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Politics : The Solyndra Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (497)	6/13/2012 11:28:52 AM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1400

Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Energy Department's loan guarantee program, was helping draft a letter from John Bryson, chairman of the board of BrightSource Energy, to then-White House Chief of Staff William Daley requesting help in obtaining the loan. These emails were written from Silver's personal account during business hours. In October, Bryson became President Obama's secretary of commerce.

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (497)	6/13/2012 11:31:37 AM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1400

Prior to the disclosure of a new batch of emails, it could not be ascertained whether Silver did agree to edit Bryson's draft letter to Daley. But the new documents make it clear that Silver edited the letter from his personal email account during office hours and provided advice to BrightSolar on March 7 and 8, 2011. It would have been improper for a government official to have assisted an applicant for a government loan program using a government computer on government time. But it's impossible to believe that using a nongovernmental account makes the action appropriate. Indeed, it appears to be an effort to conceal an unseemly activity. Silver's email to Woolard stated, "My comments/changes are interspersed. I've tried to turn this into a memo that we can all support as drafted. I have to be honest and say that its [sic] off-target." Silver then removed a phrase from the letter stating, "however, lack of urgency within the review teams is putting the project at risk. We need a commitment from the Whitehouse [sic] to quarterback loan closure between OMB and DOE by March 18..." This phrase put Silver in a bad light because it made it seem as though the Energy Department was delaying approval unnecessarily. Silver ends the email to Woolard by underscoring the White House interest in the BrightSource loan: "I go through this just to say that the delay, if any, is not due to a lack of urgency and, the WH, once it gets involved, will want to see that analysis in any event. A different positioning, if you want