DOE nominee has extensive energy industry ties

E&E DAILY | President Joe Biden’s pick for a top Department of Energy position has significant ties to the energy industry, including to Saudi and Japanese electricity companies.

The Senate is considering David Crane’s nomination this week to be DOE’s undersecretary for infrastructure, with a procedural vote scheduled for Tuesday.

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced the nomination last month by a vote of 13-6, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in support.

Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, an ethics watchdog, has been harshly critical of the Biden administration. Crane’s nomination is no exception.

“It’s worth noting many of his former employers and those with whom he had financial interests have been greatly enriched by the Biden Administration’s green energy agenda. If confirmed, it would certainly not be a surprise to see those entities enriched even further as DOE doles out billions from the Infrastructure and [Inflation Reduction Act] laws, which have an express goal of supercharging the clean energy industry that made him a millionaire several times over,” Chamberlain said in a statement.