ken..Maybe obama folks have some of their own fraud going on?
GOP wants White House papers on loan to failed solar company
By Ben Geman
- 09/02/11
thehill.com
House Republicans are demanding White House paperwork related to a $535 million loan guarantee to a solar company that shut down this week.
The Republicans are probing the White House role in the 2009 federal loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel manufacturing company that ceased operations and is filing for bankruptcy, resulting in 1,100 layoffs.
The shutdown is a bit of an embarrassment for the administration, as the company was the first selected to receive the loan guarantee under a stimulus-backed renewable energy program. President Obama visited the company just more than a year ago to tout White House green energy efforts.
Republican leaders of the Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on Thursday seeking records of communication between the White House, Solyndra and its investors — including Democratic fundraiser George Kaiser.
The letter states:
“We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra’s application, and communicated with [the Energy Department] and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials during the course of their review in 2009 and when those officials were restructuring the Solyndra deal this year. Documents received by the Committee also show that DOE and OMB officials were aware of the White House’s interest in the Solyndra loan guarantee. In addition, we are also aware that a major investor in Solyndra, George Kaiser, was a bundler for President Obama’s 2008 campaign.”
The letter is from Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the panel's chairman, and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who heads the panel’s Investigations subcommittee. It asks for the documents by Sept. 12.
It comes amid a wider GOP attack on Obama administration green energy programs and the 2009 stimulus law that enabled the Energy Department loan guarantee for the maker of advanced solar panels.
The committee has for months been probing the 2009 loan guarantee (which enabled a loan from the Treasury Department) for Solyndra, an inquiry that included a subpoena for OMB documents earlier this year.
The 2009 loan guarantee supported construction of a new manufacturing plant. Solyndra was the first company selected under the loan guarantee program, which was authorized in a 2005 energy law and expanded in the 2009 stimulus law.
President Obama toured the company in May of 2010 to tout White House efforts to jumpstart domestic green energy industries.
But Solyndra subsequently canceled a planned initial public offering as U.S. solar companies faced stiff Chinese competition, and later closed down an existing factory, prompting questions about whether the loan program was properly vetting recipients.
The new letter to Ruemmler also requests that she schedule a briefing for Energy and Commerce staff by Sept. 12.
The White House is defending the loan program and the administration’s vetting process.
“These are merit-based decisions made by career staffers at the Department of Energy and the process for this particular loan guarantee began under President George W. Bush. Every project that receives financing through the Energy Departments goes through a rigorous financial, legal and technical review process,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz in a statement Friday.
“As the Department of Energy has made clear, they have always recognized that not every one of the innovative companies helped would succeed, but we can’t stop investing in game-changing technologies that are key to America’s leadership in the global economy,” he said.
Schultz said the Energy Department’s overall investment portfolio is faring well and is “on pace” to create thousands of jobs.
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