After spending months touting the Obama administration's decision to loan $535 million to the California solar energy upstart Solyndra, top officials took a new tack Wednesday while testifying before Congress about the company's abrupt shut-down and bankruptcy: the loan, they said, was actually the Bush administration's idea. The Energy Department's top lending officer told Congress that the Solyndra loan application was not only filed during President Bush's term, but it surged towards completion before Obama took office in January 2009.
"By the time the Obama administration took office in late January 2009, the loan programs' staff had already established a goal of, and timeline for, issuing the company a conditional loan guarantee commitment in March 2009," said Jonathan Silver, who heads the Energy loan program.
Republicans pushed back hard against this version of events, unearthing internal Energy Department emails that indicate the panel evaluating the loans had made the unanimous decision to shelve Solyndra's application two weeks before Obama took office.
Blaming the failed loan on the Bush administration marked an abrupt turn for the Energy Department, which had championed the Solyndra loan as a model for its efforts to build a so-called "green energy" industry that creates jobs and safeguards the environment. The Solyndra loan was so central to this strategy that the administration initially planned to have Obama personally announce it, and later sent the president to the company's solar panel manufacturing facility in Fremont, California to celebrate its work.
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04:23 PM
PFF
System Bot
Toddster Member
Posts: 20871 From: Roswell, Georgia Registered: May 2001
After spending months touting the Obama administration's decision to loan $535 million to the California solar energy upstart Solyndra, top officials took a new tack Wednesday while testifying before Congress about the company's abrupt shut-down and bankruptcy: the loan, they said, was actually the Bush administration's idea. The Energy Department's top lending officer told Congress that the Solyndra loan application was not only filed during President Bush's term, but it surged towards completion before Obama took office in January 2009.
"By the time the Obama administration took office in late January 2009, the loan programs' staff had already established a goal of, and timeline for, issuing the company a conditional loan guarantee commitment in March 2009," said Jonathan Silver, who heads the Energy loan program.
Republicans pushed back hard against this version of events, unearthing internal Energy Department emails that indicate the panel evaluating the loans had made the unanimous decision to shelve Solyndra's application two weeks before Obama took office.
Blaming the failed loan on the Bush administration marked an abrupt turn for the Energy Department, which had championed the Solyndra loan as a model for its efforts to build a so-called "green energy" industry that creates jobs and safeguards the environment. The Solyndra loan was so central to this strategy that the administration initially planned to have Obama personally announce it, and later sent the president to the company's solar panel manufacturing facility in Fremont, California to celebrate its work.
It's an oldie but a goodie.
Come one everyone, sing along!
Blame it on the Bushanova....
[This message has been edited by Toddster (edited 09-14-2011).]
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04:52 PM
partfiero Member
Posts: 6923 From: Tucson, Arizona Registered: Jan 2002
The White House noted to ABC News that the Bush administration was the first to consider Solyndra's application and that some executives at the company have a history of donating to Republicans.
The results of the Congressional probe shared Tuesday with ABC News show that less than two weeks before President Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department's credit committee had voted against offering a loan commitment to Solyndra.
Even after Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, analysts in the Energy Department and in the Office of Management and Budget were repeatedly questioning the wisdom of the loan. In one exchange, an Energy official wrote of "a major outstanding issue" -- namely, that Solyndra's numbers showed it would run out of cash in September 2011.
There was also concern about the high-risk nature of the project. Internally, the Office of Management and Budget wrote that "the risk rating for the project sponsor [Solyndra] … seems high." Outside analysts had warned for months that the company might not be a sound investment. Peter Lynch, a New York-based solar energy analyst, told ABC News it took only a cursory glance through Solyndra's prospectus to see there was a problem with their numbers.
"It's very difficult to perceive a company with a model that says, well, I can build something for six dollars and sell it for three dollars," Lynch said. "Those numbers don't generally work. You don't want to lose three dollars for every unit you make."
A high profile, politically well-connected California solar energy company that had won a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama Administration declared bankruptcy earlier this month and closed its doors sending 1100 workers to the unemployment line. The demise of Solyndra has already sparked an FBI investigation, congressional hearings, and raised numerous questions of political cronyism and corruption connected to the highest levels of the Obama Administration.
While the White House and Congressional Democrats feign surprise at the collapse of what was described as "the most hyped startup in the crowded Solar Energy field," it appears Obama Administration representatives were either easily duped or willingly blind to the facts. ABC News reports that Department of Energy officials have been regularly attending Solyndra board meetings for months as the company "careened towards bankruptcy" after blowing through the more than half a billion taxpayer dollars.
Early press reports following Solyndra's bankruptcy announcement disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed by shareholders and executives of Solyndra to the Obama 2008 campaign. One of the company's largest investors, George B. Kaiser of Tulsa, reportedly contributed $53,500 personally and bundled large amounts more for Obama in 2008. Kaiser is a billionaire with banking and oil and gas interests that rank him among the wealthiest people in the world. Kaiser also visited the White House 16 times between 2009 and 2011. Read more at Townhall.com.
Solyndra LLC’s workers making solar-power panels in a California factory subsidized by U.S. taxpayers showed “the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith,” President Barack Obama said on a visit to the company in May 2010.
Two months before Obama’s visit, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP warned that Solyndra, the recipient of $535 million in federal loan guarantees, had financial troubles deep enough to “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”
The Obama administration stood by Solyndra through the auditor’s warning, the abandonment of a planned initial public offering and a last-ditch refinancing where taxpayers took a back seat to new investors. That unwavering commitment has come under increasing scrutiny since the company’s travails culminated in its filing for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 6 and a raid on its headquarters by the Federal Bureau of Investigation two days later. Read more at Bloomberg.com.
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05:50 PM
Raydar Member
Posts: 41340 From: Carrollton GA. Out in the... country. Registered: Oct 1999
Send out the RAT signal ?? ..FBI raids Solyndra, no crap ??why did it take so long?? sorry,forgot,pounds of incriminating documents to destroy!!! ..high ups in energy department join white house in float down the river Nile. no need to look here ...What !!Five hundred million disapear.must have been Bush & Cheney Yay ,,thats the Ticket say those involved,Bush turned it down bad smell,,democrats love the bad smell ,,taxes are crack to them Denylia vacation starts many aboard the sinking ship on nile, the river in Egypt,, I will be taking bets which causes the most trouble to Obamanation,,theft or Murder,, place bets early! ..fast & furious multiple murders,lying ,100s of criminalista,s involved federal agents killed.. Solyndra small change lost,democrat marxist concider $$$500,000,000 of your tax money gone,very small change.Why the interest?? Obamanation still very popular with Ostrich crowd,,Murder ,stealing, theft,fraud,corruption just another Obamanation president day,,ho hum
sorry sports fans drawn by my funnier post ..but the bad carrion odor of lying,tax stealing,gun selling,, murderer democrats attracts me almost as much as the pungent smell of fresh big tail water flapping beaver,, in the woods
sorry dratts,,not about you,, wait till U R around longer,,Its about denial & beavers & gambling on criminals being indicted..
[This message has been edited by uhlanstan (edited 09-14-2011).]
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06:45 PM
dratts Member
Posts: 8373 From: Coeur d' alene Idaho USA Registered: Apr 2001
Two months before the federal government provided a $535 million federal loan to the company, auditors found that Solyndra, the bankrupt solar company, had significant financial difficulties, Bloomberg reports.
In a deepening scandal that threatens to ensnare members of the Obama administration, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the company's finances“raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” Two months later the company was awarded the loan under a green jobs program.
Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month — laying off 1,100 employees and leaving the federal government on the hook for the amount of the loan.
House Republicans have been investigating terms of the loan since earlier this year — and will hold a hearing on it on Wednesday. Republicans assert that the Obama administration fast-tracked the loan without following proper procedures.
Last week, ABC News reported that Obama administration officials sat in on the company's board meetings in the months leading up to the bankruptcy filing. FBI agents raided the company's headquarters last week in search of documents pertaining to Solyndra's relationship with the Department of Energy.
Bloomberg reported that the administration rejected the company's request to renegotiate the terms of the loan the day before the company went under.
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08:20 PM
IMSA GT Member
Posts: 10702 From: California Registered: Aug 2007
SolarCity Loan Guarantee Rejected by U.S. in Wake of Solyndra’s Bankruptcy
SolarCity Corp.’s loan guarantee may have been undone by the bankruptcy of Solyndra LLC.
SolarCity, a Foster City, California-based developer of residential rooftop solar systems, said yesterday that the U.S. Energy Department won’t complete the $275 million conditional guarantee that was offered a day after Solyndra sought protection from creditors.
The Energy Department loan guarantee program has come under political fire since Solyndra, a Fremont, California-based solar company that received $535 million in guarantees, filed for bankruptcy Sept. 6. SolarCity said the scrutiny prompted the agency to request additional information.
“Because of the Solyndra bankruptcy, additional documentation and reviews were required that we couldn’t get done in the next five days,” SolarCity Chief Executive Officer Lyndon Rive said in an interview yesterday. “Everyone has been very supportive of this project and if we had a little more time we could get it done.”
The Energy Department “will be unable to finalize their approval” for the loan guarantee before a Sept. 30 deadline, the company said yesterday in a letter to Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican and the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Energy Department Response The Energy Department has not changed its requirements, Damien LaVera, a department spokesman, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
“All of the extensive due diligence and legal documentation simply cannot be completed by Sept. 30,” he said. “The questions surrounding the Solyndra application had no impact on other applications, including this one.”
Still, in a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu Sept. 22, Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, asked what immediate steps the department was taking to “avoid the mistakes that appear to have been committed with respect to Solyndra.”
SolarCity’s conditional loan guarantee, which was offered Sept. 7, would have supported installations on military housing and office buildings in as many as 33 states. SolarCity was planning a $1 billion, five-year program to install 160,000 rooftop photovoltaic systems.
The Energy Department had offered to guarantee 80 percent of a $344 million loan to support the project. The loan was to be provided by USRG Renewable Finance, an affiliate of US Renewables Group LLC, in partnership with Bank of America Corp.
The loan guarantee was necessary to make the initiative profitable, as SolarCity expands upon an initial installation at a military base in Arizona in 2009.
Other Applications Pending The agency still has conditional approvals valued at as much as $6.4 billion for nine projects that it’s trying to complete before the end of the month. It approved three of them yesterday.
Poet LLC, the largest U.S. corn-based ethanol producer, received final approval of a $105 million loan guarantee for its first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, the Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based company said in a statement. The facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa, will convert corncobs, leaves and husks into 25 million gallons (95 million liters) of ethanol a year.
Ormat Technologies Inc. closed $350 million in backing from the agency to build a 113-megawatt geothermal power plant in Nevada.
Granite Reliable Power LLC, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., received a $168.9 million loan guarantee for a 99-megawatt wind farm in northern New Hampshire. Power from the project will be sold to Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power. The wind farm will use 33 Vestas Wind Systems A/S 3-megawatt wind turbines.
First Solar Guarantees First Solar Inc., the largest provider of thin-film solar panels, said Sept. 22 that its 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm in California won’t receive a $1.9 billion guarantee because the Tempe, Arizona-based company can’t meet the Sept. 30 deadline.
First Solar has conditional commitments for two other solar farms it’s developing, a $680 million guarantee for a 230- megawatt project and a $1.8 billion guarantee for a 550-megawatt project, according to the Energy Department’s website. The company received a $967 million guarantee for a project in Arizona in August.
I'm willing to agree that solyndra was a screw up. Even more now that the execs are taking the fifth. The only reason I can think for them to take the fifth is because there is something rotten that they don't want to come out and that they were part of it. Not every alternative/renewable energy company out there is honest and trustworthy. When there is such a large desire for the product there will be some unscrupulous people who will see an opportunity to scam us. Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We need to take the country in a different direction with its energy policy. In a careful, thoughtful, intelligent fashion.
Originally posted by dratts: We need to take the country in a different direction with its energy policy. In a careful, thoughtful, intelligent fashion.
Exactly. In the direction of cheap, safe, reliable and our own petroleum and nuclear power. " Green " energy is hit and miss and unbelievably expensive, plus the fact that it is historically wrong. One more time: No energy source has replaced a previous energy source until the least expensive source was close to exhaustion. It is one of the rules by which the universe operates, like the law of gravity, and we violate both at our peril.
<SNIP...> Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We need to take the country in a different direction with its energy policy. In a careful, thoughtful, intelligent fashion.
You mean for instance the Federal Gov has no business at all, WHATSOEVER giving loan guarantees to anyone for anything? If the idea or biz plan is solid, the private banks in this country will throw money at them for R&D. When no one in the WORLD can figure out how to make it profitable the damn fed's say they can and waste OUR money for political purposes. This was just an attempt to please tree huggers that vote.
Shamefull that we can't see the forest for the trees anymore.
My .02
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03:18 PM
fierobear Member
Posts: 27106 From: Safe in the Carolinas Registered: Aug 2000
I'm willing to agree that solyndra was a screw up. Even more now that the execs are taking the fifth. The only reason I can think for them to take the fifth is because there is something rotten that they don't want to come out and that they were part of it. Not every alternative/renewable energy company out there is honest and trustworthy. When there is such a large desire for the product there will be some unscrupulous people who will see an opportunity to scam us. Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We need to take the country in a different direction with its energy policy. In a careful, thoughtful, intelligent fashion.
Funny you should bring this up. At our local Tea Party meeting this week, one of our members told us what he found when he investigated a deal between a solar installation company and our local school district. He ordered a copy of the contract through a FOIA request. The contract was for $7 million to put solar power systems at all 7 schools in the district, one million dollar solar set up per school. The contract said that they would be paying "below market rate" for power. The schools were paying 14 cents/kwh for power from the regular utility company. Under the contract, the school will buy all of it's power from the solar company for 24 cents/kwh. The rate increases 2% per year for 30 years. So I'd like to know how the school district (which is having MAJOR money problems, no surprise there) is going to save money by buying power for 10 cents/kwh MORE for electricity, and is locked into that deal by contract? Oh, and if they break the contract, they are obligated to pay the $7 million plus the cost of de-installation.
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03:53 PM
Raydar Member
Posts: 41340 From: Carrollton GA. Out in the... country. Registered: Oct 1999
... The contract said that they would be paying "below market rate" for power. The schools were paying 14 cents/kwh for power from the regular utility company. Under the contract, the school will buy all of it's power from the solar company for 24 cents/kwh. The rate increases 2% per year for 30 years. So I'd like to know how the school district (which is having MAJOR money problems, no surprise there) is going to save money by buying power for 10 cents/kwh MORE for electricity, and is locked into that deal by contract? Oh, and if they break the contract, they are obligated to pay the $7 million plus the cost of de-installation.
So the contract negates part of itself? (Although your post doesn't state what the current "market rate" is.) It appears to me that the provider is in breach. Although I'm not a lawyer, and I didn't stay at a Holiday In Express last night.
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04:02 PM
fierobear Member
Posts: 27106 From: Safe in the Carolinas Registered: Aug 2000
So the contract negates part of itself? (Although your post doesn't state what the current "market rate" is.) It appears to me that the provider is in breach. Although I'm not a lawyer, and I didn't stay at a Holiday In Express last night.
Yes, I said "The schools were paying 14 cents/kwh for power from the regular utility company". I'd need more information, but that seems to be the current market rate, if that's what they were paying for power just prior to the solar contract.
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04:06 PM
PFF
System Bot
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
This is a good political move for Obama. Those who know better aren't going to vote for him anyway. The Obama-supporters will believe anything he says and are perfectly willing to blame anything and everything on Bush regardless of the facts.
The White House also noted to ABC News that the Bush administration was the first to consider Solyndra's application and that some executives at the company have a history of donating to Republicans. The results of the Congressional probe shared Tuesday with ABC News show that less than two weeks before President Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department's credit committee made a unanimous decision not to offer a loan commitment to Solyndra.
Sorry Barry, you own this one. You paid for it with our money.
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04:52 PM
Sep 25th, 2011
carnut122 Member
Posts: 9122 From: Waleska, GA, USA Registered: Jan 2004
It sounds like a bit of both administrations are to blame. I'm just surprised by all of this hoopla over half a billion dollars when Wall Street was written a blank check for up to 1,400 times that amount(OK, I don't have an exact number on what was "lent") and people are OK with that?
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10:37 AM
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
It sounds like a bit of both administrations are to blame. I'm just surprised by all of this hoopla over half a billion dollars when Wall Street was written a blank check for up to 1,400 times that amount(OK, I don't have an exact number on what was "lent") and people are OK with that?
How do you figure that? The application was submitted during the Bush administration and denied. It was later approved during the Obama administration.
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11:28 AM
dratts Member
Posts: 8373 From: Coeur d' alene Idaho USA Registered: Apr 2001
Regardless the magnitude of the loss pales in comparison to the bail outs etc. Just sayin. Not right but let's put it in perspective.
Wonder how much of the bailout money will never get paid back like this half a billion. No Idea, but we do need to redefine the Federal Government's role. Heard we have 25 different federal agencies that regulate farming now, talk about stupid.
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11:52 AM
htexans1 Member
Posts: 9115 From: Clear Lake City/Houston TX Registered: Sep 2001
Regardless the magnitude of the loss pales in comparison to the bail outs etc. Just sayin. Not right but let's put it in perspective.
The perspective this needs to be in can be summed up as a simple question. Why did the Obama administration offer the loan guarantee after it had already been denied under the Bush administration?
A solar energy company that intends to file for bankruptcy received $535 million in backing from the federal government and has a cozy history with Democrats and the Obama administration, campaign finance records show.
Shareholders and executives of Solyndra, a green energy company producing solar panels, fundraised for and donated to the Obama administration to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser, a key Obama backer who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the president’s election campaign, is one of Solyndra’s primary investors. Kaiser himself donated $53,500 to Obama’s 2008 election campaign, split between the DSCC and Obama For America. Kaiser also made several visits to the White House and appeared at some White House events next to Obama officials.
Campaign finance records show Kaiser and Solyndra executives and board members donated $87,050 total to Obama’s election campaign.
quote
...the Obama administration fast-tracked the solar startup’s $535 million loan application to the Department of Energy — a move later criticized by the Government Accountability Office.
quote
Campaign finance records show Solyndra shareholders and executives did their fair share of greasing palms.
Ben Bierman, executive vice president of operations and engineering for Solyndra, donated $5,500 to Obama’s election campaign. Karen Alter, senior vice president of marketing, donated $23,000 in 2008.
According to information collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, Solyndra board members have donated at least $27,400 to Democratic campaigns and affiliates.
Since 1998, Solyndra board member James F. Gibbons has contributed $13,500 on his own. Board member Winston Fu has contributed $4,550 since 2008. Since 1991, board member Thomas Baruch has contributed $7,150. And board member Steven R. Mitchell donated $2,300 to Obama in 2007.
Solyndra also spent $550,000 lobbying Congress in 2010. Between 2008 and 2011, the company spent more than $1 million lobbying for bills including the “American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009″ and the “Solar Manufacturing Jobs Creation Act.”
The reasons for the loan are at least as important as the amount involved.
I'm willing to agree that solyndra was a screw up. Even more now that the execs are taking the fifth. The only reason I can think for them to take the fifth is because there is something rotten that they don't want to come out and that they were part of it. Not every alternative/renewable energy company out there is honest and trustworthy. When there is such a large desire for the product there will be some unscrupulous people who will see an opportunity to scam us. Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We need to take the country in a different direction with its energy policy. In a careful, thoughtful, intelligent fashion.
That's what's frustrating. It really doesn't take a genious.
There are THREE... (count em), three primary goals that we as a country seek in future energy policies.
(in no particular order):
1 - Reduced Energy Costs: will help spur business, encourage more employement, and reduce costs to the consumer. 2 - Reduce Emissions: makes everyone happy, and reduces the impact on the environment. 3 - Reduce Foreign Dependency: helps eliminate the money leaving our country, and funding terrorism.
This is ALL very easy to obtain... but it takes REAL direction from the president, and REAL direction from the Department of Energy. Let's take them one at a time.
Reducing Energy Costs: this can be done by encouraging people to use alternative energies. This means using stuff like natural gas. We currently hold something like 2/3rds of the world's total natural gas. We have so much of it, and it's totally dirt cheap. I'm not saying that we completely switch over to natural gas, because then we'll be in the same situation we were before, but we can try to encourage the market to switch a segment of it to natural gas. We can build more natural gas power plants, and start building some of those Nuclear power plants that JazzMan talks about, as long as it's not too much more expensive than a normal Nuclear power plant. We can also begin to use more of our own oil, like from Anwar, and more oil from Canada rather than the middle east. Most importantly, tax breaks. I'm not talking about loans, grants, or free money, I'm talking about tax breaks. I don't believe in subsidies, but I do believe in giving tax incentives towards people who buy natural gas cars, or giving tax discounts to power companies that build natural gas power plants. If anyone goes on and on about the safety of natural gas, there are already 100s of thousands of natural gas powered busses, personally owned, and city vehicles all over the country. There's already safety laws and regulations. We should also encourage manufacturers to build more clean diesel cars.
Reducing Emissions: you can do this simply by using natural gas. Much lower emissions than using fossile fuels. We should also CONTINUE to give tax incentives on both the state and Federal level to people who will upgrade their A/C and heating units to ones that have a better efficiency (SEER), etc. The more efficient stuff is, the less energy will be used.
Reduce Foreign Dependency: when we say this, we're primarily talking about eliminating fuel sources from countries that have ties to terrorism. We should encourage more oil production from Canada, actually use it, and ramp up production from our own oil fields, while at the same time encouraging more energy efficient vehicles, homes, etc.
I know easier said than done, but imagine how much progress could have been made with the 600 million dollars we gave to Solyndra if we had instead used that money to cover the tax break short-fall that we would have given to people for buying better energy efficient equipment. That 600 million could have essentially given a tax break that would have paid for HALF ($2,750) of the cost of your average A/C / heating unit for over 300,000 US families. That creates a LOT of local jobs, a lot of manufacturing, etc...
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07:05 PM
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
Bankrupt Solyndra Caught Destroying Brand New Parts
FREMONT (CBS 5) — After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts.
At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.
Forklifts brought one pallet after another piled high with the carefully packaged glass. Slowly but surely it all ended up shattered.
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10:52 PM
Jan 22nd, 2012
fierobear Member
Posts: 27106 From: Safe in the Carolinas Registered: Aug 2000
It’s often claimed that the Solyndra loan guarantee was “rushed through” by the Obama Administration for political reasons. In fact, the Solyndra loan guarantee was a multi-year process that the Bush Administration launched in 2007.
You’d never know from the media coverage that: 1. The Bush team tried to conditionally approve the Solyndra loan just before President Obama took office. 2.The company’s backers included private investors who had diverse political interests. 3.The loan comprises just 1.3% of DOE’s overall loan portfolio. To date, Solyndra is the only loan that’s known to be troubled.
Because one of the Solyndra investors, Argonaut Venture Capital, is funded by George Kaiser — a man who donated money to the Obama campaign — the loan guarantee has been attacked as being political in nature. What critics don’t mention is that one of the earliest and largest investors, Madrone Capital Partners, is funded by the family that started Wal-Mart, the Waltons. The Waltons have donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates over the years.
With a stagnant job market and Obama sinking in the polls, the media has decided on a narrative that matches right-wing talking points but not the facts. For instance, Bloomberg had this incredibly misleading headline yesterday, “Obama Team Backed $535 Million Solyndra Aid as Auditor Warned on Finances.” If you replace “backed” with “touted,” that would be accurate. But the headline makes it seem like the White House had decided to give $535 million to a company after an auditor had said it was financially troubled.
You have to read half the story to learn that the loan guarantee was made in 2009 and the audit was done in 2010 after market conditions had sharply worsened! And the Bloomberg story never explains that the company itself raised $250 million from private investors after the supposedly devastating audit!
To set the record straight, Climate Progress is publishing this timeline — verified by Department of Energy officials — that shows how the loan guarantee came together under both administrations. In fact, rather than rushing the loan for Solyndra through, the Obama Administration restructured the original Bush-era deal to further protect the taxpayers’ investment:
A key part of the Democrats’ pushback over the Solyndra scandal has been to spread the blame. They argue that the $527 million in loan guarantees made to the now-bankrupt solar panel company were just as much the doing of the George W. Bush administration as they were of the current administration. This argument has been pushed repeatedly by the Democrats on the Energy and Commerce committee, by liberal groups like Media Matters and even by the Energy Department itself, which has been emailing reporters regular press releases spinning the scandal. For example, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce investigation subcommittee, asked Friday, “Whether the Bush and Obama administration conducted due diligence on the loan guarantee.” But the facts don’t justify this claim. The bottom line remains that the Bush Administration did not approve the Solyndra loan guarantee. And just before they headed out of town, Bush officials ordered the project back to the drawing board. Democrats argue the Energy Department first received the loan request in December 2006. By January 2009, it was still under consideration. That month, the department’s Loan Guarantee Credit Committee put the project on hold. In a terse one-page memo, dated Jan. 9, 2009, the committee noted that the “apparent haste in recommending the project meant that certain LGPO (Loan Guarantee Program Office) credit procedures were not adhered to.” It further stated that: “While the project appears to have merit, there are several areas where the information presented did not thoroughly support a finding that the project is ready to be approved at this time.” It then cited four areas of concern. First was the lack of any “independent market study addressing long-term prospects for this specific company.” An independent credit assessment had “raised the issue of obsolescence in marketing this project.” Obsolescence? That’s never a good word to hear in a product marketing study. Second, it noted that the committee had never seen a supposed sales agreement the company had for its product even though an unnamed “outside legal advisor” had. In other words, the committee only had vague assurances that there was even a buyer for the product. Third, it noted, “There are questions regarding the nature and the strength of parent guarantee for completion of the project.” In other words, the committee wasn’t convinced the project would even be finished. Fourth and finally, it vaguely noted “concern” over production start “scale-up” at a second Solyndra facility. The memo concludes by saying “the number of issues unresolved makes a recommendation for approval premature at this time” and sent the project back to the LGPO for “further development of information.” That strikes Capital Hill as a pretty damning — not to mention prescient — analysis of the Solyndra loan proposal. The loan wasn’t ready and Bush’s Energy Department wasn’t going to approve it. If Solyndra had proved to be a success, green energy fans would today probably be claiming the Bush White House had dragged its feet and endangered the project. At the very least it shows that the Bush administration was doing the “due diligence” that DeGette questioned. The one thing the Bush administration did not do was kill the project outright and it is on that one thin reed that Obama administration officials and their allies have made their case. Here’s how DOE spokesman Damien LaVera put it in an email to reporters: On January 9, 2009, a Credit Committee of five career federal employees reviewed the progress of the Department’s due diligence on the transaction. The group decided to continue the due diligence process rather than recommend the loan guarantee immediately proceed for further approvals. As the (documentation) from that meeting makes clear, the committee did not reject the application. It noted that the project “appears to have merit” and simply remanded the application “without prejudice” so that work could continue and so that the committee would have additional time to review the documentation. Note the complete absence of any of the committee’s criticisms of the project in his statement. What happened next in the loan was that by mid-March of 2009 the project was sailing through. LaVera stated in his email that, “This is just a case of responsible career federal employees who wanted a bit of extra time and information to make their decision.” Yes, but something else changed in the intervening two months: A new administration came in. As the New York Times reported Friday: The Energy Department’s senior staff has acknowledged in interviews the intense pressure from top Obama administration officials to rush stimulus spending out the door. “We had to knock down some barriers standing in the way to get these projects funded,” Matthew C. Rogers, the Energy Department official overseeing the loan guarantee program, said in March 2009, just days before Solyndra got its provisional loan commitment. Mr. Rogers said Energy Secretary Steven Chu had been personally reviewing loan applications and urging faster action on them. There were two administrations involved in this project. One, after more than two years of consideration, was still sending it back for further review. That was the Bush administration. The second was placing “intense pressure” on department staff to approve loans from the moment it walked in the door and even had the energy secretary himself personally reviewing each loan. That was the Obama administration.
[This message has been edited by fierobear (edited 01-22-2012).]
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