOWNING
In the political lexicon, “The Swamp” connotes the murky world of self-serving bureaucrats and conflicts of interest that abound in Washington, D.C. Swamp creatures are the slick operators who work the Foggy Bottom system from the White House to the Potomac River.
A textbook case of this is found in the Biden Administration, particularly surrounding the massive Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and its nontransparent web of activities.
David Hayes, a former senior climate official for the first two years of the Biden Administration, exemplifies the Swamp revolving door phenomenon, as he goes from President Joe Biden’s policy architect of a $27 billion fund to a becoming a grant applicant now on the short list to receive some of that taxpayer money.
After playing a pivotal role in crafting the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Hayes stepped down, ostensibly to take a “breather.”
Yet, his next steps show The Swamp in action. Hayes, who had also served in the Clinton and Obama White Houses, joined the board of the Coalition for Green Capital, a prime candidate for receiving substantial funds from the National Clean Investment Fund grants, under the umbrella of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Inflation Reduction Act, a $750 billion behemoth targeting “energy security and climate change,” represents a lucrative pool of resources that invites waste, fraud, and abuse. The president himself has said that the Inflation Reduction Act has nothing to do with inflation but is, in fact, a climate change “investment.”
During his tenure with the Biden Administration, Hayes’ portfolio spanned the climate-change scam. It included promoting offshore wind energy, reducing methane emissions, and spearheading a “whole of government” approach to climate resilience. This means the neo-religion of climate change is infused into every particle of the federal government.
Hayes was instrumental in the development and implementation of climate-related provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Now, Hayes’ involvement with Coalition for Green Capital and his role as a Senior Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which partners with CGC, raises significant conflict-of-interest concerns.
The NRDC’s assurance of not accepting government funding does little to alleviate worries about Hayes’ dual roles in government policy creation and as a grant applicant.
After all, as revealed in the New York Times, the the Natural Resources Defense Council has itself shifted away from its work on toxic chemicals, radioactive contamination, and wildlife protection in order to focus on climate change. So is the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and the Environmental Working Group, all of which have been working on issues that are suddenly no longer fashionable and are switching up their missions. Why? Follow the money. The massive federal funding has shifted to climate change and it’s the “whole of government” strategy.
“As currently envisioned in the Waxman/Markey Bill the Green Bank is established as the Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA). The CEDA/Green Bank would ensure that electricity rates remain flat for consumers in all 50 states while financing the U.S. transition from ‘carbon to clean’ energy,” the group wrote in its self-description.
But today the coalition is now marketing itself as a public-private partnership: “Through strategic partnerships and innovative financing, we can expand the reach of state and local green banks, CDFIs, and other finance institutions, to equitably drive accessibility to clean energy financing and empower communities to embrace a greener future. We accelerate investments in the clean economy to reduce emissions and improve the quality of life for all Americans. By leveraging both public and private partnerships and the power of responsive financing, our network works to remove barriers to clean technology and increase energy abundance by, for, and with communities.”
In other words, the coalition is moving with the money.
This greasy-palmed scenario is not isolated to the Coalition for Green Capital. Across the swamp, groups reposition their missions to vie for the billions of dollars in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and other similar buckets of big, endlessly supplied taxpayer bucks. These groups are run by a revolving door of eco-activists with ties to the Democratic Party or past Democratic administrations. It’s a tax-revenue skimming industry that produces nothing.
The “greenhouse graft” is what our tax dollars are paying for.
It’s especially obnoxious knowing that the Inflation Reduction Act also requires corporations to pay a 15 percent minimum tax on their profits by enacting a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks and redemptions. The money is going to groups like the CGC, whose principals are no doubt kicking back some of their proceeds to the reelection account of The Big Guy.
Suzanne Downing is founder of Must Read Alaska and serves as its managing editor.
Great article, right on point. For an example of what Suzanne is talking about, locate Lakeview, Oregon on Google Maps and scroll slightly south of the downtown area. You will see the “Red Rock Biofuels” complex. A project paid for by various grant funds. This facility has never made one drop of “sustainable green fuel”; nary a drop. The developers, who are from Denver, paid themselves very well leaving us with this failed project while they have fat bank accounts and zero liability.
Wow Charles
I was driving through Lake View last September and the Bio Fuels project came up on my google drive maps,,,,
I was so intrigued I Took the time from a lengthy drive in no wheresville to find the “project”
Not a thing visible.
Only dry valley allko country with no evidence
of improvement.
Not even a driveway off a state Hwy.
No Joke
Sa
How else will a totally incompetent loser buy 4 more years of living rent free on the taxpayers back.
I am sure Briben has a whole team of cash engineers since Shamy “The Bankman” Freid got sidelined with his phony funny money election funding sham.
They’ve got the perfect gig going. The have the indoctrinated colleges, universities, and other entities crying about climate change and protesting/disrupting. In the name of “saving the planet” they create all these grants and projects. Look at the offshore windmill fiasco on the East Coast, lots of them got rich off this and they can’t complete it. Meanwhile, they fly jets all over the world spreading the good word.
You got it Suzanne.
And yet 45% of America will vote for his re election.
Well, the powers-that-be will TELL us that 45% will vote for his re-(s)election.
I have utterly no trust nor faith in the integrity of our voting system.
None whatsoever. It has been as corrupted and co-opted as almost everything else in our society nowadays, and to try to claim otherwise is sheer denial of reality.
Bonus for Grandpa Bloodstains. He’s not gonna be charged for his possession and mishandling of classified docs.
Damn, it’s good to be an elected democrat.
How many of Algore’s and John Kerry’s relatives/close-associates are suckling from this same t*t?
And on the local level, we have politicians who have done the same with the nonprofits to extort taxpayer money. And many still hold office. They are not people trying to fix problems, but rather are driven by greed. Our system of throwing money into a problem has always resulted in growing the problem. Many examples, from homelessness to education.
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