POLITICO Energy Former Biden staffers release post-mortem on their clean energy agenda
Nov 5, 2025
Kelsey Tamborrino, a clean energy reporter for POLITICO, discusses a post-mortem by former Biden administration staffers on the administration's clean energy agenda. She highlights critical challenges in implementation, detailing the slow pace of project initiation and the lingering impact of Solyndra’s legacy on risk-averse decision-making. Kelsey also connects funding obligations to a lack of tangible community benefits and suggests learning from past administrations to bolster future clean energy strategies. A new UN report adds urgency, warning that current national plans won't significantly curb rising global temperatures.
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Postmortem Of Biden’s Clean Energy Push
- Former DOE staffers interviewed 80+ colleagues to evaluate implementation of major climate laws like the IRA and BIL.
- They looked for lessons to make future large-scale clean energy industrial policy more effective in one presidential term.
Few Projects Actually Broke Ground
- By the end of Biden's term only a handful of projects had broken ground despite large obligations.
- The report stresses speed of implementation and delivering visible projects within a term.
Six Bottlenecks Slowed Delivery
- The report identifies six main barriers: deployment goals, prioritization, decision speed, risk management, awards process, and personnel.
- These constraints collectively slowed delivery and weakened project durability.