WH pressed on review of solar co. now under investigation

Spread the love

Loading

The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s factory, newly obtained e-mails show.

The Silicon Valley company, a centerpiece in President Obama’s initiative to develop clean energy technologies, had been tentatively approved for the loan by the Energy Department but was awaiting a final financial review by the Office of Management and Budget.

President Obama has put a special spotlight on clean technology during his time in the White House, personally visiting and praising 22 companies for their work on energy innovation and efficiency in high-profile trips. These visits made up more than half of Obama’s out-of-town travel to businesses.

President Obama has put a special spotlight on clean technology during his time in the White House, personally visiting and praising 22 companies for their work on energy innovation and efficiency in high-profile trips. These visits made up more than half of Obama’s out-of-town travel to businesses.

The August 2009 e-mails, released exclusively to The Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to information provided by Republican congressional investigators.

Solyndra collapsed two weeks ago, leaving taxpayers liable for the $535 million loan.

One e-mail from an OMB official referred to “the time pressure we are under to sign-off on Solyndra.” Another complained, “There isn’t time to negotiate.”

“We have ended up with a situation of having to do rushed approvals on a couple of occasions (and we are worried about Solyndra at the end of the week),” one official wrote. That Aug. 31, 2009, message, written by a senior OMB staffer and sent to Terrell P. McSweeny, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, concluded, “We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due diligence reviews.”

Read more

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

5 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I hate to be a snoop unless paid big time to number crunch and analyze a business for partnership and/or profit. The entire “green energy market” has illuded (ellude, allude, illude) me because my instincts dictate there is nothing there there. When I see the lenghty wind powered sailing bark waving GreenPeace sails at Copenhagen harbor I see emense wealth so when I pulled up the Solyndra website I did so with abacus at hand ready to look at the numbers. Besides annoucements of events and installation contracts with the likes of Pfizer and Qwest there were no numbers reported quarterly, year-end, or projected. It is as if the company claims a myriad of sales offices but no sales. I wanted to look at the revenue line and then study cash flows relative to its fixed debt and operational expenses. Since Lloyds of London and trading beneath the Buttonwood Tree companies have been showing their performance ratios to public investors yet Solyndra settles for press videos and announcing additions to its advisory board.

What happens to be the worst is the indictment on legitimate business venture and capitalization. Solyndra will be a socialist poster child that the established capitalist investment share the rewards system fails and no longer applies. A company attempting to flip corporate private venture debt into an initial offering of public shares has evolved into the impossible because of those false crony deals and the incumbence of massive government regulations which kill the liklihood of profits. John Drew writes that Obama, as a student at Occidental, does not understand business and hates profits.

Allow me to add, I just read the two page Washington Post piece on the trail of emails indicating Obama’s direct involvement in the taxpayers’ 560 million dollars loan to Solyndra. What struck me was the photo of the labor guy bending over a solar panel wearing business suit J&M’s on his feet. I wore my Oxford J&M’s with my best suits when hitting on clients/customers for more business.

This doesn’t surprise me.
Why should it surprise anyone the way this administration operates?

Wasn’t there dozens of Bills and Legislature (ObumbleCare for one) that had to be “Rushed” through “We have to [Pass the Bill] to see what’s in it???? And his latest…Whatever “Jobs Plan” he just laid out… didn’t the Obumbles say at least a dozen times that “we must” “you must” “Pass this Bill”…. I mean is there any thought process going on behind these “good intention” bills and the Impact they will have down the road??? Because it seems 95% of the time the impact runs negative down the road (case in point Solyndra).

Obumbles had/has no clue as to how to pay for his latest and greatest blah blah blah Jobs plan…[other than to lay it on the backs of the Taxpayers] …..

Again, this Liberal /Progressive B/S is really starting to take it’s toll on the American People…Too many Americans have lost so much, too many Americans are hurting badly…and it’s time to stop with these wasteful ‘schemes’ ……it is OUR MONEY….’ it’s time to get down to some fiscal business that ACTUALLY WORKS instead of the Political Capitalist Cronyism that is going on… Americans with their heads on straight are so done with this Obumbles … I believe many Americans are starting to realize the Tea Party have some very, very valid points…..

BTW I hope this brings to light some impeachable offense… The American people should file a class action law suit against Obumbles when he gets out of office…lol

Sorry for the rant, I’m just so tired of being responsible and getting screwed for it…

There’s no guarantee that every government investment will pay off. That’s the nature of competitive capitalism.

The economic world has changed, if you haven’t noticed. Taking a position in opposition to the government “choosing winners and losers” makes a lot of sense in a closed national economy. But it’s a prescription for failure in a globally competitive market, where the nations which are currently cleaning our economic clocks are making judicious decisions to invest — at the level of government — in supporting the activities of private companies engaged in applied research and marketing in groundbreaking industries.

– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA

@openid.aol.com/runnswim:

You make a fine argument for the government NOT trying to pick winners and losers.
It would be better had the gov’t simply put that money into a few balanced mutual funds, maybe some of which might lean toward the ”green.”
In fact, you make a fine argument for the American worker to have the right to put some in Social Security and some in a few well, balanced mutual funds as well.
Let’s reform Social Security that way.