On Friday, The Washington Free Beacon reported that a company owned by a man who gave generously to the Biden campaign has received a $500 million government loan to build a manufacturing facility in India. Why is the government giving out loans to build manufacturing facilities in India instead of in America? Isn’t it an incredible coincidence that a large donor to the Biden campaign receives a $500 million government loan?
The article reports:
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation granted the loan to First Solar, which is owned by billionaire Walmart heir Lukas Walton, to build a solar module plant in India. Walton contributed over $300,000 to President Joe Biden’s campaign last year, and over $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee, according to campaign finance records.
The loan to First Solar is the “largest single debt financing transaction” issued by the DFC, the agency announced this week. The DFC said the investment in the India project will “promote DFC’s commitment to diversifying supply chains,” following demands from lawmakers that the agency avoid funding any solar projects connected to forced labor in China.
Ethics watchdogs said the loan raises questions about whether First Solar’s political connections played a role in the DFC’s decision. The federal financing agency, which was formerly known as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, has faced criticism in the past for funding projects linked to political donors. The loan also comes nine years after the Obama administration came under fire for approving $3 billion in loan guarantees to the same company—funding that Republican lawmakers alleged the company wasn’t qualified to receive.
The article concludes:
“The information currently accessible to the public raises the question of whether these companies received approval to use federal lands and taxpayer monies based not on the best value for the American people but the political clout of the recipients,” then-senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said at the time.
Although First Solar’s chairman testified to Congress that the company was “financially strong,” the business was forced to furlough half of its employees at its solar plant near Los Angeles weeks later.
Last year, First Solar paid $350 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit brought by two United Kingdom pension funds, which claimed the company inflated its stock price and misled investors about its finances.
The article does mention that the manufacturing facility is being built in India in order to create a supply chains that do not utilize forced labor. However, that does not answer the question as to why the plant was not built in America.