{"id":1833171,"date":"2023-02-02T16:20:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T21:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1833171"},"modified":"2023-02-02T16:21:47","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T21:21:47","slug":"did-anyone-at-doe-actually-do-their-homework-senate-grills-biden-official-over-funding-to-china-based-battery-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/did-anyone-at-doe-actually-do-their-homework-senate-grills-biden-official-over-funding-to-china-based-battery-company\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Did Anyone at DOE Actually Do Their Homework?&#8217;: Senate Grills Biden Official Over Funding to China-Based Battery Company"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdid-anyone-at-doe-actually-do-their-homework-senate-grills-biden-official-over-funding-to-china-based-battery-company%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1833171&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>Senators quizzed the Department of Energy about a $200 million grant to China-based lithium batteries company. Department officials acknowledged that they are still conducting research. &#8220;due diligence review&#8221; The award was announced several months later.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the DOE testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. This comes after lawmakers have scrutinized the DOE over the proposed Microvast grant. <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/doe-touts-200m-grant-to-lithium-battery-company-as-boon-to-american-made-clean-energy-the-company-operates-primarily-from-china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> According to financial records, the majority of the company&#8217;s operations are located in China and the Chinese government. &#8220;exerts substantial influence&#8221; Its business activities.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.The committee&#8217;s ranking Republican, John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), brought a large placard that was based on Microvast\u2019s Securities and Exchange Commission Report. This report revealed the company\u2019s extensive involvement with China.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The company states, and it&#8217;s right here on the board behind me, that it is under the &#8216;substantial influence&#8217;\u2014the &#8216;substantial influence&#8217;\u2014of the People&#8217;s Republic of China, the PRC,&#8221; Barrasso noted that the term was not a new one. &#8220;PRC&#8221; Was &#8220;mentioned 471 times in the company&#8217;s filings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Did anyone at DOE actually do their homework?&#8221; Barrasso asked. &#8220;Did you know if anyone actually bothered to read this?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The DOE grants program is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which includes specific provisions by Congress that prevent federal funds going to China&#8217;s batteries industry. The DOE has supported the award by claiming that Microvast is an a &#8220;majority U.S.-owned company, traded on NASDAQ,&#8221;  &#8220;headquartered in Stafford, Texas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Senator Joe Manchin (D.W.Va.) was the chairman of the committee and told DOE deputy secretary David Turk that he believed that the committee had been successful. &#8220;some concerns&#8221; Microvast: Questions about it &#8220;DOE&#8217;s process for vetting applicants to ensure that we&#8217;re not giving our best ideas to China and funding them to be able to take advantage of it in their marketplace, along with ours.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Turk stated that Microvast hadn&#8217;t received the money yet and that the grant negotiation is ongoing. He stated that the DOE is currently working with U.S. intelligence agents to conduct an analysis. &#8220;extended due diligence process&#8221; All grantees, Microvast included.<\/p>\n<p>Turk also pointed out that it was challenging to find battery companies without strong Chinese ties.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately \u2026 the vast majority of battery manufacturing is in China right now. And a lot of that [intellectual property] is in China right now,&#8221; Turk.<\/p>\n<p>Barrasso, last month sending a <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/endangering-our-national-security-senator-launches-inquiry-into-bidens-200m-grant-to-china-based-battery-company\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Letter<\/a> To the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senators grilled the Department of Energy over a $200 million grant to a China-based lithium battery company during a hearing on Thursday, as department officials admitted they are still conducting a &#8220;due diligence review&#8221; of the business months after announcing the award.<br \/>\nThe post &#8216;Did Anyone at DOE Actually Do Their Homework?&#8217;: Senate Grills Biden Official Over Funding to China-Based Battery Company appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":1833174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[6973,6737,3620,8329,5425,8328,6513,8745,7606,4808,3740],"class_list":["post-1833171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-did","tag-battery","tag-biden","tag-china-based","tag-company","tag-doe","tag-funding","tag-grills","tag-homework","tag-official","tag-senate"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1833171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1833174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1833171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1833171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1833171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}