{"id":1917468,"date":"2023-04-21T01:41:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T05:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/granholm-200-million-grant-to-china-based-company-still-under-consideration\/"},"modified":"2023-04-21T01:43:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T05:43:16","slug":"granholm-200-million-grant-to-china-based-company-still-under-consideration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/granholm-200-million-grant-to-china-based-company-still-under-consideration\/","title":{"rendered":"Granholm: $200 Million Grant to China-Based Company Still Under Consideration"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fgranholm-200-million-grant-to-china-based-company-still-under-consideration%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=1917468&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--><section id=\"article\">\n<article data-post-title=\"Granholm: $200 Million Grant to China-Based Company Still Under Consideration\" data-post-slug=\"http:\/\/flashback-choom-gang-president-votes-for-self-at-precisely-420\" data-post-url id=\"print-1720296\">\n<div>\n<p><h2>Taxpayer money meant to bolster U.S. energy production could instead benefit Chinese entities<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption> \t\t\t\tSecretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told a Senate committee the Department of Energy is still considering giving a $200 million grant to Microvast, a China-based lithium battery company, despite months of pushback from Congress.\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That particular award is still under negotiation,&#8221; said Granholm during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee hearing on Thursday, adding that the DOE is &#8220;very vigilant about making sure that no taxpayer dollars goes to any state owned enterprise or Chinese influenced company.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was the first time Granholm has faced in-person questions from Congress over the proposed award. Lawmakers have urged the DOE to drop the grant, noting that the infrastructure law funding is intended to bolster American energy production and prevent federal dollars from going to Chinese entities.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing also comes days after DOE\u2019s top watchdog, Inspector General Teri Donaldson, warned Congress that her office is &#8220;woefully underfunded&#8221; and doesn\u2019t have the resources to properly investigate the department\u2019s spending, including &#8220;those big fraud cases that we all know are coming just because this is a lot of money moving fast.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The DOE has defended the proposed grant, saying that Microvast is headquartered in Texas and the money would be used to build a battery separator facility in Tennessee. According to Microvast\u2019s financial records, the company&#8217;s operations are primarily based in China and the Chinese government &#8220;exerts substantial influence&#8221; over its business activities, the <em>Washington Free Beacon <\/em>first <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> last year.<\/p>\n<p>During the hearing, Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) noted that the majority of Microvast\u2019s revenue comes from China and just 1 percent from the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Barrasso also cited a statement from a Chinese government entity that said it &#8220;successfully recruited Microvast\u2019s CEO to return from the United States to China under their talent program.&#8221; China\u2019s talent recruitment programs are often a cover for trade secret theft and economic espionage, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/investigate\/counterintelligence\/the-china-threat\/chinese-talent-plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to the FBI.\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The CEO is a participant in the Chinese Communist Party talent program,&#8221; said Barrasso. &#8220;Can you assure us today that you will not go forward with the $200 million award to Microvast or any other company under such significant Chinese influence?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Granholm declined to rule it out, saying the DOE is still conducting due diligence on the grant and &#8220;we&#8217;ll get back to you on the final conclusions on that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taxpayer money meant to bolster U.S. energy production could instead benefit Chinese entities Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm \/ Getty Images Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told a Senate committee the Department of Energy is still considering giving a $200 million grant to Microvast, a China-based lithium battery company, despite months of pushback from Congress. &#8220;That<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":1917469,"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":[11506,8329,5425,16450,16195,5581],"class_list":["post-1917468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-11506","tag-china-based","tag-company","tag-consideration","tag-granholm","tag-grant"],"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\/1917468","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=1917468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}