House Republicans Widen Solyndra Probe, May Subpoena White House

September 9th, 2011 by Silvio Marcacci

A probe into Solyndra's bankruptcy may spread to the White House and other clean energy companies.

[Editor’s note: In my opinion, this is just another witch hunt by the Republican Party geared at taking down any attempts to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. Solyndra was 3.4% of the U.S. government’s clean energy portfolio.

Is every investment expected to work out? (No. These sorts of investments are risks. This is an inherent part of such investments. And in the case of solar, China is competing hard with us and doing much better in that competition now that a Tea Party House of Representatives and filibusting Senate are thwarting every attempt to give security and help to a young solar energy industry.)

Did the White House know Solyndra would be undercut by the Chinese and fail? (That’s a pretty ridiculous question. If it did, why would it spend time highlighting and getting press coverage for this company? That would be nonsensical unless it were masochistic… and it’s the Tea Party that wants to kill government, not the Democrats.)

Is the Republican Party really not engaging in this for political purposes and more than it would with fossil fuels? Come on! How did it respond to the BP oil spill, a real disaster?! By apologizing to BP and trying to protect BP from any scrutiny or request for compensation by those hurt by the spill! The Republican Party has a clear agenda — make Obama look like a failure, protect the billions of dollars fossil fuel companies make every year, protect the rich from having to pay taxes (even if that means, as it must, hurting the middle class and the poor), and kill any attempt to transition the U.S. and the world to a new, clean energy economy. Anyway, here’s energyNOW!’s coverage of the story:]

Controversy surrounding solar panel manufacturer Solyndra’s recent bankruptcy filing just won’t go away, and could imperil the White House. The company’s federal stimulus loans are at the center of a widening investigation into clean-energy technology funding by House Republicans, and may lead to subpoenas of White House records. The full video is available below:

U.S. Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL), chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, recently told energyNOW! correspondent Lee Patrick Sullivan that he may expand the initial investigation into loan guarantees Solyndra received from the U.S. Department of Energy to cover other clean energy companies. “We’re trying to understand how this stimulus package of $60 billion dollars is going to work,” said Stearns. “Is most of the money going to companies like Solyndra, or is it actually going into companies that will succeed in manufacturing and create jobs for this country?”

The House Energy Committee has already subpoenaed the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and Department of Energy for documents related to the Solyndra loan guarantee but is expanding its’ search to the White House. “I think the President would find it in his best interest to cooperate and give us all the information so it does not appear to be a politically oriented decision,” said Stearns. He also said the committee would issue subpoenas for documents related to the decision if President Obama blocks the request through executive privilege.

Even though many industry analysts have said the bankruptcy filing news is a byproduct of market forces, and Solyndra an acceptable contender for federal funding, Stearns feels the funding had political undertones. “It looks like the people involved in this were tied politically to the White House,” he said.

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Tags: barack obama, House Energy & Commerce Committee, Rep. Cliff Stearns, Solyndra

About the Author

Silvio Marcacci Silvio is Principal at Marcacci Communications, a full-service clean energy and climate policy public relations company based in Oakland, CA.

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Anonymous

Meanwhile, back at Halliburton. . .
Deni Albrecht

You do your office a disservice with biased opinions. We readers enjoy journalism with factual stimulation. I can get these same lazy opinions from several colleagues in my office building. Someone’s redundant. I want to know facts that take some skilled digging to discover…and I don’t want my tax dollars to have to pay for the potential one-sided fact diggiing. Let’s all push for fine unbiased, fact-based journalisim.

If our government keeps giving away tax dollars to fund disastrous ventures over and over, then it is a sign that these are not smart moves. What’s their batting average? Would you continue to put your 401-k dollars in funds that continue to lose money or spend a little time reading a prospectus or two before you trusted them with your nest egg? Our country is in deep debt. We need smarter investments.
- Anonymous
  
  This was a very small amount of money risked on a technology which, had it not been undercut by rapidly falling silicon prices, could have created lots of American jobs. At the point when the investment was made the price of silicon was very high compared to today. This was a technology designed to get maximum power from expensive PV material.
  
  If this had been a 100% sure thing with a quick payoff large corporations would have funded it. Was it a fairly likely thing which would turn a profit after a few years it would have been funded by venture capitalists.
  
  This was the sort of project that we fund with a minuscule amount of our national budget. We take a few very small gambles in hopes that we spin up the next big thing, or at least something that will give us American jobs and economic growth.
  
  When one takes risky endeavors and funds them, one expects a number to fail. They are not the sorts of activities one should include in their portfolio, the risk is too high.
  
  It’s the sort of thing that we, as a country of over 300 million people can, and should take.
  
  What did it cost each of us? Well, the full amount is less than $2 per person.
  
  Then consider that most of that money went for salaries of 1,100 employees. That means that 1,100 fewer people were receiving welfare checks. Part of our money back.
  
  Those 1,100 employees paid taxes on their incomes. More money back.
  
  Those 1,100 employees spent their incomes in their communities and that money turned over several times as it worked its way from grocery store to wholesale grocer, to farmer, to fertilizer plant and all the other places those dollars traveled, creating taxes as it spun its way through the economy. More money back.
  
  The money not spent on salaries went to equipment companies, to builders, to utilities, to all the places money has to be spent to make a business a business and at each stop that activity created taxes. More money back.
  
  So what did this cost you? Probably less than a quarter.
- Question
  
  What a absurd comment!
  
  Let me see if I have this straight… You think government isn’t good at picking winners… but you support a government investigation to see if “most of the money [is] going to companies like Solyndra, or is it actually going into companies that will succeed in manufacturing and create jobs for this country?”… And how precisely is Stearns going to decide this if government is bad at picking winners?
  
  Please at least be consistent! Bob_Wallace has it right here. Government is *supposed* to try the riskier things… that has always been its role. Try the risky things with potentially large returns.