The ongoing Solyndra scandal that is
presently being investigated by the U.S. House is picking up speed and threatens
to derail the Obama Administration’s jobs and green energy agenda.
Solyndra is a company that President
Obama regularly cited as the future of green energy and the “clean” economy
that would accompany this technological progress. The administration secured
more than $530 million in loan guarantees from the federal government to
facilitate this. But the company was never financially sound and, even at the
time of the loan, was producing a product for much more than it cost to sell
it. Now the company has gone bankrupt and is the subject of a federal
investigation.
As the days go by, more and more
evidence comes to light that some impropriety occurred when Solyndra received federal
loan guarantees. One of President Obama’s major fundraisers, George Kaiser, helped
secure the loan out of the money carved out of the 2009 stimulus program.
The White House is confirmed to have
rushed the Office of Management and Budget to finalize the deal, even after the
Department of Energy had sent emails voicing their concerns about the firm’s
financial stability.
ABC News:
White House Role In Solyndra Loan Questioned:
Solyndra had submitted a loan
application to the Bush Administration in 2006 but no loan was ever made. In testimony
yesterday, Jonathan Silver, the executive director of the Loans Programs Office
for the Department of Energy, testified that the Obama Administration came into
office with the goal of establishing Solyndra as a model producer of green
energy technologies regardless of their financial fundamentals.
“By the time the Obama
administration took office in late January, 2009, the loan program’s staff had
already established a goal of, and timeline for, issuing the company a conditional
loan guarantee commitment in March, 2009,” Silver testified.
Solyndra is one of three solar
energy component manufacturers that have gone bankrupt in the last year. In Solyndra’s case alone, more than 1,000
employees will receive pink slips in the coming weeks. On Tuesday, the company’s
CEO and CFO postponed their Congressional testimony.
The question is, for an
administration that has been able to shrug off controversies that might have
stuck under other circumstances (namely the also ongoing Fast and Furious
Scandal), will Solyndra have enough legs to be a motivating force for voters as
election season matures?
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