Biden’s bureaucrats hold first-ever auction for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Mexico

Something smells fishy off the coast of Louisiana….

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a press release, announcing the first-ever auction for the Gulf of Mexico region. For $5.6 million, RWE Offshore US Gulf, LLC secured a lease for exclusive rights to 102,480 acres of ocean to develop and install an offshore “wind farm.” From the release:

‘Today’s lease sale represents an important milestone for the Gulf of Mexico region — and for our nation — to transition to a clean energy future,’ said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Elizabeth Klein. ‘The Lake Charles Lease Area will have the potential to generate enough electricity to power about 435,400 homes and create hundreds of jobs.’

The winning bidder is a subsidiary of German-based conglomerate RWE AG, which is affiliated with the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. Sven Utermӧhlen, the CEO of RWE’s Offshore Wind, is featured on the WEF website as he talks about the company’s “Growing Green” strategy, and the RWE website says this:

RWE’s sustainability strategy thus also determines the Group’s contribution to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We actively support achieving nine of the 17 SDGs.

Now, according to an outlet that focuses solely on news in the offshore wind industry:

As reported earlier, BOEM pre-qualified 15 developers to participate in the auction.

I looked up all 15 of the listed invitees and found that every single one is incorporated in the state of Delaware. This isn’t that unusual because Delaware is a tax haven, so for the “taxes for thee, but not for me” crowd that lives and dies by government subsidies, extortionary taxes, and corporate welfare, it makes perfect sense. However, I noticed that at least 14 use the same four Registered Agents (although one company on the list, Hecate Energy LLC, had so many business name variations I couldn’t conclusively determine which one was which).

I find this odd because on the Delaware government website alone, there are at least 100 different prominent RAs, and the Delaware law for registered agents is lax, requiring only that the RA “maintain a street address and office located in Delaware” and be open during normal business hours, in the event they need to accept service of process. Now, beyond the RAs listed on the site, reasonable and legitimate options for RAs could be nearly infinite: attorney, accountants, business managers, consultants, insurance companies, etc. But the invitees all chose the same handful of RAs? What are the odds?

Then, it got weirder. Six of the businesses (40%) were incorporated in March and April of this year (of those six, four have the same RA). Okay, so the U.S. government holds the first-ever auction for ocean leases in the Gulf, handpicking which companies are invited to bid, and nearly half of the businesses only opened up shop this year, including the winning bidder, RWE Offshore US Gulf? Well, maybe there aren’t many from which to choose? Nope, not quite. A White House Press Release from July said:

More than 4,100 companies across all 50 states have joined a supplier registry to express interest in providing components and services to the offshore wind industry—169% growth since President Biden took office and up 54% since he signed the Inflation Reduction Act.

The same release also noted that:

Since January 2021, investments in the U.S. offshore wind industry have quadrupled from $5 billion to $21.6 billion, including growth of $7.7 billion since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act.

Turns out, the Interior Department issued a previous press release in February of this year, announcing its intention to auction off the ocean rights — this was just a few short weeks before these six “lucky” businesses sprang up out of nowhere.

Hypothetically…. If Biden’s bureaucrats announce an auctioning off of an ocean lot, then LLCs spring up out of nowhere this year and somehow get lucky enough to be invited to “bid” on it, then for a measly $5.6 million payment, a company could reap billions in federal “investment” returns. And who knows, maybe RWE Offshore US Gulf, LLC might need the expertise of a consultant— after all, they’re brand new! Maybe they hire someone like, say, I don’t know, a family member of BOEM director Elizabeth Klein?

I’ve heard Democrat progeny make good consultants — ask Burisma!

(Funny enough, someone created an entire website listing out allegations of unethical and possibly criminal behavior by Klein; she’s described as “an ethics catastrophe.”)

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.

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