However, some developers currently receiving funds from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for clean infrastructure projects are actively not complying with laws regulated by other federal agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Labor.

For example, ExxonMobil’s Baytown Olefins Plant has committed at least 25 air quality violations over the last five years and been fined eight times by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the last decade, yet could receive more than $330 million in DOE clean energy grant funding. In 2019, the plant experienced a major explosion that injured 37 workers. 

Additionally, natural gas company CNX Resources is receiving DOE funding despite more than 2,000 environmental violations this century. And a Houston-area Shell plant, whose affiliate Shell Catalysts & Technologies is collaborating with Calpine Texas CCUS Holdings LLC on a local DOE-funded carbon capture study, has experienced two major air pollution lawsuits and more than 500 chemical leaks this century — leaks that emitted the carcinogen benzene. 

Often, companies operate as if penalties for environmental, labor, and other violations are the cost of doing business, given slap-on-the-wrist fines and lax enforcement from regulators.

The survey finds that voters don’t want federal funds to go to bad actors. A strong majority of voters want developers to be required to be in compliance with worker safety (83%), clean water (80%), fair labor (78%), clean air (77%), and civil rights (74%) laws to receive federal funding.