- David Crane, the former CEO of NRG Energy who abruptly resigned from his job in 2015 as bad investments in green energy dragged down the company’s stock price, now works for the Department of Energy (DOE) to manage billions of taxpayer dollars designated for investments in green energy.
- He will be shelling out billions of taxpayer dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan infrastructure law to subsidize some technologies that critics assert are not yet effective or economically viable at scale.
- Crane “was one of the first that I heard say, ‘this is a moral issue,'” Leah Seligmann, a former sustainability executive for NRG under Crane, said of her old boss, according to E&E News. Crane also served for a time on the board of a Saudi Arabian utility firm, and the company paid him $100,000 in 2021.
David Crane, NRG Energy’s former CEO who abruptly resigned in December 2015 after making a series of green investments that failed to pan out, is now working for the Biden administration to manage billions of taxpayer dollars designated for green energy projects.
During Crane’s tenure at NRG, his large investments in green energy projects yielded poor returns for investors and devastated the firm’s stock price, prompting his resignation from the company, according to The Wall Street Journal. Crane now serves as the DOE’s undersecretary for infrastructure, where he is tasked with shelling out billions of taxpayer dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan infrastructure law to subsidize hydrogen energy, carbon capture and other green technologies, according to E&E News.
Additionally, Crane will be responsible for overseeing DOE loans designed to subsidize battery factories. Crane believes that countering climate change stands as the “moral imperative of our time,” according to the White House. (RELATED: Top EPA Official Pushing EVs Can’t Say How Much Electricity America Uses In A Year)
The green agenda has always been more about control than the environment https://t.co/1wbHBRN39Y
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 29, 2023
Under Crane, NRG began to make big bets on green energy in 2009, according to Reuters, eventually investing about $1 billion into the sector, according to E&E News. At the beginning of 2015, the firm’s shares were trading at around $27, but ultimately declined to about $11 per share by the time Crane left the firm in December of that year, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
NRG’s share price fell by nearly 60% over the course of 2015, but it had rebounded by 63% by June 2016, about six months after Crane stepped down in December 2015, according to USA Today.
“As I sit here today, I can’t define for you the difference between a volt and a watt,” Crane told E&E News in an interview. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm praised Crane’s “deep knowledge of the energy sector” in June after the Senate confirmed him to the influential DOE post.
“He was one of the first that I heard say, ‘This is a moral issue,'” Leah Seligmann, a former sustainability executive for NRG under Crane, said of her old boss, according to E&E News. “His reputation was being a few years ahead.”
Crane wrote a column for CNBC in July 2016 under the headline “I’m voting for Hillary Clinton—and I think most CEOs will, too.” The piece effusively praises Hillary Clinton, explaining why Crane was “hoping, praying and voting for Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, former Senator from New York, and former Secretary of State, to become the 45th President of the United States” in the 2016 cycle, highlighting her perceived leadership skills and green energy ambitions while criticizing the energy positions of former President Donald Trump, who defeated Clinton that November.
During Crane’s tenure with NRG, the company partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative in 2010, donating about $1 million to develop a solar project in Haiti, according to E&E News. Adam Davidson, a reporter who has moderated several CGI events, said in 2016 that the CGI is “all about buying access.”
“Mr. Crane’s nomination is bad news for Kentucky, for coal country and for any American who enjoys making their own choices about which cars to drive, which products to consume and how to earn a living,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said of Crane’s nomination. Crane has the record of a “climate zealot,” Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming said in June.
Crane served on the board of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned utility company, which paid him around $100,000 in 2021 for his insights. Neither the White House nor DOE mentioned Crane’s connection to Saudi Arabia in statements praising him ahead of his confirmation, despite Biden’s 2019 pledge to make Saudi Arabia an international “pariah,” but both official statements celebrated Crane’s prior work with climate-focused energy organizations that seek to implement climate initiatives.
“I’m very bullish on the idea that within three to five years, people will be able to go off the grid,” Crane told USA Today in a May 2014 interview.
DOE did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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