Biden Administration Requires Diversity Pledge from Companies Seeking Decarbonization Funds

On Wednesday, the Biden Administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new plan for a $6.3 billion decarbonization fund that will only be available to companies that first submit a pledge to “diversity.”

According to the Daily Caller, companies can only apply for funding from the Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP) after they submit a “Community Benefits Plan.” The plan must outline each individual company’s dedication to four policy goals of the administration: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); investment in America’s workforce; engaging communities and labor; and implementing aspects of a plan called “Justice 40,” which pledges to spend at least 40 percent of federal spending projects focusing on minority communities that are allegedly disproportionately impacted by “pollution.”

The IDP focuses on “decarbonization technologies” in the industrial sector, including the use of such materials as iron, steel, concrete, cement, and aluminum, among others. The program will be primarily funded by the controversial Inflation Reduction Act, a massive spending bill that, despite its name, focuses less on inflation and instead prioritizes spending on “green energy” and other initiatives to fight so-called “global warming.”

“It’s an opportunity, really, to accelerate transformational projects for the industrial sector taking concepts that might have required decades, plural decades, to prove out and scale, and shrinking that timeline down to this decade,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm when announcing the implementation of the IDP. “It’s an important chance to make progress on our climate goals, especially slashing pollution from a sector that contributes roughly a third of the country’s carbon emission.”

The program is just the latest effort by the Biden Administration to implement a widely-ridiculed plan that aims to make the United States “carbon-free” by 2050. Granholm nevertheless claimed that the initiative will also help the U.S. maintain a “competitive edge” and its “ability to build and lead new markets.”

About Eric Lendrum

Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22). He is currently a co-host of The Right Take podcast.

Photo: GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 04: U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm speaks to delegates during day five of COP26 at SECC on November 3, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. Today COP26 will focus on accelerating the global transition to clean energy. The 2021 climate summit in Glasgow is the 26th "Conference of the Parties" and represents a gathering of all the countries signed on to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Climate Agreement. The aim of this year's conference is to commit countries to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

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