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Obama on Solyndra: ‘This Was Not Our Program Per Se’ Email 4 Smaller Font Text Larger Text | Print At the nation’s largest solar energy plant Wednesday, President Obama doubled down on his commitment to government subsidies for clean energy technology and green jobs — and deflected blame for instances when those investments have failed. “Are you doing your ‘all-of-the-above’ strategy right if that’s what we have to show for it — Solyndra?” asked Kai Ryssdal, host of “Marketplace” on American Public Media, in an interview with Obama. The solar energy start-up Solyndra, which had been the poster child of...

In an interview with Marketplace.org (full audio), President Obama defends using U.S. taxpayer money to invest in solar energy projects. During the interview, Obama was asked about Solyndra, one of the more well-known solar panel companies that failed after receiving a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

Despite a subpoena, the White House is still withholding records related to the failed $535 million federal loan to Solyndra, Republican investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Thursday. In a letter to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler today, Republican committee Chairman Fred Upton and subcommittee chairman Cliff Stearns said the White House had not fully complied with the committee’s Nov. 3 subpoena for documents concerning the Solyndra loan. “[D]ocuments already in the Committee’s possession clearly indicate that you have numerous other documents in your possession which are responsive to the subpoena, but which have not been produced,”...

Solyndra saw staff "mutiny" before Obama visitBy Roberta Rampton | Reuters – 15 hrs ago **SNIP** An initial public offering was on the skids, and finally, there was a "mutiny" by the company's entire executive team, who flagged the crisis to the company's board of directors. The e-mails between senior advisers to George Kaiser, a major investor in the company, provide the best view yet into how problems took root early at Solyndra. The company had received a $535 million federal loan guarantee in 2009 and was held up by the Obama administration as an example of how it could...

Washington, DC -- December 1, 2011 Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced that it filed today separate lawsuits against the Obama Department of Energy and Office and Management and Budget to obtain records regarding the taxpayer funded government loan provided to the now bankrupt green energy company Solyndra. On September 5, 2011, Judicial Watch submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking the following information: Any and all records regarding, concerning or related to the issuance of loan guarantees to Solyndra LLC, Solyndra Inc., Solyndra Fab 2 LLC, and/or 360 Degree Solar...

The Labor Department today announced that it had approved Trade Adjustment Assistance for the former employees of the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra. That means all of the firm’s 1,100 ex-employees are eligible for federal aid packages, including job retraining and income assistance. The department has valued packages at about $13,000 a head.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday to subpoena the White House for all internal communications related to the failed solar company Solyndra. The subpoena escalates the ongoing battle between the White House and Republicans over a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar panel maker that filed for bankruptcy in early September, setting off a firestorm in Washington. Republicans have pummeled the White House over the loan guarantee for weeks, using Solyndra’s bankruptcy to challenge the administration’s green energy agenda. The committee’s investigative panel voted 14-9, along party lines to subpoena the...

Solyndra is being investigated by the FBI, but that may just be the tip of the shovel-ready iceberg. The Department of Energy is investigating more than 100 potential instances of criminal abuse of stimulus loan monies, according to the department’s Office of Inspector General. In prepared testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman said his office has launched more than 100 probes into possible criminal activities related to the 2009 stimulus funds behind the loans.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days before a solar panel maker collapsed, the Obama administration considered a bailout that would have provided an infusion of cash and a new board of directors, including two directors appointed by the Energy Department. Officials rejected the plan, which was recommended in August by the investment banking firm Lazard Ltd. Lazard was paid $1 million for analyzing options related to the faltering company, Solyndra Inc.

As part of its bankruptcy proceedings, defunct solar company Solyndra will auction off thousands of items from its California production facility on Nov. 2 and 3. But taxpayers won’t see a dime of the proceeds, due to the Energy Department’s decision to subordinate taxpayers to Solyndra’s private financiers in repayment of their investments.As I explained in a Friday column in the Washington Examiner, DOE has developed an unprecedented interpretation of the law to allow Solyndra’s private investors to recoup $75 million of their investment before taxpayers are repaid.Heritage Global Partners, which is conducting the auction, told Scribe that the money...

This car, which you can buy for a mere $100,000, was brough to your by a half billion dollar loan from the US Department of Energy, made in Finland using batteries and electric motors made in China. But I'll let Andrew explain it: Our tax dollars at work… a half-billion dollar loan (actually $529 million) from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a hybrid toy for the wealthy and/or celebri-licious (like Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the first customers) that, in real world driving, won’t get much better mileage than your average crossover utility vehicle. Not only that, but...

The Obama Administration spent nearly half of the $38.6 billion ($17.2 billion) set aside for his green energy programs and was only able to create 3,545 permanent green jobs. This comes out to a staggering $4,853,000 per job. Now we find out that the Obama Energy Department is going back and changing solar energy press releases. CNBC reported: Someone affiliated with the Department of Energy has been going back to make changes to press releases posted on the Internet weeks and months ago, CNBC has found. The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee...

It appears as though the Obama administration has been caught red-handed trying to cover up evidence in relation to the “green” loans programs that helped finance Solyndra. CNBC reports that a number of press releases posted by the Department of Energy have been retroactively altered to remove the name a solar company thought by many to be the next “green” failure: The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program — the same program that has been the center of controversy surrounding the failed solar company Solyndra. Both were changed to remove the name...

Former Obama administration Department of Energy loan programs adviser Steve Spinner jumped up a bracket in fundraising for the president’s re-election campaign. Spinner was the staffer inside Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s office who pushed and advocated on behalf of Solyndra. Spinner was ranked in the Obama campaign’s $250,000 to $500,000 bundling bracket in the second quarter, but third-quarter fundraising numbers released on Friday show he raised more than $500,000.

SCOTTS VALLEY - Dozens of people turned out Friday to say goodbye to Lintelle Engineering founder Bill Turner, who hosted a picnic for current and former staff in the company parking lot on El Pueblo Road. Lintelle, founded in 1989, was forced to close after its largest customer, Solyndra, filed for bankruptcy owing $1.9 million for equipment built by Lintelle employees. The bankruptcy filing came despite Solyndra receiving a $535 million federal loan guarantee. "It's hard to see this happen," asked Teri Stacher, 47, of Santa Cruz, who worked for Lintelle for 12 years. "We figured with the federal government...

"Congress isn’t getting a glimpse of what’s on President Barack Obama’s Blackberry – or any more internal White House communications related to the bankrupt solar company Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government…"

Washington (CNN) - Congress isn't getting a glimpse of what's on President Barack Obama's Blackberry - or any more internal White House communications related to the bankrupt solar company Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government. House Republicans investigating the loan controversy had requested all internal White House documents about the issue. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee chair Rep. Cliff Stearns said that includes emails on the President's Blackberry. On Friday the White House Counsel sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee explaining they won't comply with the request because it "implicates...

Washington (CNN) - Congress isn't getting a glimpse of what's on President Barack Obama's Blackberry - or any more internal White House communications related to the bankrupt solar company Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government. On Friday the White House Counsel sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee explaining they won't comply with the request because it "implicates longstanding and significant institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests."

How absurd is the Obama DOE’s explanation for violating the federal law against prioritizing private lenders ahead of taxpayers (i.e., sliding the president’s Solyndra cronies ahead of the public)? As Andrew’s post demonstrates, it is laugh out loud absurd — or at least it would be if the scheme were not so outrageous. Let’s put aside for the moment that, by the administration’s “reasoning,” the public could be robbed on every loan by simply “renegotiating” it 10 seconds after it was finalized. What is truly priceless is the administration’s claim that the law had to be ignored because “investors are...

Solargate: On the program's last day, a billion-dollar loan guarantee went to another politically connected solar outfit in financial trouble. Fiscal insanity is throwing good money after bad and expecting a different result. They say haste makes waste. But then, so does government. And when you combine the two you get a real mess. Such was the case when the Department of Energy found itself with $4.75 billion in unallocated loan guarantees as the stimulus loan program responsible for the Solyndra fiasco was ending at the end of September. In the wake of the $535 million loan guarantee to a...