ASKS WHY DOE IS SITTING ON BILLIONS OF UNUSED DOLLARS INSTEAD OF RETURNING THEM TO TAXPAYERS

WASHINGTON, APRIL 18, 2012 – “The average national price of a gallon of regular gasoline is nearly $4,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  “Compounding this pain, the Department of Energy (DOE), the custodian of $35 billion in stimulus funding, has all too often taken its eye off job creation, drawn instead to high-risk ventures with known questions over commercial viability such as Solyndra and other failures.” 

As Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Stearns is conducting a series of hearings on President Obama’s pledge to conduct a line-by-line review of agency budgets.    Today’s hearing hosted witnesses from the DOE and the Government Accountability Office.

During the hearing, Stearns asked a series of questions on DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program that subsidizes the development of electric cars and other advanced vehicles. Stearns noted, “To date, DOE has closed five loans totaling $8.4 billion on the ATVM loans, which is Tesla, and Fisker, those kind of automobile subsidies, and there have been no new loans closed since 2011.  And there’s $4.2 billion, I understand, remaining...authorized but unobligated for loan subsidies.  Is this correct?  Christopher Johns, Director of the DOE Budget Office indicated yes.  Stearns pressed on, “Is it possible that you can give this money back to the taxpayers?”  Johns responded, “The loan program is currently reviewing multiple applications, I don’t know the status of those individual applications right now.” 

Johns wrote to the Committee last November and acknowledged that DOE was not on the list of 15 agencies that heeded the President’s April 2009 order to cabinet secretaries to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts by July 2009.

Added Stearns, “Rather than gambling in the casino of risky green energy investments, DOE should be using taxpayer dollars prudently to help get Americans back to work while assuring them reliable access to affordable energy.”