Woops — Upton Pushed for a Loan for a Now Bankrupt Solar Company (Hypocrite, Much?)

February 17th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

Fred Upton (R-MI), House Energy and Commerce Chairman, was one of the leading Republicans who ‘led’ us down the ‘this is pointless, a waste of time, and a waste of resources’ Solyndra and clean energy loan program witch hunt (which continues today). Yes, after doubling and tripling down on their investigations of Obama’s connection to Solyndra, they have found nothing. (But they probably confused many voters into thinking otherwise along the way.)

Now, it’s actually turned out that Upton also pushed for loans for solar company (a Michigan solar company, of course) that filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday. (I wonder if Upton, Issa, and others were so convinced of cronyism because of their own history “playing favorites” in politics.)

“Despite his hypocrisy, Upton plans to continue probing Solyndra, extending a battle that has not turned up any wrongdoing,” Think Progress reports. “Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), another lawmaker who continues to attack Obama for a ‘reckless disregard for the laws,’ easily forgets he too asked for a loan, on behalf of the electric car company Aptera Motors.” (Hence the note above.)

Not in a joking way at all, sometimes I wonder if such Republicans are so obsessed with government conspiracy because of how they operate in government.

And the real crime here is not pushing for a local company that you think has a bright future (something Upton did, not Obama), but it’s making one company’s failure (in the midst of a very quickly changing and transforming solar industry) into a big conspiracy that it is not. The issue is turning one failure (representing a small percentage of the loan program’s investments in clean energy) into a reason to ditch a nascent buy extremely promising industry. The issue is not looking at the fact that, overall, the government has been a superb investor, has managed its risks well, and should continue on the clean energy path it has just gotten rolling on.

The point of this piece is not that Upton shouldn’t have pushed for a home-state solar company he believed in, but that he shuoldn’t be such a hypocrite and should drop this endless witch hunt that is really about scoring political points and nothing else!

Fred Upton photo via republicanconference (CC BY-NC 2.0 license)

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Tags: clean energy loan program, doe loan program, Fred Upton, Issa, loan program, Michigan, Solyndra, upton

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.