Free Republic

Energy Department's inspector general warned that agency officials are not complying with conflict-of-interest rulesThe 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...

Donald Trump rewarded the tycoons behind the shale boom, among his most ardent supporters, with the selection Saturday of Chris Wright as his nominee for Energy Secretary. Wright was front-and-center for the fracking revolution that reshaped the country as a band of scrappy wildcatters that reinvigorated U.S. oil and gas production to record heights. His $2.8 billion company, Liberty Energy, pumps water and sand underground to frack customers’ wells. Wright’s selection elevates a pugnacious branch of the oil-and-gas industry that is skeptical of climate-change science and mostly hasn’t pledged to build out low-carbon energy businesses, unlike giants Exxon Mobil and...