WASHINGTON DC – The Department of Energy, in one of its final actions under President Joe Biden, earmarked billions of dollars in green energy loans to utility companies based in Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s home state of Michigan—defying the agency’s inspector general, who called on the Biden administration to suspend the loan program amid conflict-of-interest concerns.
Some of Granholm’s largest campaign benefactors during her Michigan gubernatorial campaign were among the companies receiving the hefty last-minute loans.
The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office announced Thursday that it awarded a staggering $22.9 billion in loan guarantees for utility companies to develop green energy projects across 12 states. More than $14 billion of that total was awarded to DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, the two companies with ties to Granholm, solely for projects in Michigan.
In addition, on Friday afternoon, the office announced a $1.3 billion loan for Michigan Potash Company to help fund a sustainable fertilizer plant in Osceola County, Michigan.
DTE Energy’s political action committee contributed more than $34,000 to Granholm’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign, according to state records. Then-DTE Energy CEO Stephen Ewing, whom Granholm appointed to serve on the state’s Early Childhood Investment Corporation Executive Committee, personally donated another $3,400 to Granholm’s campaign in 2004.
Consumers Energy’s political action committee gave Granholm’s gubernatorial campaign $25,000 in that same timespan, additional data show. And Brandon Hofmeister, the company’s current senior vice president of strategy, sustainability, and external affairs, served as Granholm’s energy and climate policy adviser and deputy legal counsel when she was governor.
CNBC first reported Granholm’s financial ties to DTE and Consumers Energy in 2020 after Biden picked her as his nominee for energy secretary. Granholm served as governor of Michigan between 2003 and 2011.
“I am proud of the dedicated federal workforce that has been and will continue to be committed to using all the tools available to ensure our nation stays competitive and energy secure,” Granholm said in a statement Friday touting her agency’s accomplishments over the last four years.