Thread: Solargate

ABC News reports:

The Treasury Department’s inspector general has opened a new front in the investigation of the government loan to Solyndra, the now bankrupt company that had been touted as a model of President Obama’s ambitious green energy program, ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity/iWatch News have learned.


The new probe involves the $535 million loan, arranged by the Energy Department, but actually processed by the Federal Financing Bank, a government lending institution that falls under Treasury’s control. Already, the FBI and the Energy Department’s inspector general have executed search warrants at Solyndra’s headquarters and questioned company executives.


“We’re going to look at everything the FFB had to do with its role in this thing,” Rich Delmar, a spokesman for the Treasury Department’s inspector general told ABC News and iWatch News.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee heard testimony from administration officials at a hearing. For more on that see here and here.


Heh...have the Republicans enough ammunition to eliminate Obama in 2012 or what?

Update: Two Other “Green” Energy Firms That Received Stimulus Funding Went Bankrupt.

Solyndra, the solar panel company whose highly publicized failure and consequent investigation by federal authorities has flashed across headlines recently, isn’t the only business to go belly up after benefiting from a piece of the $800 billion economic stimulus package passed in 2009.

At least four other companies have received stimulus funding only to later file for bankruptcy, and two of those were working on alternative energy.

Evergreen Solar Inc., indirectly received $5.3 million through a state grant to open a $450 million facility in 2007 that employed roughly 800 people. The company, once a rock star in the solar industry, filed for bankruptcy protection last month, saying it couldn’t compete with Chinese rivals without reorganizing.

The company intends to focus on building up its manufacturing facility in China.
SpectraWatt, based in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., is also a solar cell company that was spun out of Intel in 2008. In June 2009, SpectraWatt received a $500,000 grant from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as part of the stimulus package. SpectraWatt was one of 13 companies to receive the money to help develop ways to improve solar cells without changing current manufacturing processes.


The company filed for bankruptcy last month, saying it could not compete with its Chinese competitors, which receive “considerable government and financial support.”


On Tuesday, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman wrote an editorial for “USA Today” in which he blamed China in part for the failure of U.S. solar energy manufacturers to compete."


Also referred to as 'Venture Socialism"



Solyndra Not Sole Firm To Hit Rock Bottom Despite Stimulus Funding | Fox News

New Emails Show Obama Officials Knew Solyndra Was In Financial Trouble, Worried It Could Hurt His Reelection Campaign



Heh...the plot thickens, eh?

White House officials discussed the political ramifications of a possible default by a troubled solar energy company that received more than $500 million in federal loans.

That’s according to newly released emails.

The emails show the Obama administration privately worried about the effect of a default by Solyndra Inc. on the president’s re-election campaign.

One of the emails from an administration official said the timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up.

The email, released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee as part of its investigation into the Solyndra loan, showed Obama administration officials were concerned about Solyndra’s financial health even as they publicly declared the solar panel maker in good shape.

Obama admin ignored warnings about Solyndra - Yahoo! News

Solyndra Pressured Bush White House For Approval In January, 2009 — And Didn’t Get It. “Apparently, the Bush administration officials involved caught a whiff of desperation and decided to back away. Too bad Obama administration officials didn’t make the same choice.”

Indeed...

Heh...are we talking corruption at the highest level or what? Turns out there's a connection to the First Wookie with this Solyndra fiasco:

Crony Capitalism at its best!

A Daily Caller review of the George Kaiser Family Foundation’s income tax returns found that during the same year billionaire investor George Kaiser successfully secured $535 million in government loan guarantees for the now-failed [COLOR=green !important][COLOR=green ! important]solar [COLOR=green ! important]panel [/color][COLOR=green ! important]manufacturer[/color][/color][/color] Solyndra, his private philanthropy donated to a political cause close to the hearts of several high-ranking Obama administration officials. Kaiser, a major Obama donor, was a frequent White House visitor during the week before the Obama administration approved that taxpayer-underwritten financial deal.
A $10,000 donation to the Urban Health Initiative at the University of Chicago Medical Center appears on the group’s 2009 tax forms. It was also in 2009 that Kaiser successfully sought to lock down a [COLOR=green !important][COLOR=green !important]loan [COLOR=green !important]guarantee[/color][/color][/color] for the green-energy company Solyndra through his two investment vehicles: Argonaut Ventures and the GKFF Investment Company.
While this donation seems small compared to the far larger numbers involved in the Solyndra scandal, it adds to the pattern of possible connections between the Obama administration and the growing Solyndra scandal.

Solyndra | Kaiser Foundation | George Kaiser | The Daily Caller

Obama’s Chickens Come Home to Roost… US House Will Investigate Solyndra, LightSquared

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that his committee plans to investigate government loan programs to private corporations in light of allegations of improper dealings between the White House and failed energy company Solyndra and wireless start-up LightSquared.
“I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers… it wasn’t because there were large contributions given to them,” the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Tuesday morning on C-SPAN.
Issa said the committee was looking at whether it was improper for members of Congress or White House staff to select companies eligible for subsidized government loans when those companies could give campaign donations. Loan programs have been a popular tool to provide funding for popular industries — like tech, green energy, and American auto companies — at more favorable terms than could be secured privately.
The Obama administration has been defending itself against criticism by Republicans that it exerted improper influence to the aid of both companies.


Issa to launch probe of Obama actions on Solyndra, LightSquared - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Solyndra Emails Show Obama Admin Was Poised To Approve Second Loan For $469 Million As Company Was Circling The Drain

Lucky for the American taxpayer, Solyndra went belly-up before Obama could give them more money...

The Obama administration’s Department of Energy was poised last summer to give Solyndra a second major taxpayer loan of $469 million, even as the company’s financial situation was growing more dire.The Energy Department was actively pushing to provide the second loan guarantee to the troubled solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, when Solyndra’s auditors warned the company was in danger of closing due to its rapidly mounting debts and expenses, according to complete e-mails just released by a House committee investigating the original loan.
White House career staffers, who had first raised concerns in the fall of 2009 about the Department of Energy providing Solyndra with its first taxpayer-backed loan of $535 million, wrote e-mails in gallows humor in April 2010 about the prospect of giving Solyndra more money. That spring, industry analysts were publicly questioning how the Silicon Valley startup could so quickly be running out both the federal loan and $933 million in private capital.
“Apparently the loan size for Phase II is $469 million,” one Office of Management and Budget analyst wrote of DOE seeking a second loan for Solyndra. The analysts’s name was not released by the committee. “I’ve been told we should expect the see that project soon for conditional commitment.”
Another joked: “Possible to close and default on one before closing on a second??? Could be a new record.”


Solyndra: House seeks more Obama White House e-mails, as revelations continue - The Washington Post

White House Refuses To Hand Over Obama BlackBerry Messages On Solyndra



You don't think he's got anything to hide now, do you?

President Barack Obama won’t be sharing his BlackBerry messages with House investigators seeking communications about Solyndra, the White House told Hill Republicans on Friday.White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler told House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders that they should still be happy with the trove of Solyndra-related documents they’re getting from federal agencies including DOE, the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget.
But Ruemmler said the investigators’ request for all internal White House communications about Solyndra — dating back to the first day of the Obama administration — “implicates long-standing and significant institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests.”
“Encroaching upon these important interests is not necessary, however, because the agency documents the Committee has requested, which include communications with the White House, should satisfy the Committee’s stated objective — to ‘understand the involvement of the White House in the review of the Solyndra loan guarantee and the Administration’s support of this guarantee,’” Ruemmler added in her letter, to committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and oversight subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.).
CNN reported on the White House rebuff Friday evening. POLITICO later obtained the letter from a government source.


White House won

Heh...this is where the rubber meets the road:

WHITE HOUSE SUBPOENAED Over Solyndra Scandal!



Barack Obama was so impressed with the failed solar company that the administration wanted to give it another $469 million on top of the $535 million to make it an even billion dollars in taxpayer cash.

Showing a growing frustration with the the Obama administration, congressional Republicans on Thursday authorized their second subpoena this week, demanding White House documents related to failed solar technology company Solyndra.


By a 14-9 party-line vote the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative subcommittee authorized issuing a subpoena for any White House documents related to Solyndra, which received renewable energy loan guarantees under President Obama’s stimulus program. The request for documents could include details of the president’s own travel and communications.


Democrats said it was “unprecedented” to subpoena documents from the president’s executive office like this, but Republicans said they’ve run out of patience with White House “stalling.”
“We simply cannot allow the executive branch at its highest levels to pick and choose what they will produce, or whether they will produce anything at all,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, the Florida Republican who runs the investigative panel.


Are we talking the most corrupt administration in living memory or what?


House subpoenas White House for Solyndra documents - Washington Times

You're not getting much traction on this Boon. Why not go over to the thread where the welfare scroungers from Georgia were arrested on terrorism charges?

Originally Posted by Begbie

You're not getting much traction on this Boon.

I know it.

Too many folks on board here are still sympathetic towards the Obungler...

No, it's just there are many non Americans here who haven't a clue what solargate is.
The O.P. needs to be a point by point synopsis to get the rest of us up to speed.
No one wants to read pages and pages of cut and paste just to find out it's something they don't give a fuck about.
Which for most Poms, Aussies, Kiwis, Taffies, Canuks, Huns, Frogs, Seffers and poofy Belgians would be the case.

Originally Posted by Koojo

No, it's just there are many non Americans here who haven't a clue what solargate is.
The O.P. needs to be a point by point synopsis to get the rest of us up to speed.
No one wants to read pages and pages of cut and paste just to find out it's something they don't give a fuck about.
Which for most Poms, Aussies, Kiwis, Taffies, Canuks, Huns, Frogs, Seffers and poofy Belgians would be the case.

Fair enough.

Simply put, it's corruption at the Presidential level. The Obummer gave taxpayer monies to various companies that did not have the business plan of a kid in grade school. Gross ineptitude.

Realize you guys from elsewhere don't have a dog in this fight - was addressing the 'Merkins who post on here...

Originally Posted by S Landreth

It’s good to be King:

Only for a little while longer - thank G_D!

Just more (not that it's needed) ammunition for the Republican candidate to crush this POS.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Republican candidate to crush this POS.

Your sentiments are well enough known- why then are you consistently backing the Republican no-hopers?

Boon,

This is another bad political story, but.....copy and pasting the Drudgerereport?

Puhhleeaze.

Originally Posted by sabang

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Republican candidate to crush this POS.

Your sentiments are well enough known- why then are you consistently backing the Republican no-hopers?

I'm praying for a miracle...

Another solar companies provided with loan gaurantees - which I think has some good in it because it's about alternative energy sources - is going bankrupt because the Chinese can produce cheaper solar panels. Smart planning by the govt bureaucracies.

Bloomberg News
Abound Solar to Suspend Operations, Will Seek Bankruptcy
By Christopher Martin and Jim Snyder on June 28, 2012

Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that was awarded a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee, will suspend operations and file for bankruptcy because its panels were too expensive to compete.

Abound borrowed about $70 million against the guarantee, the Loveland, Colorado-based company said today in a statement. It plans to file for bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Delaware, next week.

The failure will follow that of Solyndra LLC, which shut down in August after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the same U.S. Energy Department program. Abound stopped production in February to focus on reducing costs after a global oversupply and increasing competition from China drove down the price of solar panels by half last year.

“Aggressive pricing actions from Chinese solar-panel companies have made it very difficult for an early stage startup company like Abound to scale in current market conditions,” the company said in the statement.

Abound Solar to Suspend Operations, Will Seek Bankruptcy - Businessweek

^Even more Americans lose their jobs to the Chinese.

Some trade regulations would help this situation.

Why would anyone expect a dopey community organizer to have even the smallest shred of business sense? He's paying off California's Queen P support for his election by throwing billions and billions of taxpayer dollars at companies who summarily fire all their employees and close their doors and send all their business to China.

Some expected as much from this tool.

Originally Posted by Panty Hamster

Why would anyone expect a dopey community organizer to have even the smallest shred of business sense? He's paying off California's Queen P support for his election by throwing billions and billions of taxpayer dollars at companies who summarily fire all their employees and close their doors and send all their business to China.

Some expected as much from this tool.

He never had a real job in his life unless you call being a failed community agitator a 'job'. All in all, Obama's got a perfect record for Green Job Failures:

Obama's Green Jobs Failures - Hit & Run : Reason.com

And there is those among us who would vote for this POS again? Up is down, war is peace and those who do vote for the Chocolate Jesus are seriously addled in the brain...

Another one bites the dust from the corrupt Obama administration:

House Investigating Now Bankrupt Solar Company Backed By Obama Campaign Bundler And $400 Million DOE Loan

House investigators have asked executives and former executives at Abound Solar, a now-bankrupt solar company that received a $400 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, to testify before Congress about the DOE subsidy.
The House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending invited the Abound Solar CEO and former CEO to testify, along with some Energy Department officials after the company announced it is filing for bankruptcy, despite drawing about $70 million of the $400 million available from the DOE loan guarantee. [...]
Bohemian Companies, founded by Democratic mega-donor Pat Stryker, invested in Abound Solar in 2008. A year after the investment, but a year before Abound received a loan guarantee, Stryker apparently visited the White House. “The White House did not confirm that the visitor was the Pat Stryker in question and did not provide details about the meeting,” the Sunlight Foundation reported.
Stryker gave $50,000 for Obama’s inauguration and bundled another 87,000 for the event. She also donated $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund, Sunlight observed.

House investigating bankrupt solar company backed by Obama bundler and DOE loan | WashingtonExaminer.com

What has Obama done right since coming to Washington, huh?

Obama: “When I Try Something That Doesn’t Work, Then I Don’t Try It Again,” Then Vows More Subsidies for “Green” Energy Firms Like Solyndra

"President Barack Obama told a Cincinnati audience on Monday that he does not make the same mistake more than once. Minutes later, he told the same crowd he would continue spending federal dollars on green energy.
The Obama administration has spent billions of taxpayer dollars on green energy companies, many of which either declared bankruptcy or created most of their jobs outside the United States. The most notable among these was Solyndra, which got a $535 million Energy Department loan in 2009, but declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 shortly before being raided by the FBI."

Source

What a fool...