Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act aimed to boost renewable energy. Grants can help one company raise billions

WASHINGTON (AP) — While campaigning for president, Joe Biden promised to spend billions of dollars to “save the world” from climate change. One of the biggest players in the solar industry was ready.

Officials, board members and major investors in First Solar, the nation’s largest solar panel maker, contributed at least $1.5 million to Biden’s successful 2020 bid for the White House. After his victory, the company spent $2.8 million more on lobbying his administration and Congress, the documents show — an effort that included high-level meetings with top administration officials.

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The strategy was a radical departure from the Arizona-based company’s stance under then-President Donald Trump, whom corporate officials publicly characterized as hostile to renewable energy. It also paid huge dividends as First Solar became perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the $1 trillion in environmental spending enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in 2022 after it was approved by Congress solely with Democratic votes.

Since then, First Solar’s stock price has doubled and its profits have soared thanks to new federal subsidies that could be worth as much as $10 billion over a decade. The success provided a huge windfall for a small group of Democratic Party donors who had invested heavily in the company.

Ahead of what promises to be a tight race for the White House this year, Biden and other Democrats point to the legislation as an example of investing in alternative energy sources in a way that will help the environment and revitalize the economy. But First Solar is an example of how legislation shaped by lobbyists and potentially influenced by a flood of campaign cash can result in huge profits for the well-connected.

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Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman, did not directly address First Solar’s efforts to curry favor with the Biden administration.

“President Biden has led and implemented the most ambitious climate agenda in history,” Fernández Hernández said in a statement. “The White House regularly engages with industry leaders from all sectors, including clean energy producers and gas and oil producers.”

In a statement, First Solar CEO Mark Widmar said the new grants helped build the company’s presence in the domestic market. He took aim at some of First Solar’s rivals with ties to China, which dominates the industry.

“Unlike others who routinely spend much more time lobbying on behalf of Chinese companies that circumvent U.S. regulations and exacerbate strategic vulnerabilities, it is in our interest to have a diverse, competitive domestic solar manufacturing base that supports American jobs, economic value and energy security,” said Widmar.

Founded in 1999, First Solar went public in 2006, when former Vice President Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” helped raise awareness of the threat of climate change. Company officials retained Democratic voters under President Barack Obama, who in turn subsidized them with billions in government-backed loans.

As the Biden administration began writing rules to implement the Democrats’ new law, First Solar executives and lobbyists met at least four times in late 2022 and early 2023 with administration officials, including John Podesta, who oversaw the environmental regulations.

One of the more intimate meetings was attended by Podesta, Widmar and Sloan, as well as First Solar contract lobbyist Claudia James, a friend of Podesta’s who worked for decades at a lobbying firm run by Podesta’s brother, the documents show.

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The company will benefit from multibillion-dollar lucrative tax breaks for domestic clean energy producers – a policy aimed at putting the United States in a more competitive position against China’s green energy giant. While they are intended to reward clean energy companies, the credits can be sold on the open market to companies that have little to do with fighting climate change.

Last December, First Solar agreed to sell about $650 million of those loans to the tech company, providing a huge influx of cash courtesy of the U.S. government.

The company’s investors, including a handful of major Democratic donors, also benefited from First Solar’s share price surge.

Farhad “Fred” Ebrahimi was added to Forbes’ 2023 billionaires list thanks to the skyrocketing value of his roughly 5% stake in First Solar, according to financial disclosures. Ebrahimi, along with his wife and family, contributed at least $1 million to Biden’s reelection effort, according to campaign finance disclosures.

Democrats’ investments in alternative energy companies have not always been successful. The 2011 bankruptcy of Solyndra, which received $500 million in government-backed loans, provided a boost for Republicans.

It also drew attention to First Solar, whose chairman was called to testify before the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee, where he was questioned about strong-arm tactics used to secure $2.4 billion in loans from the Obama administration for projects in which First Solar W was involved.

In an email sent to House Republicans, the First Solar executive pressured the Energy Department about the funding, suggesting that if it is not approved, the Mesa, Arizona plant that Obama administration officials have so eagerly touted might not be built.

“Failure to obtain approvals from the Department of Energy and U.S. government agencies” could “jeopardize construction” and “frankly undermine the viability of building a new manufacturing center in Arizona,” the former executive wrote to an administration official in 2011.

Loans have been granted. However, the factory was never completed.

Solar spokesman Reuven Proenca said the decision was due to the downturn in the solar industry, and the company also closed a factory in Germany.

The company recently paid $350 million in 2020 to settle a securities fraud lawsuit. The company denied wrongdoing and the court-approved settlement did not include an admission of liability.

Details contained in the case file paint a damning portrait. Investors accused company officials of lying about the scope of a serious manufacturing defect that caused panels to fail prematurely and ultimately cost $260 million to repair. Court documents show that by downplaying the scale of the problem, company management managed to maintain First Solar’s share price.

Meanwhile, some company officials dumped huge amounts of personally held stock, including $427 million worth of stock sold by company founder Mark Ahearn, according to court records.

Proenca, a spokesman for First Solar, said the company settled the case “with a focus on business development.”