How come Solyndra was able to trick a Nobel Prize winner and yet the Bush administration was able to see the problems at Solyndra?
WASHINGTON — Solyndra officials were intensely pressuring Bush administration officials in early January 2009 to approve a government loan for the solar company before the Obama administration took power, according to new emails obtained by Fox News on Friday.
On Jan. 12, 2009, Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet sent an Energy Department official an email marked “urgent” expressing outrage that Bush officials had decided a few days earlier that while the loan application had “merit” it needed further study before officials could move forward with a taxpayer-financed loan.
“I was appalled to learn on Friday that our application is being delayed yet again,” Gronet wrote to Energy official Steve Isakowitz, writing there had been “countless communications” back and forth suggesting the application would be reviewed Jan. 15.
Gronet wrote just days before President Obama’s inauguration that stretching the process out could have a “severe” impact on Solyndra. The California-based solar panel manufacturer eventually got a $535 million loan from the Obama administration in September 2009 but recently filed for bankruptcy, cut 1,100 jobs and has since been raided by the FBI.