Energy Department awards $1.6 million to China-linked company despite Senate objections

The Energy Department has awarded $1.6 million to LanzaTech, a China-linked carbon capture company, despite objections from Senate Republicans.

LanzaTech was one of 17 groups to receive funding from the department last week to research biofuel production.

The company is closely tied with China, having opened its only three facilities to convert factory emissions to ethanol in the communist country, as stated on LanzaTech's website.

By 2021, Sinopec Capital, an arm of a Chinese-state-owned energy group, invested in LanzaTech and placed its managing director on LanzaTech's board of directors.

Before the department's latest announcement, LanzaTech received over $10 million in federal grants since it began its partnership with Sinopec Capital, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

The Energy Department did not respond to the Free Beacon's request for comment.

LanzaTech acknowledged in a November Securities and Exchange Commission filing "that the Chinese government may intervene or influence our operations at any time."

Wyoming GOP Sen. John Barrasso sent a letter in December telling Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to review the LanzaTech payments because the United States "cannot afford to keep making the same mistake of enriching China’s technological efforts at the expense of taxpayers."