The Biden administration is being ridiculed for its hypocrisy as it touts “energy savings” at federal buildings that are running out of workers — and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars.
Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm recently celebrated the Biden administration’s efforts to bring net-zero emissions from federal buildings by instituting a rule banning the use of fossil fuels on site.
“The Biden-Harris administration practices what we preach,” Granholm said in a statement about the rule. “Just as we help households and businesses across the country save money by conserving energy, we are doing the same in our own federal buildings.”
But Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is calling out Granholm for not sharing the whole truth.
She says federal buildings are still draining energy and money as many government employees continue to work from home with the lights on.
Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Gary Peters, D-Mich., introduced a telework transparency bill in April to better track federal telecommuters’ data and make more informed decisions about how they spend taxpayer money.
Department of Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm implements new rule banning federal buildings from using on-site energy sources that burn fossil fuels, saying Biden administration ‘practices what we preach’
However, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has said the move is hypocritical because the buildings are largely empty and the ploy is a way to spend more money on green initiatives.
“If the administration is serious about practicing what it preaches on energy conservation, instead of spending more money, you could stop paying to heat, cool, light and operate the ghost town of vacant buildings all over Washington.” , DC,” Ernst wrote. in a Monday letter to Granholm, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
Ernst argued in her letter that the new rule would cost taxpayers money to renovate federal buildings that rely on fossil fuel energy sources, while virtually no government employees actually work from those locations.
“This sounds more like an excuse to spend taxpayer money on a Green New Deal jobs program as the Biden administration wastes money and energy operating empty office buildings across Washington DC while bureaucrats continue to work from home,” she wrote.
The Iowan has long been advocating for federal employees to return to office work, after it was reported in December that all government agency offices have not been more than 50 percent occupied for months.
In fact, many agencies such as Housing and Urban Development, the Social Security Administration and the Small Business Administration all had occupancy rates of 10 percent or less.
Federal agencies spend approximately $2 billion annually on operating and maintaining federal office buildings and more than $5 billion annually on leases.
Empty office space has plagued Washington, DC since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic
“No department or agency currently uses even half of the available office space in their headquarters buildings, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO),” Ernst wrote, adding, “Your department uses only 25 percent of its buildings. ‘
She also notes how the Public Building Reform Board (PBRB) – an independent federal agency created to reduce the inventory of government properties and therefore costs – found that only eight people per day enter the Department of Energy headquarters in DC.
‘Recognizing this number seems flawed, the [PBRB] contacted the department for clarification,” Ernst wrote to Granholm. “They’re still waiting for a response from DOE, maybe because no one is home!”
The letter also notes another analysis from PBRB that showed occupancy in Washington, D.C., government buildings at 26 percent capacity or less.
According to the letter, the PBRB claims that the “amount of money spent per person per year” to maintain these federal office buildings “is at an absurdly high level.”
“The CO2 emissions per person from heating and cooling nearly empty buildings, not to mention the energy costs, are indefensible,” a PBRB analysis concluded.
Ernst requested that Granholm send PBRB updated data on the number of Department of Energy employees arriving at the office each day.
Ernst revealed earlier in December that no federal agency had an occupancy rate above 50 percent between January and March 2023
“Camouflage of new government expenditure in green does not save money or energy,” Ernst wrote.
“You can go green without going overdrawn by reducing the size of unused and unnecessary government buildings.”
“That’s the real green new deal for taxpayers,” she added.
