(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The disgraced former CEO of NRG Energy recently took a job with the Biden administration managing billions of taxpayer dollars for green energy initiatives, after reportedly driving the company into the ground.
David Crane suddenly resigned in December of 2015 after several failed investments destroyed the company’s stock value, according to the Daily Caller.
NRG made several hefty investments into green energy in 2009, totaling around $1 billion. Over time, as it became clear the investments were not going to pan out, the company’s shares dropped from $27 to $11.
Crane resigned in December 2015 and shares rebounded by 63% in the following six months.
Crane recently moved into the public sector as the Department of Energy’s undersecretary for infrastructure, where he passed out hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds to finance hydrogen energy, carbon capture and other green energy tech.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recruited Crane to the Biden team, praising his knowledge of the energy sector in June after his confirmation.
Another task the former CEO received was overseeing DOE loans meant to subsidize battery factories.
Crane was one of the first major public officials to brand climate change as the “moral imperative of our time.”
In his time as a Big Energy exec, Crane also built up connections with the Clinton family, and even wrote a column “hoping, praying and voting for Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, former Senator from New York, and former Secretary of State, to become the 45th President of the United States.”
NRG also partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative under his tenure. Crane donated $1 million in company funds to develop solar power in Haiti.
“Mr. Crane’s nomination is bad news for Kentucky, for coal country and for any American who enjoys making their own choices about which cars to drive, which products to consume and how to earn a living,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said of Crane’s nomination.
Crane also previously did business with the Saudi Arabian government, a fact that the Biden administration celebrated despite previous promises to make the Middle Eastern nation a “pariah.”
