Environment and Climate News Podcast | Biden’s Green Programs Fraudulent, Wasteful, and Abusive

Join us for a hard-hitting discussion with Dr. Sterling Burnett, director of the Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, as he breaks down the recent Energy Department Inspector General's explosive findings. In this episode, Dr. Burnett examines claims of fraud, waste, and abuse in current federal green energy programs, offering his perspective on the path forward. He discusses the implications of these findings and presents his case for both executive and congressional action to address what he characterizes as problematic spending. Dive deep into this complex intersection of energy policy, government oversight, and fiscal responsibility with one of the field's leading voices. 

Creators & Guests

Host

H. Sterling Burnett

H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., hosts The Heartland Institute’s Environment and Climate News podcast. Burnett also is the director of Heartland’s Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy, is the editor of Heartland's Climate Change Weekly email, and oversees the production of the monthly newspaper Environment & Climate News. Prior to joining The Heartland Institute in 2014, Burnett worked at the National Center for Policy Analysis for 18 years, ending his tenure there as senior fellow in charge of environmental policy. He has held various positions in professional and public policy organizations within the field. Burnett is a member of the Environment and Natural Resources Task Force in the Texas Comptroller’s e-Texas commission, served as chairman of the board for the Dallas Woods and Water Conservation Club, is a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, works as an academic advisor for Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow, is an advisory board member to the Cornwall Alliance, and is an advisor for the Energy, Natural Resources and Agricultural Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council.

What is Environment and Climate News Podcast ?

The Heartland Institute podcast featuring scientists, authors, and policy experts who take the non-alarmist, climate-realist position on environment and energy policy.

Steve Gruber: 00:38

Alright. Welcome back to it as we continue with the conversation now. And shifting gears a bit. As you can imagine, these lame duck sessions, man, they wanna get everything done as fast as possible no matter how bad the idea is, like shoveling 1,000,000,000 of dollars, 1,000,000,000 to these half baked green energy deals, which the Biden administration shoveling shoveling your money out the door. I'm not kidding you.

Steve Gruber: 01:02

Sterling Burnett joining me, PhD director of the Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute. Sterling, good morning. Morning. So if I'm reading this correctly, and I believe I am, let's see. We just got 16 so called green loans, which should be called red loans because we're in debt, worth $24,900,000,000.

Steve Gruber: 01:24

They've got another 20 loans, that they're trying to shove through $51,100,000,000. I'm clearly in the wrong business, Sterling. I should be, taking advantage of my local government agency and and and lining my pockets, shouldn't I?

H. Sterling Burnett: 01:38

Well, they call them loans. I'm not convinced they're not just gifts outright. They have been shoveling money out the door for the last 6 months, but it's really accelerated the last, couple of weeks because he's going out the door and he wants to burnish his his legacy, his green virtue signaling credentials. Right? And, so So here's my question.

Steve Gruber: 02:01

Here's my question. Because I'm I'm what what what it'll be like? 33 days, something like that until Donald Trump is inaugurated. I mean Yep. Can't we cancel these loans on January 20th or 21st or whatever?

Steve Gruber: 02:10

Can we just say, okay. That was a bad idea. We're not doing that.

H. Sterling Burnett: 02:14

Well, it depends. If the loans were sanctioned under the, inflation reduction act, a law that was passed, then it's not clear to me that Biden I mean, that Trump will be able to just claw him back. If if they're just through, you know, discretionary spending that Biden has found, he he's claimed that he has access to, then maybe Trump can claw him back. But, you know, in the end, we're talking not just 1,000,000,000. We're talking about 100 of 1,000,000,000 of dollars in the Inflation Reduction Act, which did nothing to reduce inflation.

H. Sterling Burnett: 02:55

It's the most misnamed law ever written as far as I can tell, because it increased inflation. Well, all it did was spend money on, the green new hoax. And so, Donald Trump, president Trump will have his job, will have a real task getting some of that money back and preventing future spending because the spending in the IRA was supposed to be done over years. Biden's trying to get it all done now. Congress is gonna have to help him with some of this stuff because, like I said, they passed a law.

H. Sterling Burnett: 03:31

Biden Trump can't, you know, presidents do like to try and ignore laws, but it's better if they don't. It's better if they go through the proper legal channels. So anything that was done with an executive order, Trump can rescind. Anything that was done, through regulations, he can direct his, regulatory agencies to redo the regulations.

Steve Gruber: 03:52

Sure. So here we are.

H. Sterling Burnett: 03:53

Anything with this. I mean,

Steve Gruber: 03:54

the inflation reduction act is is we've all come to know, Sterling. Had nothing to do with reducing inflation. In fact, it did not. Inflation remains at almost 3%. But we keep shoveling money out the door.

Steve Gruber: 04:07

How many how many 1,000,000,000 of dollars do we spend to have charges built in this country, and there are what? None? None. Like, $8,000,000,000 for zero charges. I get and again, we spent $100,000,000,000 for for Internet service, and we got almost none.

Steve Gruber: 04:22

You know, to be fair, put those jobs in the hands of Elon Musk. We'd have chargers everywhere. We'd have Starlink everywhere. Everybody be interconnected. They have electric cars.

Steve Gruber: 04:31

We'll be cruising around the country. This just goes to show you how bad government is, but it's the it's the fraud that's possible. When you shove loans like this through, just like we saw with PPP during COVID or any other example where you're trying to rush money through. Oh, the money will go away alright. But who gets it?

Steve Gruber: 04:46

Could be committing fraud, and the chance of them getting caught or having to turn that money back in, very small, isn't it? Well, there's

H. Sterling Burnett: 04:52

the difficulty. You know? Look. Going back to, Obama, they sent, 1,000,000,000 of dollars to all sorts of green energy companies. A lot of them, we, more than half of them went bankrupt.

H. Sterling Burnett: 05:06

They went bankrupt after hosting parties, and and donating to Obama's next election campaign. $500,000,000 lost by one company in California, solar company in California. The same thing's happening with, Joe Biden. They're shoveling money out the door and companies battery companies are going under. Wind companies are going under.

H. Sterling Burnett: 05:29

And, some of these things aren't loans. They're grants. And the grants are going to organizations that aren't set up to handle this kind of funding. I mean, they gave to something like 9 or or 10, so called community activist, climate, justice money to some community activist groups last year. One of them had, like, $2,500 in income the previous year.

H. Sterling Burnett: 05:59

His purse his the the director was working out of his home part time, and he gets $500,000,000.

Steve Gruber: 06:06

And a pretty good year. There there

H. Sterling Burnett: 06:08

are any account yeah. A pretty good year.

Steve Gruber: 06:10

Yeah. Whoever's been whoever's been

H. Sterling Burnett: 06:11

No accounting standards.

Steve Gruber: 06:13

I need his grant writer. I mean, because a person with that kind of talent can be employed immediately. Immediately.

H. Sterling Burnett: 06:20

I'm not I'm not sure he had a grant writer. I think that they sought him out. They sought these organizations out. They said, we're gonna give you this money. And it's not clear to me that there's any accounting standards, any transparency or reporting standards, you know, so the government knows that they're doing.

H. Sterling Burnett: 06:36

There may not have been any standards as to how they actually had to spend the money. It's just go out and do good stuff with it in your community for climate change. You help people get retro standards

Steve Gruber: 06:46

at all. That's the problem. I'll certainly leave it there. You know, it's outrageous. It doesn't surprise me.

Steve Gruber: 06:52

I'm watching this this continuing resolution conversation on Capitol Hill. There are no standards. These weasels will take your money and squander it anywhere as long as they can keep their job and get elected next time. Feckless weasels, I think, is the term. Sterling Burnett, thank you for being here.

Steve Gruber: 07:06

Always bring attention to these important things for us. Thank you for what you do.

H. Sterling Burnett: 07:10

Thanks for having me on. Take care, sir.

Steve Gruber: 07:11

Greatly appreciate it. I the Heartland Institute, great folks.