A new grant application released by the Department of Energy (DOE) on Wednesday showed President Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure law is being used to fund diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in solar power companies.
The $10 million grant seeks to incentivize the creation of DEI programs in solar power unions and bolster underrepresented minority employment in the solar power industry, according to the grant. The grant originates from funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed into law in January.
Individual grant recipients will receive up to $1.5 million, the grant states.
Unions are a vital vehicle for the project’s ambitions, the grant states, as funding should “encourage meaningful engagement” and “participation” in labor unions and “underserved minority communities.”
We must use the force. ☄️ Learn what it takes to be a JEDI – a force for change for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in the solar industry during our May 4 webinar. Sign up here: https://t.co/oaVNjBX6X9 pic.twitter.com/dtohei1bha
— U.S. Department of Energy (@ENERGY) April 29, 2021
“These grants enrich the activists, bureaucrats and lawyers who make their living from these programs, but nobody else,” said Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.(RELATED: ‘Time To Save American Taxpayers Money’ And Embrace Green New Deal, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti Says)
The grant justifies its actions under a broad provision in Biden’s infrastructure law to empower the DOE to incentivize research, development, demonstration and commercialization activities relating to solar energy technologies, which includes conducting workforce development activities, according to the grant.
Daniel Kish, a senior vice president for policy at the American Energy Alliance, told the Daily Caller News Foundation the grant pushes for taxpayer-funded community activism. Kish said these types of politically motivated grants have a “terrible record” when it comes to creating any new jobs beyond enriching the politically well-connected organizations that can lobby for the award.
“What they are doing is creating taxpayer-funded advocates,” Kish explained. “The people pushing these programs are already hooked up to taxpayer IV and the ones who profit. You’re giving people jobs based on their political motivations.”
Kish added that this grant operates beyond the DOE’s purpose, which was initially to regulate the technology involved in energy use. This policy gives the DOE a broad mandate to incentivize labor’s right to collective bargaining while educating diversity, equity and inclusion workplace principles.
“It’s really about building the foot soldiers in this fight,” Kish explained. “They’ve consistently been doing that. If they can get a bunch of people hooked up and incentivized by money to advocate these issues, they can effectively motivate changes to the system.”
“It’s crooked as hell,” Kish said.
The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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