Obama shoves another 5 Billion to Solar Companies (Goldman Sachs)

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Energy Department approves $4.7 billion in solar loan guarantees
The Hill ^ | 09/30/11 05:25 PM ET | By Andrew Restuccia
Posted on September 30, 2011 7:48:02 PM EDT by Sub-Driver

Energy Department approves $4.7 billion in solar loan guarantees By Andrew Restuccia - 09/30/11 05:25 PM ET

The Energy Department finalized Friday more than $4.7 billion in loan guarantees for four solar projects, bringing an embattled stimulus-law program aimed at financing renewable energy projects to a close.

The approvals come amid objections from House Republicans, who have alleged that the department was rushing to finalize the loan guarantees before the program expired Friday.

Solyndra — a California-based solar panel manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee under the program in 2009 — filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, igniting a firestorm in Washington.

House Republicans have alleged that the Obama administration missed a series of red flags that hinted at the company’s financial troubles. They’ve raised concerns about the Energy Department’s decision to restructure the loan in February amid signs that Solyndra was struggling.

But the Energy Department insisted Friday that all of the applications were subjected to intense review, noting that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle – including top Republican critics of Solyndra – have pressed the administration to approve loan guarantees in their homes states.

“Loan applications reviewed by the Department have undergone many months of due diligence and often receive bipartisan support,” DOE said in a statement.

DOE said Friday it finalized a $1.24 billion loan guarantee to SunPower Corp. to help finance construction of a California photovoltaic solar generating facility.

In addition, the department finalized a separate $646 million loan guarantee for First Solar to finance a thin film photovoltaic solar generation facility in California.

DOE also finalized $1.46 billion in partial loan guarantees for two California solar photovoltaic generation plants sponsored by First Solar.

The department approved a $1.4 billion partial loan guarantee for Project Amp, which aims to generate 752 megawatts worth of solar panels on 750 existing rooftops. The project is managed by Prologis.

Lastly, DOE finalized $1.46 billion in partial loan guarantees for two California solar photovoltaic generation plants. The lead investor on the project is Goldman Sachs Lending Partners.

The renewable energy loan guarantee program was funded under the 2009 stimulus law, which expanded an existing Energy Department loan guarantee program. The new program provided loan guarantees for renewables, advanced biofuels and electric transmission projects.

The Energy Department has spent the last several weeks finalizing a slew of loan guarantees that had already received conditional commitments.

You can read more about the projects that received DOE loan guarantees here.

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Notice how Bama raises most of his money in california and that is where coincidentally all these crazy scams end going? 

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The department approved a $1.4 billion partial loan guarantee for Project Amp, which aims to generate 752 megawatts worth of solar panels on 750 existing rooftops. The project is managed by Prologis.

Lastly, DOE finalized $1.46 billion in partial loan guarantees for two California solar photovoltaic generation plants. The lead investor on the project is Goldman Sachs Lending Partners.






Do the math.    Disgraceful. 

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(AP)  WASHINGTON — The Energy Department on Friday approved four more solar energy loan guarantees worth nearly $5 billion, hours before a controversial loan program was set to expire.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department moved to take away control of a failed solar panel maker from its management and transfer it to a court-appointed trustee.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department completed deals on four projects, including two that were sold late this week by Arizona-based First Solar Inc., a major solar manufacturer that had been seeking three federal loan guarantees for projects in California. The sales were announced Friday along with the loan guarantees.

The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra LLC, a now-bankrupt solar panel maker that has become a symbol for critics of the Obama administration's green energy program.

Two other solar loan guarantees worth about $1.1 billion were announced earlier this week, as the Obama administration pushed forward with the loan program despite pleas from GOP critics to halt it to avoid another Solyndra-like debacle.

Even as the loan program continued, the Justice Department took steps Friday to take away control of Solyndra from its management and transfer it to a court-appointed trustee.

In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the Justice Department said it was seeking the appointment of a trustee because top Solyndra executives refused to answer questions about its finances and operations. Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and financial chief W.G. Stover refused to testify before Congress last week, citing their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.

The Justice Department did not allege any wrongdoing but said "the inability or refusal of the corporate officers to answer material questions . establishes cause for the appointment of a trustee."

Solyndra, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early September, faces a criminal investigation by the FBI, as well as scrutiny from congressional investigators and inspectors general at two federal agencies, Energy and Treasury.

Experts said management often remains in control of a company during Chapter 11 reorganization, but in some cases a court orders the appointment of a trustee to take control. If the Justice Department motion is granted by the bankruptcy court, the trustee could make decisions about the company's operations, including whether to liquidate the firm, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Chu said the solar projects, which could cost taxpayers as much as $6 billion, should help the U.S. as it competes with China and other countries to develop renewable energy.

"To win the clean energy race we must invest in projects like this that fund jobs and increase the generation of clean, renewable power in the U.S.," Chu said in a statement. "Deployment of utility-scale solar power will help bring down the cost of solar and strengthen our position as a global clean energy leader."

The deals announced Friday include a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to Florida-based NextEra Energy and other investors that bought a planned 550-megawatt solar farm on federal land in Southern California from First Solar, as well as $646 million to Illinois-based Exelon Corp. for a 230-megawatt solar plant near Los Angeles. Next Era Energy Resources and GE Energy Financial Services bought the Desert Sunlight project from First Solar, while Exelon bought the Antelope Valley project. First Solar will continue to build and operate both projects.

A third project, worth $1.2 billion, will help San Jose-based SunPower Corp. build a 250-megawatt solar plant in California, while $1.4 billion will go San Francisco-based Prologis Inc. to support installation of about 750 solar rooftop panels in 28 states.

The loan program expires on Friday.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of a House energy subcommittee that is investigating Solyndra, called the rush to approve loans unseemly.

"In a last-minute mad dash to beat the stimulus deadline, DOE rushed out an unprecedented tidal wave of taxpayer dollars — and the question still remains, 'Where are the jobs?' " Stearns said Friday. "American taxpayers are already on the hook for half a billion dollars for the sins of Solyndra. What surprises does DOE have in store from (Friday's) rush job?"

___

Online:

DOE loan program: http://www.lgprogram.energy.gov/

Follow Matthew Daly's energy coverage at http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

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DOE's $5 billion day
Three of the DOE-backed projects were immediately snapped up on Friday. | Reuters
By BOB KING & DARIUS DIXON | 9/30/11 6:50 PM EDT




The Energy Department's clean-energy loan guarantee program went out with a nearly $5 billion flourish Friday. And it's not over yet.

The embattled department announced approvals for a total of more than $4.7 billion in guarantees Friday — acting hours before the program's congressional authorization was set to expire, and seeming not at all like an agency cowed by the furor over its troubled $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra.

The frenzy set off even more financial dealing, as three of the DOE-backed projects were immediately snapped up in announced acquisitions by NextEra Energy, NRG Energy and Exelon Corp.

As of 6 p.m., DOE had yet to announce whether it was approving or rejecting two more conditional loan guarantees on which it must act before midnight.

Among the day's developments, DOE awarded:

* A total of $2.1 billion in guarantees for two California projects developed by First Solar Inc., which promptly announced it was selling both ventures — one to Exelon, one to NextEra.

* A $1.2 billion guarantee for a California photovoltaic solar plant under construction by SunPower Corp. NRG immediately announced it was buying that project, although NRG said the acquisition occurred “immediately prior” to the closing of the guarantee.

* A $1.4 billion guarantee for Project Amp, an effort to put solar panels on warehouse rooftops in up to 28 states and the District of Columbia.

Friday's total is in addition to more than $1.2 billion in guarantees that the department issued earlier in the week.

The last-week flurry has drawn objections from some House Republicans, who said Solyndra's troubles already had them worried that DOE was making decisions on big-ticket guarantees without properly vetting whether the companies had viable plans or posed too much risk to taxpayers.

“The last thing we can afford from the Obama administration are more of the same sloppy, poor investments in the final rush to get the cash out the door," Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight subpanel, said earlier this week.

DOE has maintained that it has known about Friday's deadline for more than two years and isn’t rushing to approve the final batch of applications.

“We are committed to ensuring that every deal closed before Sept. 30 is fully vetted and will not close any deal that has not received full due diligence by Sept. 30,” DOE spokesman Damien LaVera said in a recent email. He added that “every agreement in our portfolio has undergone many months of extensive review and evaluation before a conditional commitment is signed.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 6:43 p.m. on September 30, 2011.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64871.html#ixzz1ZXu0xD2N