RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week June 29 to July 5 Featured Investigation: In its final days, the Biden administration's Energy Department approved a staggering $93 billion in green energy loans, with nearly $42 billion committed in just the last two working days—exceeding the previous decade's total loan disbursements. This frenzied spending occurred despite warnings from the department's Inspector General about potential conflicts of interest, James Varney reports for RealClearInvestigations. - The spending spree was fueled by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which injected $400 billion into the previously modest Loan Programs Office (LPO), representing more than 10 times the office's largest previous annual commitment. The rush appeared designed to lock in funding before the incoming Trump administration could redirect uncommitted money away from clean energy projects.
- Several high-profile deals have already soured, raising fears of multiple "Solyndra" scenarios. Sunnova, a solar company with $382 million guaranteed from a $3.3 billion loan, filed for bankruptcy. Li-Cycle, approved for $445 million, also went bankrupt and was put up for sale. Other troubled deals include Zum Energy's $705 million electric school bus project and Blue Oval SK's $9.63 billion battery manufacturing venture.
- The Biden administration made regulatory changes in 2023 that weakened traditional loan protections, making "conditional commitments" equivalent to actual loans and moving funds into "obligated" categories that are harder for successor administrations to cancel. Critics argue this transformed the LPO into a "graveyard energy venture capital fund."
- Current Energy Secretary Chris Wright has launched a comprehensive review of the post-election deals, implementing new guidelines requiring more detailed financial and technological assessments. However, the Trump administration plans to retain the LPO for nuclear projects and critical mineral development rather than eliminate it entirely.
- Close to $300 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding remains uncommitted, which the Trump administration aims to redirect toward nuclear energy and projects that reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese supply chains for critical minerals.
Featured Investigation: Vince Bielski reports for RealClearInvestigations on a groundbreaking federal tax credit program buried in the massive budget bill that could represent the most significant expansion of private school choice. - The program would provide K-12 scholarships funded through tax credits, marking the first major federal initiative to expand private school choice nationwide.
- The Senate parliamentarian initially objected to the program being included in the budget bill, forcing Republicans to amend it to require state approval—potentially limiting its effectiveness in Democratic strongholds.
- The program offers unprecedented 100% tax credits equal to donation amounts.
- Scholarship eligibility extends to families earning up to 300% of median income—including 90% of U.S. households. In Washington D.C., families earning up to $464,000 would qualify, raising concerns about subsidizing wealthy families.
- Local nonprofits called scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) would distribute funds with minimal oversight, able to favor specific religious, economic, or ideological groups in awarding scholarships.
- Religious groups are mobilizing to capture scholarship funds, with Catholic organizations particularly active as their school enrollment has declined 13% over the past decade.
- LGBTQ students face potential discrimination risks, as religious schools can claim Title IX exemptions based on religious tenets, despite receiving federal funding.
- Research from Arizona shows wealthier families participate at higher rates than low-income families in universal choice programs, contradicting the movement's original focus on disadvantaged students.
- The program's fate remains uncertain as Congress works toward President Trump's July 4 deadline for budget passage.
Waste of the Day by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books $644,457 Overtime Checks in Los Angeles, RCI Immigration’s Big Cost to States, RCI Covid Loans For 11-Year-Olds, RCI Pakistani Sesame Street Fraud, RCI Maryland Recklessly Increases Payroll, RCI Trump 2.0 and the Beltway CIA Rebukes Its 2016 Russian Election Interference Report, New York Post Flashback: Evidence Didn't Support Trump-Russia Assessment, RCI Inside Trump’s Push to Pass the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’, The Hill Trump's Trade Policy Send Customs Revenue Soaring, Axios FBI Uncovers ‘Largest Health Care Fraud’ in U.S. History, Epoch Times How Treasury Dept. Became Sitting Duck for Hackers, Bloomberg DOJ Targets Naturalized Citizens Who Commit Crimes, Guardian Remark About Gold Bars, Secretly Recorded, Upended Man’s Life, New York Times How Hunter Biden Helped Derail His Father’s Reelection, WSJ Other Noteworthy Articles and Series New York Times The Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel has long operated a global empire built through alliances with criminal groups and affiliates from the Americas to New Zealand – reaping millions of dollars from smuggling drugs like fentanyl. This article reports that a crackdown by Mexico and the United States now threatens the cartel, leading a powerful splinter group to forge a “desperate alliance” with a rival gang. A faction of the cartel led by sons of the drug lord known as El Chapo have allied with an old and powerful adversary, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to four people familiar with the matter. The risky move by El Chapo’s sons could ultimately turn the Jalisco cartel into the world’s biggest drug trafficker — a shift that could potentially redraw alliances and power structures across international drug markets, analysts say. … The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels had waged a bloody, years-long turf war across Mexico, terrorizing millions of people in the process. … “It’s like if the eastern coast of the U.S. seceded during the Cold War and reached out to the Soviet Union,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on nonstate armed groups at the Brookings Institution. “This has global implications for how the conflict will unfold and how criminal markets will reorganize.” But this article – based on interviews with “operatives affiliated with the cartel put themselves in danger by speaking to The New York Times” – reports this alliance may also be a sign of the dramatic weakening of the cartel. Mexico has moved aggressively against fentanyl trafficking in recent months, deploying thousands of troops to the Sinaloa Cartel’s home state. The Trump administration says that seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped 30 percent. Washington Free Beacon In 2024, James Varney reported for RealClearInvestigations on the unparalleled fundraising organizations created by the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Filled with current members of Congress and representatives from some of America’s largest corporations, these independent but closely aligned nonprofit arms of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute operate outside of normal campaign finance laws to raise millions of dollars each year. Now, this article from the Washington Free Beacon reports that a prime contributor – retail store giant Target, which has given $1.4 to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation since 2020 – is facing blowback after cutting off the money. The Congressional Black Caucus is boosting a boycott effort against retail giant Target for ending its DEI initiatives, a rollback that included the termination of a corporate sponsorship program that has been lucrative for the caucus’s nonprofit arm. … Target shut off the cash spigot for all of its DEI programs in January in response to President Donald Trump’s executive action on DEI. The company announced it will wind down REACH and reevaluate "corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth," seemingly putting funding for the CBC Foundation on the chopping block. This article reports that “while activist groups have long used boycott threats to pressure companies into making favorable changes, some organizers have used them as a negotiating tactic to line their own pockets. [Al] Sharpton, the MSNBC host, has been repeatedly accused of dangling boycott threats against companies, only to cancel them at the last minute after striking a deal with the boycott target. Sebastian Herrera, WSJ Amazon is about to reach a new milestone in drive to automate its operations: It will soon use as many robots as humans at its warehouses. This article reports that the e-commerce giant has already deployed more than one million robots to perform tasks previously done by people. Company warehouses buzz with metallic arms plucking items from shelves and wheeled droids that motor around the floors ferrying the goods for packaging. In other corners, automated systems help sort the items, which other robots assist in packaging for shipment. One of Amazon’s newer robots, called Vulcan, has a sense of touch that enables it to pick items from numerous shelves. Amazon has taken recent steps to connect its robots to its order-fulfillment processes, so the machines can work in tandem with each other and with humans. This article reports that some 75% of Amazon’s global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics, which help it improve productivity, while easing pressure on the company to solve problems such as heavy staff turnover at its fulfillment centers. In a separate article, the Washington Post reports that as technology makes it easier for people to apply for jobs, employers are increasingly using “virtual recruiters” to screen applicants. “The conversational agents, built on large language models, help recruiting firms and hiring companies respond to every applicant, conduct interviews around-the-clock and find the best candidate in increasingly large talent pools. … The agent then passes on summaries or transcripts, and sometimes video or audio recordings, to human recruiters.” AP Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian arrived in the U.S. from Iran 1978 on a student visa and applied for asylum. She lost her bid, but has been allowed to stay in the country these past 47 years so long as she checked in regularly with immigration. She was gardening in the yard of her New Orleans home, this article reports, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers handcuffed her and took her away. Other Iranians are also getting arrested by immigration authorities after decades in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security won’t say how many people they’ve arrested, but U.S. military strikes on Iran have fueled fears that there is more to come. “Some level of vigilance, of course, makes sense, but what it seems like ICE has done is basically give out an order to round up as many Iranians as you can, whether or not they’re linked to any threat and then arrest them and deport them, which is very concerning,” said Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group. This article reports that, while Iranians have been crossing the border illegally for years, especially since 2021 “they have faced little risk of being deported to their home countries due to severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. That seems to no longer be the case.” Reuters The removal of President Bashar al-Assad has not brought an end to state-sponsored ethnic violence in Syria. This article reports on a wave of killings by Sunni fighters in Alawite communities along Syria’s Mediterranean coast from March 7 to 9. The violence came in response to a day-old rebellion organized by former officers loyal to Assad. A Reuters investigation has pieced together how the massacres unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus. Reuters found nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing. The investigation revealed 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the fallen Assad government. The days of killing exposed the deep polarization in Syria that its new government has yet to overcome, between people who supported Assad, whether tacitly or actively, and those who hoped the rebellion against him would ultimately succeed. Many in Syria resent Alawites, who enjoyed disproportionate influence inside the military and government during Assad’s two-decade rule. This article reports the Reuters findings come as the Trump administration is gradually lifting sanctions on Syria that date back to Assad’s rule. The rapprochement is an awkward one for Washington: Syria’s new government is led by a now-dissolved Islamist faction, formerly known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which was previously al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, known as the Nusra Front. |
