Outrage! Author of ‘stimulus’ tied to companies funded by bill: Received hundreds of millions in government grants, loans.

By Aaron Klein

An advisor to President Obama who played a key role in developing the energy provisions of the so-called stimulus bill has graced the board of several companies that recently received government funds, including hundreds of million in “stimulus” money.

TJ Glauthier served on Obama’s 2008 White House Transition Team. He is widely credited with helping to craft the energy provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the “stimulus.”

In addition to serving on the boards of multiple major energy companies, Glauthier previously held two Presidential appointments during the Clinton Administration.

He was the Energy Department’s Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, the second-highest ranking official.

Earlier, he served in the White House for five years as the Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science in the Office of Management and Budget.

Glauthier is tied to several energy companies that benefited from the “stimulus” bill he helped to craft.

One such company investigated by KleinOnline is GridPoint Inc, where he was appointed to the board in March 2008. GridPoint provides utilities software solutions for electrical grid management and electric power demand and supply balancing.

The “stimulus” provides for $4.5 billion for so-called smart grid projects. GridPoint has benefited from scores of smart grid deals funded by the “stimulus” bill.

The company partnered with the Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), Nissan, the Idaho National Laboratory and others in a project to deploy electric vehicles (EVs) and their charging infrastructure in five states. The Energy Department had awarded eTec almost $100 million in “stimulus” funds to support the project.

GridPoint’s role in the eTec project was to supply smart charging and data logging capability to utilities located in strategic markets of eTec’s program in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.

GridPoint also benefited from “stimulus” funds when it recently provided home energy management, load management and electric vehicle management software solutions for a KCP&L’s Green Impact Zone SmartGrid Demonstration in Kansas City, Mo. The project was the recipient of stimulus funding.

Additionally, GridPoint helped the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, or SMUD, to manage power from its customers’ rooftop solar panels.

The Arlington, Va.-based company had landed a contract to help the Sacramento, Calif.-based municipal utility manage renewable power integration, energy storage and home energy management systems. SMUD had won $127.5 million in stimulus funds from the Department of Energy to carry out the project, which also includes deploying 600,000 smart meters in its service territory.

Also, in early 2009, the Energy Department awarded Argonne National Laboratory nearly $2.7 million in stimulus funding for three solar-energy related research projects. In addition, Argonne reportedly shared another $5 million in stimulus funding for projects with GridPoint and other companies and the University of Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.

Besides benefiting from stimulus grants, GridPoint last year won a $28 million contract with the United States Postal Service to install energy management systems in selected post office locations across the U.S.

Glauthier, meanwhile, had come under fire in the conservative blogosphere after Fox News reported the U.S. Navy has purchased 450,000 gallons of biofuel for about $16 a gallon, or about 4 times the price of its standard marine fuel, JP-5, which has been going for under $4 a gallon.

HotAir reported last week that Glauthier is a “strategic advisor” to Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy.

HotAir noted Solazyme received a $21.8 million grant from the 2009 stimulus package.

Also, writing at BigGovernment two weeks ago, Whitney Pitcher found that prior to serving as advisor to Solazyme and after his time as part of Obama’s transition team, Glauthier served of the advisory board of SunRun, a solar financing company.

In October of 2010, just a few short months after Glauthier joined SunRun’s advisory board, SunRun secured a $6.73 million grant from this Treasury Department stimulus program. The company was the ninth largest recipient of such programs through the December, 2010.