Among the first beneficiaries of the inflation reduction law is a green energy company connected to the White House

With green energy company Close relationship with the White House It was among the first companies to take advantage of tax incentives in the Inflationary Reduction Act (IRA), the Democrats’ flagship climate package.

Form Energy — a Massachusetts-based company that develops utility-scale metal-air battery systems — announced in December that it would invest up to $760 million to build a plant four months after Congress passed the IRA. The Weirton, West Virginia plant was one of the first clean energy projects to benefit directly from the IRA and was featured in the White House.

“These investments are creating good-paying jobs that enhance U.S. competitiveness, build infrastructure, strengthen supply chains and help build a clean energy economy, including union and industry jobs that don’t require a four-year degree. White House information highlighting private sector investments in West Virginia, including form energy Paper in March.

Congress passed the IRA on party lines in August 2022. The bill, which the Democrats heralded as a major success of the Biden administration, managed to pass the Senate in the first place Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Support.

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President Biden hands Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., the pen he used to sign the inflation-reduction bill at the White House on Aug. 16. They moved to give. (Drew Anger/Getty Images)

“West Virginia continues to be a leader in energy innovation, and the good-paying jobs and new economic opportunities this will bring are what I had in mind when I discussed the inflation reduction legislation,” Manchin said on Dec. 22. The announcement.

Form Energy, meanwhile, has raised $450 million in private funding for IRA tax credits, and Form Energy CEO Matteo Jaramillo told the Wall Street Journal last year that the law would “make everyone feel more confident.” The battery maker’s key investor is Breakthrough Energy, billionaire Bill Gates’ green energy investment firm.

An IRA, which is a A staggering 369 billion dollars Climate investments include tax breaks for clean energy plants built on former dirty energy facilities and battery storage projects like the one proposed by Form Energy. The company’s plant is to be built on the site of a closed steel plant.

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“After a year-long national site selection process that identified more than 500 candidate sites in 16 states, Weirton, West Virginia—a historic steel community on a river with a rich heritage and expertise—was clearly the right choice for making great things out of steel—for the first commercial battery.” Our manufacturing plant is an ideal location,” Jaramillo said in a statement at the time.

President Biden has aggressively pushed clean energy as part of his climate agenda. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

However, on November 9, shortly before the announcement, Jaramillo, the White House’s deputy director for clean energy innovation and implementation, showed the visitor logs to meet privately with the White House. It was Costa. He was hired for the position In early September, President Biden chose Clean Energy Czar John Podesta in the White House to oversee the implementation of the IRA.

In addition to Jaramillo, Nidhi Thakkar, Form Energy’s vice president of policy and regulation; Michael Carr, partner at the green energy lobby and consulting firm Boundary Stone; and Yogin Kothari, senior vice president of Boundary Stone, attended the meeting.

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Form Energy paid Carr and Kothari $200,000 last year to lobby for the company’s policy priorities, according to federal lobbying disclosures.

And Thakkar previously served as co-chairman of Clean Energy for Biden, an organization formed to help President Biden get elected in 2020. Archived copies of the group’s website have since been purged. In August 2021, Thakar and Podesta was also called. For America’s Clean Energy Board of Directors, a group “committed to advancing an equitable and inclusive clean energy economy.”

Thackeray and Jaramillo attended the IRA signing ceremony at the White House on September 13. Also on October 24, Thakkar attended the Diwali reception at the White House.

Christina Costa, White House Deputy Director for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation He spoke during a panel in 2019. Costa met with Form Energy executives and lobbyists in November. (C-SPAN 2/Video Screenshot)

A White House spokesman, however, said the Biden administration was not involved in Form Energy’s selection process for the West Virginia plant.

“The White House was not involved in this decision and did not endorse any site selection,” White House spokesman Michael Kikkuwa told Fox News Digital. “This was an independent decision based on the private company’s own fundraising process and investment criteria.”

“We are proud that the President’s investment in America’s agenda — including the Deinflation Act — is unlocking private sector investment in communities across the country,” Kikukawa added.

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Kikukawa also noted that Form Energy is not the first company to announce a project enabled by the Depreciation Act.

White House climate czar John Podesta speaks at the White House Electrification Summit on December 14. (White House/Video Screenshot)

Form Energy spokeswoman Sarah Bray told Fox News Digital that “the White House had no say in the form’s seating decision.” “We conducted a comprehensive site selection process for the location of our first high-volume battery manufacturing plant and Werton, West Virginia came back as the clear choice for several reasons.”

“Both Senator Manchin and Senator Capito are in favor of bringing our battery manufacturing facility to the state of West Virginia, which will employ 750 people at an average salary of at least $63,000 a year when fully operational,” she said.

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Bray added that Thakar’s role with Clean energy for Biden Her previous work at Form Energy and her role with Clean Energy for America are in a “personal capacity outside of her role at Form Energy.” Bray also said the meeting between Thakar, Jaramillo, Carr, Kothari and Costa at the White House in November was extensive about the development of form energy technology.

A spokeswoman for Manchin said the West Virginia legislature was eager to approve the battery plant last year, but would not comment on his involvement in the project.

“Senator Manchin never misses an opportunity to highlight the abundant resources and strong workforce that West Virginia has to offer businesses of the future,” Manchin spokesman Sam Runyon told Fox News Digital. “Form Energy is no different and is thrilled to have decided to expand their footprint in Wirton.”

And Mitch Carmichael, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, said the state has worked to attract renewable energy investment, but the state has not coordinated with the White House.

“I’m personally very excited about this deal,” Carmichael said in an interview. “I had to go through this a million ways to put this transaction together. So we’re very happy with it. But we never made it to the White House.”