ABC News reports that e-mails obtained by the House Energy and Commerce Committee reveal that the White House was intimately involved in deliberations over the taxpayer-backed $535 million loan awarded to Solyndra, the California solar-panel firm — once hailed by President Obama as “leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future” — that filed for bankruptcy last week. The company is current under investigation by the FBI. It appears that the White House decided to go ahead with the loan despite some serious reservations expressed by the Office of Management and Budget:
Newly uncovered emails show the White House closely monitored the Energy Department’s deliberations over a $535 million government loan to Solyndra, the politically-connected solar energy firm that recently went bankrupt and is now the subject of a criminal investigation.
The company’s solar panel factory was heralded as a centerpiece of the president’s green energy plan — billed as a way to jump start a promising new industry. And internal emails uncovered by investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee that were shared exclusively with ABC News show the Obama administration was keenly monitoring the progress of the loan, even as analysts were voicing serious concerns about the risk involved. “This deal is NOT ready for prime time,” one White House budget analyst wrote in a March 10, 2009 email, nine days before the administration formally announced the loan.
“If you guys think this is a bad idea, I need to unwind the W[est] W[ing] QUICKLY,” wrote Ronald A. Klain, who was chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, in another email sent March 7, 2009. The “West Wing” is the portion of the White House complex that holds the offices of the president and his top staffers. Klain declined comment to ABC News.
White House officials are set to testify tomorrow morning before the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations regarding the administration’s role in the loan process. A committee aide tells NRO it promises to be “enlightening.”
More here.
I just read the ABC article. Just before Obama was inaugurated, the DOE credit committee voted against loaning money to Solyndra. So what changed? Why, an Obama bundler is the major Solyndra stockholder, that's what changed. So the White House gets involved, the deal gets done, and the taxpayers get screwed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama lied! People got-taken-for-yet-another-taxpayer-funded-hayride!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>> “This deal is NOT ready for prime time,” one White House budget analyst wrote in a March 10, 2009 email, nine days before the administration formally announced the loan. <<
Nothing new here. Obamacare was also "NOT ready for prime time" Far from being a finished product of the normal legislative process it was essentially a discussion document, crammed with a wish-list of liberal goodies that no one expected to survive in the final bill.
In the wake of Scott Brown's stunning victory, the "work document" was rushed through a series of votes in the dead of night, because the Dems knew they had to pass it before Brown became the 41st Republican vote. A GOP fillibuster would have (gasp!) given people time to read what was in the president's plan, think about it and debate it.
Sunlight being fatal to all liberal plans, they had to pass what they had, good, bad or indifferent.
Is anyone really surprised that the WH did the same with Solyndra, the stimulus (remember "shovel ready") and everything else they've done?
Regards,
Joe
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell its either "Solyndra Green" or 'Green-ron". Take your pick. Either way, it is exhibit #1 of the O-Conomy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd to think Biden's CoS pestered me for years in high school for a date. Given our respective political philosophies, it's hard to see that match having anything other than an ugly ending.
And it is really weird to see his name on NRO.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse#humblebrag
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHa. Hey zoom this photo and relive the memories with Mr. Flintstone:
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Gee thanks Col. The only reason he is alive and unscarred is because we went our separate ways.
I am happily married, but were I to be on the market, liberalism would be an absolute deal-breaker. I hate it when some hot Hollywood star opens his mouth and says something liberal. It totally obliterated my fantasies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe government gave a trillion in borrowed/printed money to their buddies in the banking industry. Obama gave the pinky ring crowd a trillion in the stimulus boondoggle. He gave the moral heirs of Jimmy Hoffa a car company. Heck, the government allowed Wall Street to auction off the manufacturing base back in the 1980's.
This is what the ruling class does. They rape the land. In the grand scheme of things, this solar stuff is a bargain.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe govt allowed people to control their property. OMG, how criminal of them.
I guess we should have just had the govt buy up all the manufacturing plants and run them in the name of the people.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow was Enron a Bush scandal and this merits no real attention?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBecause your screen name is more real than you know, brother. Lot of dopes in charge of stuff want us living in their fantasy land.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf only Enron would have had a competent economic adviser...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe was too busy pining for an alien invasion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe lede claims the WH was "intimately involved in deliberations," but the article doesn't show that at all. It shows that the WH asked OMB for a decision, and pressed for a decision earlier than OMB wanted to provide it. While that's a problem, let's not get carried away. The bolded section above is the meat of the whole thing: OMB was free to decide, and the WH would have abided by that.
Carelessness is not cronyism.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe can question the process and cronyism, of course. But the real question needs to be: Where did our money go?
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