Biden Energy Loan Czar Awarded $1.6B Government Loan to Company Advised By His Current Business Partner

Biden Energy Loan Czar Awarded $1.6B Government Loan to Company Advised By His Current Business Partner

  • May 29, 2025
Thomas Catenacci, Free Beacon
Biden energy loan czar Jigar Shah signed off on a $1.6 billion taxpayer-funded loan last year that now appears to have directly benefited his current business partner, Jonathan Silver. Previously unreported corporate filings reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show that Silver worked as a consultant for the project’s developer after spending years on its board of directors.
The Department of Energy’s loan office, which Shah led between early 2021 and 2025, awarded the lucrative loan to New York-based Plug Power in May 2024 to help finance six of the company’s planned green hydrogen production facilities. In one of his final moves before departing the office, Shah’s team closed on the loan on Jan. 16, 2025.

The timing of the loan disbursement means Silver served on Plug Power’s board when the company negotiated with Shah’s team and worked as a consultant when the loan was announced. In a disclosure Plug Power filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, the company said Silver had resigned from its board of directors and entered into a 12-month consulting agreement with it that would be in effect until July 2024.

Silver first joined the board of Plug Power in 2018. In that role, Silver earned a cash salary, stocks, and options totaling as much as $143,645 per year, additional filings showed.

The revelation that Silver worked for Plug Power while the company engaged directly with Shah and his team at the Biden DOE raises key ethics questions in light of the pair’s announcement last month that they would launch a green energy advisory firm together. In a LinkedIn post, Shah said he and Silver would help accelerate the growth of green energy startups in exchange for “modest equity stakes.”

Michael Chamberlain, the director of conservative watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust, added that Shah and Silver’s relationship appears “very swampy.” “This appears to be just the latest incident demonstrating why the American public’s trust in its government virtually disappeared during Shah’s tenure,” he said.

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