If you want to know why trust in government is at an all-time low, a recent viral exchange exposing the blatant ethical conflicts of a top Biden official perfectly captures why so many Americans are fed up with Washington D.C.
Last week, at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked Democratic Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner (FERC) Allison Clements about reports that she addressed a progressive “funders event” for her former client and employer: an extreme left-wing environmental group called the Energy Foundation. Clements served as both a Program Director for the Energy Foundation’s “Clean Energy Markets” program, and later was a paid consultant for the organization.
FERC may appear to be just an obscure government bureaucracy to most Americans, but this agency has immense power to regulate critical energy projects, impacting livelihoods across the country. That’s why this revelation has raised red flags for government ethics experts. Even an Energy Foundation official privately suggested in emails that her presence supporting the funding of a group that seeks to influence FERC policy would appear to be “inappropriate.” And while Clements insisted in the hearing that she only gave her standard “stump speech,” she was thanked for “having an hour to discuss these thorny issues.”
Making matters worse, Commissioner Clements’ apparent “defense” was that “almost everyone I speak to has a financial interest in the energy industry.” She managed to both duck the real issue of privately briefing a former client’s funders on how her agency poses an “opportunity” and suggests that this clearly unethical behavior is a standard practice for her office. Emails do confirm that Commissioner Clements regularly met with key officials with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), another climate group she previously worked for.
One major difference between the types of organizations Clements might address is that while some have a vested interest in overall regulatory or policymaking outcomes, these groups are competing in an open marketplace and generalized policy “stump speeches” don’t necessarily give any entity an advantage over the other.
On the other hand, there are organizations whose funders benefit from receiving taxpayer monies in the form of grants, subsidies, and government contracts, as well as from government policies that serve to pick winners and losers in a particular marketplace. With donations in 2020 at $186 million (!!), the Energy Foundation (and it’s donors) are investing heavily in fundamentally transforming America’s energy sector—the essence of picking winners and losers, and giving rise to the same kinds of taxpayer-funded boondoggles as Solyndra.
Clements also insisted that her actions were cleared by internal ethics advisors. Oddly, FERC still claims after eight months that it has yet to find any records of such consultation, despite that the same group that exposed these emails, the Institute for Energy Research, filed suit last year to force their release. Senator Hawley responded that he was “extremely disturbed” by the pattern of unethical behavior Clements's answer revealed. He should be.
However, what makes the lack of transparency even more disturbing are the reported foreign ties of the Energy Foundation and the National Resources Defense Council, both of which have Chinese-based affiliates with direct ties to the Chinese government. It’s no secret that China directly benefits from the Biden administration’s green energy agenda because of their near monopoly on rare earth minerals used in electric vehicles and solar panels. The Biden administration also continues to award taxpayer funding to Beijing-backed green energy companies. Considering the lack of transparency surrounding these groups, it raises concerns about the influence foreign powers are exerting on America’s energy policies, which have clear geopolitical implications around the world.
This is only one example of ethical conflicts between top Biden officials and Democrats and green energy interests. In 2021, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm profited $1.6 million from selling her holdings in an electric bus maker after President Biden toured the company as part of his administration’s ongoing push for electric vehicles, and there are numerous more troubling examples. In the last several years, we have seen at least one member of Congress press policies on green energy (at FERC and elsewhere) that would benefit his former businesses and those of his family members.
Senator Hawley should be applauded for helping to bring attention to these alarming concerns, but one hearing is not sufficient accountability. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Given the seriousness and broad scope of potential ethical conflicts posed by these revelations, a thorough investigation of Commissioner Clements and the ongoing ties between other Biden administration officials and green energy groups is surely needed.
Andrew Langer is President of the Institute for Liberty.
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