Energy Sec. Whines, Lies Through His Teeth To Congress, Denies Delaying Funding After Months Of Doing Just That

[hatrack]

EDIT

The Energy chief had planned to testify in support of the Department’s budget request for 2026, but Democrats shifted the focus to the agency’s large amount of unreleased funds, which is stalling renewables and clean energy development.In response to Kaptur, Wright denied that the Department of Energy had frozen any funds, faulting “headlines” he told Congress were false. “We don’t have a single unpaid invoice at our department,” he testified before the committee. “Not one.” On Jan. 20th, the Department of Energy had issued a memo instructing staff to “put on hold” awards and announcements and to stop funding activities pending a review — part of a wider federal funding freeze that’s triggered a host of ongoing legal battles over the fate of hundreds of billions of federal dollars.

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“We have not frozen funding,” Wright testified in response to Democrats’ grilling over the fate of billions of dollars unreleased in DOE’s current budget. “I’ve received numerous — dozens of letters, accusing me of things that are reported in headlines, in blog posts and media all over the place, almost all of which are false,” he told Congress. “I’ve not responded to the dozens of letters yet, because we’re in the middle of reorganizing the department.”

The claim that the federal government did not freeze funds, which Wright repeated throughout the hearing, drew strong pushback from Democratic members of Congress. “Even now, more than $67 billion remains frozen, this is in clear defiance of both Congressional intent and multiple court orders,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told Wright during the hearing. “We’re talking about shovel-ready projects tied to contracts with American businesses that will result in energy bill savings for families.”

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Wright responded by expressing uncertainty about what the question meant. “So, what does frozen mean?” Wright asked. “I mean like not released,” responded Wasserman Schultz. “It’s a standard dictionary definition. If we’ve appropriated the funds and the Department of Energy is supposed to release them to the recipients, and they have not received them and they’re not getting answers.”

EDIT

https://www.desmog.com/2025/05/13/trumps-energy-secretary-denies-freezing-federal-funding-asks-what-does-frozen-mean/

[intheflow]

1. Yes, "frozen" in this context is sooooo difficult to understand!

I guess he thought they were asking him about the Disney movie?