-=> Mike Powell wrote to SEAN DENNIS <=-

 MP> I wonder if Proterra is another one of those green enery companies that
 MP> got Obamabucks like Solendra did?

Yes, in a way.  From https://tinyurl.com/cad9352w (freebeacon.com) with a 
dateline of May 18, 2021:

"Weeks before President Joe Biden boosted Proterra with an official tour of 
its plant, the electric battery company hired a pair of Obama administration 
alums to lobby the White House for funding, amplifying its already 
concerning political connections to the Biden administration.

According to disclosure forms filed last Friday, the politically connected 
electric bus manufacturer brought on lobbying firm Boundary Stone Partners 
on April 1 to push the administration for increased funding of clean energy 
infrastructure projects, including the "electrification" of mass 
transportation vehicles. The two lobbyists registered to Proterra, Pete 
Gould and Christine Turner, both worked in the top echelons of the Obama 
administration-Gould was associate director of government affairs for the 
Department of Transportation, and Turner held numerous trade-related 
positions throughout the administration, including on the White House 
National Security Council.

Atop the lobbying firm sits Brandon Hurlbut, who was chief of staff at the 
Department of Energy and a top energy adviser to Obama at the White House. 
Hurlbut additionally co-chaired Clean Energy for Biden, a group that raised 
millions of dollars for Biden's presidential campaign and is now advocating 
clean energy spending. Along with Hurlbut, both Gould and Turner made 
several contributions to Biden's campaign, according to campaign finance 
records.

Proterra's political connections to the administration had already raised 
ethical flags on Capitol Hill due to the fact that Jennifer Granholm, 
Biden's energy secretary, spent years on Proterra's board and continues to 
own up to $5 million in Proterra stock. The acquisition of the former Obama 
officials shows Proterra has even deeper political connections than were 
previously known.

The lobbying disclosure form is Boundary Stone Partners' first for Proterra, 
which joins a number of renewable energy companies already employing the 
firm to lobby the Biden administration. It has not yet been disclosed how 
much Proterra is paying Boundary Stone Partners. Neither responded to 
requests for comment.

The disclosure form says Gould and Turner are lobbying on the topics of 
"[f]unding for transit infrastructure grants provisions related to low or no 
emission vehicle grant applications, clean energy and infrastructure 
investments, surface transportation reauthorization, vehicle fleet 
electrification, and manufacturing loan programs." Lobbying records show 
Gould has lobbied on similar issues for Proterra since last December as a 
lobbyist for a different firm, Catapult Policy Strategies, which he left to 
join Boundary Stone Partners.

Just 19 days after the firm was brought on, Biden and his top economic 
adviser Brian Deese toured Proterra and pledged that the administration's 
infrastructure plan would direct money to the company.

It is more than likely that Hurlbut directly engaged with Proterra as a 
member of the Obama administration. In his official Boundary Stone Partners 
biography, he boasts that he led the Obama administration's deployment of 
$90 billion worth of clean energy grants through the stimulus package. 
Proterra says its first electric bus was manufactured in 2009 due to 
government funds it received from the Obama administration.

The administration's promotion of Proterra has sparked conflict of interest 
concerns from Republican senators, who have called for investigations into 
Granholm's planned divestment from the company. Financial disclosures show 
the former Proterra board member still holds up to $5 million in company 
stock. Granholm has repeatedly said she is in the process of offloading the 
shares and that she has recused herself from any issues regarding the 
company.

Senators have raised questions about how her complete separation is 
possible, given Granholm's leadership on the issue of electric batteries. 
Biden signed an executive order that placed Granholm in charge of 
"identifying risks in the supply chain for high-capacity batteries, 
including electric-vehicle batteries, and policy recommendations to address 
these risks."

Under Granholm, the Department of Energy is slated to dole out millions of 
dollars to "support improvements in domestic manufacturing to build 
resilient, modern electricity infrastructure and address the climate 
emergency."

During the 2020 election cycle, employees of Boundary Stone Partners gave at 
least $27,000 to Biden's campaign and related entities, including the Biden 
Victory Fund, according to FEC records.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about whether 
Proterra hiring the Obama alums played any role in the administration's 
repeated boosts of the company."

-- Sean


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