U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) wants to use tax payer funds to help companies’ climate initiatives. | Adobe Stock
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) wants to use tax payer funds to help companies’ climate initiatives. | Adobe Stock
Energy subcommittee chairman U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) appeared on The Hill with Steve Clemons regarding the committee's involvement in climate change, energy grid modernization and energy equity.
Rush said that climate problems cannot be avoided and should be considered moral issues.
"Our challenge is how do we address the issue with technologies," Rush said in the interview. "How do we address the issue with international cooperation and how do we address the issue as it relates to university."
Rush suggested tax dollars should get funneled to companies with climate change initiatives.
"Our innovative forces must also produce equity within our nation and in the world," Rush said. "It is not just a moment of inflection, it is a moment where we focus our innovative wherewithal. Where we recognize and employ our innovative assets."
Rush's notion is controversial, largely to Republicans and conservatives. Inappropriate energy spending has been seen in America before; in 2015, a solar panel startup company was found to have misled the Department of Energy in a $535 million loan application, according to a Fortune report.
The congressman's entire career is controversial, in fact. Fifteen percent of Rush's salary is garnished since 2018 to pay back more than $1 million in delinquent loans for a church he founded in Chicago that has since closed down.
In 2014, Rush was the subject of ethical misconduct allegations after he reportedly accumulated $365,000 in unpaid office rent, and the House Ethics Committee found that tens of thousands in donations from the congressman's campaign treasury had been donated to a church where Rush is the minister.
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