By Carol D. Leonnig and and Joe Stephens
Newly released e-mails show the Obama administration’s Energy Department was poised to give Solyndra a second taxpayer loan of $469 million last year, even as the company’s financial situation grew increasingly dire.
The department was still considering providing the second loan guarantee to the solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, at a time when Solyndra’s auditors were already warning that the company was in danger of collapsing.
Details of the plan are revealed in e-mails released this week by Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating the original loan. On Wednesday, the probe intensified as committee Republicans requested that the White House provide all documents, dating back to President Obama’s inauguration, that would show communications between staff members and other officials regarding Solyndra’s original $535 million federal loan guarantee.
Republican leaders said that documents obtained in recent weeks show that Obama’s “closest confidantes” monitored the loan, and that his campaign donors offered advice on the company.
Did everyone take a break? I was going to just read the posts for a while but there is crickets chirpin here! Is everyone waiting to hear what I have to say first? Come on! Ok fine. I’ll comment.
This story is really a non-story to me. I don’t really honestly know why it was written. They were thinking about another loan but they didn’t do it. So this is a story reporting that they actually did the right thing in this case? Is that the point? I don’t get it if it’s not.
I agree Neil. I was about to channel you and ask: what does this have to do with AGW…?
Time will tell as previously stated won’t it.
Thanks for the input Joe!
If you cannot figure out how this has anything to do with AGW you must have your head up your whatever. Follow the money.
What money? They didn’t get the 2nd round of loans which is why I say this is a non-story.
Agree. Political influence on other solar subsidies/concerns? Think about it Neil. I sense more coming?
C’mon you two… can’t we all get along?!
The real money-stealing award goes to: 1) the government commission charged with investigating war profiteering in Iraq and Afghanistan decided last week to seal its findings for 20 years until 2031, 2) $6.6 billion of the missing tens of billions in Iraq had been discovered at the Bank of Baghdad, and 3) the number of U.S. military bases in Iraq is down to 15 as U.S. forces prepare to leave, a base total that is down from the 505, (repeat, 505!!!), U.S. military bases that once dotted the country during Bush’s Iraq War.
Just like in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast, Bush’s Iraq War was a money-making scheme, a get-rich-quick scheme for Republican cronies, by Republican cronies. Remember the Heritage Foundation running help-wanted ads on-line, recruiting Republicans to work over in Bremer’s CPA Green Zone, no matter what qualification these Republicans had? Remember VP Dick Cheney’s no-bid contracts that were meant to bypass federal contract law and the procurement process, solely for the purpose of benefiting Republican cronies, by Republican cronies? Remember the widespread Hatch Act violations throughout all federal agencies, with what happened at the DOJ, spearheaded by Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson, just being the tip of this Republican crony iceberg? Remember that at one time during Bush’s Iraq War, there were an equal number of private for-profit contractors on the ground in Iraq (150,000) relative to how many U.S. troops were on the ground (150,000 spread out apparently over 505, repeat, 505!!!, U.S. military bases, each requiring private for-profit contractor services)?
So, who made out like bandits over Bush’s Iraq War? Crony Republicans and only crony Republicans. And there are still tens of billions of taxpayer dollars missing in Iraq, just as the crony Republicans planned.
What, no outrage? No anger even? I wasn’t really expecting it from this group. No perspective. All bias and prejudice. Greed is good, as long as it’s perpetrated by the Right. War is also good. It’s just another money-making business.
Uhh, silence…. that tells a lot…. oh wait, do I hear the trample of the herd approaching??? Duck for cover!
No, Chu and Obama are ducking for cover. Don’t you read? That’s right probably only Politico et al I assume?