Author Topic: ObamaGate: Solyndra Files Bnkrtcy after getting $535 Million WH Fast Track Loan  (Read 10233 times)

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Breaking: FBI executing search warrants at Solyndra right now.
AP ^ | AP



FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — FBI spokesman says federal agents executing search warrants at California solar firm Solyndra


(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...



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FBI at Solyndra Headquarters
Part of a joint investigation with the Dept. of EnergyBy RJ Middleton |  Thursday, Sep 8, 2011  |  Updated 8:49 AM PDTView Comments (4)


| Email| Print  Christie Smith / NBC Bay Area

FBI officials are at Solyndra's headquarters, fulfilling search warrants.


FBI agents armed with search warrants descended this morning on bankrupt solar company Solynrda this morning.

The investigation comes after a request by the Department of Energy's inspector general, FBI spokesman Peter Lee told NBC Bay Area News.

Agents arrived at 7a.m. and are examining the factory. Solynrda has a skeleton crew of 100 workers on the scene, closing the factory down. A CNBC photographer on the scene says the FBI has promised a press conference. An agency spokesperson at its San Francisco headquarters says he's unaware of any such plans.

Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last week, shocking both workers and the Obama administration, which had given the startup hundreds of millions of dollars in low interest loans.  Congress has demanded a hearing into the matter.

There are no reports of any arrests at this time.

Solyndra officials made numerous visits -- 20 -- to the White House, according to logs and reporting by The Daily Caller. Solyndra officials in the logs included chairman and founder Christian Gronet and board members Thomas Baruch and David Prend, according to the Caller.

Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last week, shocking both workers and the Obama administration, which had given the startup hundreds of millions of dollars in low-interest loans. Congress has demanded a hearing looking into that loan.

NBC Bay Area has a team en route to the scene, as well as a helicopter.

Please check here for updates as this story unfolds.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/FBI-at-Solyndra-Headquarters-129455348.html









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Solyndra officials made numerous trips to the White House, logs show
Published: 1:30 AM 09/08/2011
By Amanda Carey


 
FREMONT, CA - MAY 26: Ben Bierman (R) and Chris Gronet (L) lead U.S. President Barack Obama on a tour of the Solyndra solar panel company May 26, 2010 in Fremont, California. (Photo by Paul Chinn-Pool/Getty Images)

Not only does the now-bankrupt solar energy firm Solyndra have a cozy financial  relationship with the Obama administration, company representatives also made numerous visits to the White House to meet with administration officials, The Daily Caller has learned.

According to White House visitor logs, between March 12, 2009, and April 14, 2011, Solyndra officials and investors made no fewer than 20 trips to the West Wing. In the week before the administration awarded Solyndra with the first-ever alternative energy loan guarantee on March 20, four separate visits were logged.

George Kaiser, who has in the past been labeled a major Solyndra investor as well as a Obama donor, made three visits to the White House on March 12, 2009, and one on March 13. Kaiser has denied any direct involvement in the Solyndra deal and through a statement from his foundation said he “did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan.”

But the countless meetings at the White House seem hardly coincidental. Kaiser, in fact, is responsible for 16 of the 20 meetings that showed up on the White House logs.

In the meetings on March 12, Kaiser met with former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Austan Goolsbee at 11 a.m., Senior Advisor Pete Rouse at 3 p.m., and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council Heather Higginbottom at 6:30 p.m. On the 13th, Kaiser met with Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Jason Furman at 9 a.m.

Other Solyndra officials that made the trek over to the White House include Chairman and Founder Christian Gronet on September 22, 2009, at 9:30 a.m.; and Board Members Thomas Baruch and David Prend.

Baruch went to the White House May 7, 2010, and September 20, 2010, at 8:40 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. Prend visited on September 21, 2010, at 9:15 p.m. (RELATED: Bankrupt solar company with Fed backing has cozy ties to Obama administration)

The visitor logs also show that a number of members of the administration a loan guarantee for Solyndra pressing enough to take meetings. Former Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and Adviser Valerie Jarrett even took meetings with Kaiser.

As TheDC previously reported, Solyndra officials, including Kaiser himself, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Barack Obama.

Kaiser personally donated $53,500 to Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. Ben Bierman, executive vice president of operations donated $5,500 to Obama, and Karen Alter, senior vice president of marketing gave $23,000, just to name a few.


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www.reliant.com/solarIn 2009, Solyndra secured a $535 million loan guarantee



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/08/solyndra-officials-made-numerous-trips-to-the-white-house-logs-show/#ixzz1XNUjJF1D



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Solyndra - The Obama connection
ZeroHedge ^



September 08, 2011 12:29:35



Solyndra - The Obama connection

I wrote about the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra last week; "Government Investment Disaster in the Works" I highlighted all of the negatives that the company was facing.

It was pretty clear to me that that company was facing trouble. But I had no idea that they would file Chapter 11 the very next day. (Sometimes you just get lucky)

I also made note of some scuttlebutt that George Kaiser (Oklahoma oil billionaire) was involved with Solyndra. I have been looking for a confirmation of this. Kaiser is an important link in this story. He is also a very big fund-raiser for Obama. He is often referred to as a “Bundler”. In this case that means he encouraged/pushed others to put up money for the big O’s campaign.

The Tulsa World filed a story Re the Kaiser connection earlier today. (What better place to get the news than a home town paper). Quotes from the TW article:

The bankruptcy filing indicates that Argonaut Ventures, an investment arm of the Tulsa-based foundation, holds almost 39 percent of Solyndra's parent, 360 Solar Degree Holdings Inc.

Okay, so who is behind Argonaut Ventures?

In an emailed statement to the Tulsa World, a representative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation said the organization made the investment through Argonaut.

So the family foundation was the source of the money that got Solyndra going. But George Kaiser tried to distance himself from this very ugly story. A quote from a Kaiser “spokesperson”:

"George Kaiser is not an investor in Solyndra and did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".

Interesting that Kaiser is doing his level best to distance himself from the stink. But it does not work for me:

George Kaiser is chairman of BOK Financial Corp. and owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Argonaut is headed by Steve Mitchell, who also served on Solyndra's board of directors.

So Kaiser wants us to believe that the Family Foundation he runs invested some $300mm of the families “excess cash” and he did not really know about it. The guy who is running the family’s investments (Steve Mitchell) is also sitting on the board at Solyndra. And we are supposed to believe that George Kaiser was just a passive investor? Not a chance.

We have Mr. Kaiser on the record on this. Again, his words:

“George Kaiser did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".

He never spoke to Obama about this? Not even once? Not even when Obama went (twice) to the company’s manufacturing offices in Pa and CA? I don’t believe that denial.

There is one very slippery fact that I am wondering about. It has to do with subordination. This a legal issue on who gets paid first in a bankruptcy. In all cases the equity is last on the list. But that is not the situation with Solyndra/Kaiser. From Bloomberg:

In February, Solyndra and its lenders reorganized the company’s debts, putting the U.S. loan behind $69.3 million owed to other lenders, including an affiliate of Solyndra’s biggest shareholder, Argonaut Ventures.

This kind of stuff is not supposed to happen. The equity interest of the Kaiser family got a preference as to the right of repayment from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the line. He got in front of the US Government’s $528mm IOU from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the interests of the American taxpayer. There had to be some very serious arm-twisting going on in the background to achieve this feat. .

I’ve looked at the BK filings. The company is going to sell its assets in an effort to pay of all creditors. The question is who gets paid first and what are the liquidation proceeds.

Solyndra had lousy technology. There are tons of flat panel manufactures left standing. Whatever Solyndra has for sale is not going to be worth much. I’m guessing around 20 cents on the dollar from book. The company has listed $859mm of assets. By my calculation the cash value will be under $200mm.

There are employee claims that come first. Next in line come trade creditors. Then comes the senior unsecured debt owed to Argonaut. The lawyers (There are a ton of big shots already involved) will get their pound of flesh. That leaves next to nothing for Uncle Sam. The taxpayers are going to take it in the ear for $400-500 million.

This story will hound Obama. His campaign got big bucks from a guy who ended up costing the Feds a very big penny. This is a story that could drag Obama down. He either has to step up and explain how this could have happened or he can say nothing. He has to provide some clarity on the George Kaiser connection. If he chooses to keep mum on this mess he will have to face Congressional hearings for the next 18 months. There will be a story in the paper every week or so. The Republicans will see to it. This is a story that could turn an election.

www.zerohedge.com


OzmO

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Another Obama victory!

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True - when collapsing america is your goal - this is certainly a victory.

Vince G, CSN MFT

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Solyndra was given a 535 million loan garrantee.  Not sure how much of the money they spent but it doesn't surprise me that the facility was raided by the FEDS.  Anytime you abruptly cease operations and lay off every worker immediately with no compensation or warning at all, then there's going to be hell to pay.  There was no indication whatsoever that the company was having any problems. 

One thing is for sure, Obama is going to have someone's nuts for this.  Very embarrassing for him to have this happen after praising the company last year.
A

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FBI raids solar panel company hailed by Obama
The Washington Times ^ | Sept. 8, 2011 | Jim McElhatton and Jerry Seper




FBI agents on Thursday executed search warrants at the headquarters of Solyndra LLC, which was awarded more than $500,000 in federal stimulus loans in 2009 to make solar panels in what the Obama administration called part of an aggressive effort to put more Americans to work and end U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

But the company filed a bankruptcy petition Tuesday in Delaware, asking a court to bar phone, electricity and water and sewer service providers from “altering, refusing or discontinuing service,” and now is the focus of an investigation by the FBI and the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General.

FBI spokesman Peter Lee said he could not provide details about the investigation.

A little more than a year ago, President Obama hailed Solyndra during a tour of the company, saying it expected to hire 1,000 workers and make enough panels over the lifetime of its planned expanded facility that it would be like replacing eight coal-fired power plants.

“It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future,” Mr. Obama said.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


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FBI raids solar panel company hailed by Obama
Firm got $500 million in stimulus funds
By Jim McElhatton and Jerry Seper






FBI agents on Thursday executed search warrants at the headquarters of Solyndra LLC, which was awarded more than $500 million in federal stimulus loans in 2009 to make solar panels in what the Obama administration called part of an aggressive effort to put more Americans to work and end U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

But the company filed a bankruptcy petition Tuesday in Delaware, asking a court to bar phone, electricity and water and sewer service providers from "altering, refusing or discontinuing service," and now is the focus of an investigation by the FBI and the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General.

FBI spokesman Peter Lee said he could not provide details about the investigation.

A little more than a year ago, President Obama hailed Solyndra during a tour of the company, saying it expected to hire 1,000 workers and make enough panels over the lifetime of its planned expanded facility that it would be like replacing eight coal-fired power plants.

"It's here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future," Mr. Obama said.

The company's bankruptcy petition came two years after Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and Vice President Joseph R. Biden announced approval of $535 million in federal loans to Solyndra.

"This announcement today is part of the unprecedented investment this administration is making in renewable energy and exactly what the Recovery Act is all about," Mr. Biden said.

Instead, Solyndra, which was launched in 2005, last week shed more than 900 full-time employees, leaving just a "core group" of 113 employees, according to bankruptcy records. The price for solar panels has dropped by more than 40 percent, in part because of heavy competition from Chinese companies.

Republicans have been looking into the Solyndra loan for several months and has subpoenaed documents concerning it from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, Florida Republican and chairman of the subcommittee for oversight and investigations on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said last week the company's collapse should raise concerns about the entire stimulus program.

"The administration celebrated Solyndra as the first recipient of its loan guarantee program and intended to showcase its success as representative of its stimulus program," Mr. Stearns said. "This should be of great concern to all Americans considering the $1 trillion committed by the White House to its stimulus efforts."

Mr. Stearns and Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter last week to the White House seeking information about the White House's role in the loans to Solyndra.

In the letter, Mr. Stearns and Mr. Upton said they've learned from an investigation they had previously been conducting that Department of Energy officials, as well as officials from the Office of Management and Budget, were aware of White House interest in the Solyndra loan deal. In addition, they said they were aware that a major investor in Solyndra, George Kaiser, was a bundler for Mr. Obama's campaign.

"Now with the collapse of Solyndra, we see 1,100 employees out of work and taxpayers out of $535 million, most likely," Mr. Stearns said in a statement.

W.G. Stover Jr., chief financial officer for Solyndra, said in a court filing that the company was battered by "the combination of general business conditions and an oversupply of solar panels" that reduced prices worldwide.

He blamed the oversupply on expanding capacity by foreign solar panel manufacturers that "utilized low cost capital provided by their governments to expand operations."

"In response, Solyndra was forced to reduce its average selling prices to remain competitive," Mr. Stover explained in the 56-page court filing. In addition, he said the reduction or elimination of government subsidies and incentives to buy solar energy, particularly in Europe, also hurt demand for the company's panels.

Dan Leistikow, director of public affairs for the Energy Department, said in a statement that "changing economics have affected a number of solar manufacturers in recent months, including unfortunately, Solyndra. …"

"This loan guarantee was pursued by both the Bush and Obama administrations," Mr Leistikow said. "Private sector investors, who put more than $1 billion of their own money on the line, also saw great potential in the company."

Reacting to news of the company's layoffs last week, Jay Carney, White House press secretary, said there were more than 40 companies in the same loan program that funded Solyndra and "you cannot measure the success based on one company or the other."

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/8/fbi-raids-solar-panel-company-hailed-by-obama/print


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Bankrupt Obama Stimulus Darling Raided By Feds
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/08/2011 13:00 -0400



Department Of Energy FBI Federal Financing Bank Government Stimulus Obama Administration Treasury Department


After breaking the story of Solyndra's shady taxpayer funded practices (which were not enough to stave off bankruptcy, and yet another confirmation that government stimulus in the form of subsidies is virtually always an epic failure), Bruce Krasting subsequently delved into the one entity that somehow had managed to get priority interest to subordinated government loans to the tune of $528 million in government funding: Argonaut Ventures, and specifically one George Kaiser who just happens to be a material fund-raiser for the president. And while it is not known yet whether the embedded improprieties in this peculiar relationship will end Obama's chances for reelection, things are starting to stink. Because as Bloomberg reports, as of a few hours ago, the company's headquarters was raided by the Feds. While at this point they are certainly looking for signs of criminal malfeasance by management, it won't be long before they put two and two together and decided to analyze the logic behind the funding, and why it is that an Obama-favored person will get his money out first while US taxpayers will likely suffer a total wash.

From Bloomberg:

Solyndra LLC, the bankrupt solar- panel maker that was backed by the Obama administration, is being raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation today, an agency spokeswoman said.

 

“We’re executing a search warrant jointly” with the Department of Energy inspector general “regarding an investigation,” FBI spokeswoman Julie Sohn said of the raid at the company’s Fremont, California, headquarters offices and plant. Sohn said she couldn’t provide details about the investigation.

 

The company, whose $535 million federal loan guarantee was criticized by Republicans, filed bankruptcy on Sept. 6, six days after shutting down its factory and firing 1,100 people.

 

Former Solyndra employees sued the company, claiming it failed to give the warning required under federal law before shutting down and firing them.

 

Solyndra said it failed because it couldn’t compete with foreign manufacturers funded by their foreign governments. The U.S. Federal Financing Bank, owned by the U.S. Treasury Department, is the company’s biggest lender, according to court papers.

Something tells us that the word Solyndra will see precisely zero mentions in a word cloud of Obama's speech tonight.

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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bankrupt-obama-stimulus-darling-raided-feds




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I wonder if Obama will mention this tonight.   




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Skipping safeguards, officials rushed benefit to a politically-connected energy company



The Obama administration bypassed steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve an energy loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar power startup , iWatch News [4] and ABC News have learned.

The Energy Department in March 2009 announced [5] its intention to award Solyndra Inc. [6]a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals. An independent federal auditor who has reviewed the energy loan program said moving so quickly without completing thorough reviews exposed the program to perceptions of political influence and put taxpayers at greater risk.

“There’s a consequence if you don’t follow a rigorous process that’s transparent,” said Franklin Rusco, an analyst with the Government Accountability Office [7]. “It makes the agency more susceptible to outside pressures, potentially.”

The loan guarantee, the administration's first for a clean energy project, benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a “bundler” of campaign donations. Kaiser raised at least $50,000 for the president’s 2008 election effort.

Kaiser did not respond to interview requests made through Solyndra, and his Kaiser-Francis Oil Company in Tulsa said he declined comment. Solyndra spokesman David Miller said political ties had no bearing.

“We do not believe there was any connection at all,” said Miller. “We have created a substantial number of jobs with Solyndra and we’re very proud of that. I think people are missing a lot of the story getting into the politics.”

He said the company first applied for funding under the Bush administration, though it won it under Obama at a time the commercial financing market was dry.

Several political allies of the president have ties to companies receiving Energy Department loans, grants or loan guarantees. For instance, the venture firm of another top Obama bundler, Steve Westly, has financially supported companies that won more than half a billion dollars in energy grants and loans during President Obama’s time in office, iWatchNews and ABC reported in March [8]. Relatively few applicants succeed in winning such benefits. The Energy Department said every one of those awards was won on merit.


The Solyndra loan guarantee, advertised by the administration as part of its signature effort to create jobs while weaning the U.S. from traditional energy sources, already has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have requested documents from the Energy Department as part of an investigation into how the company qualified for government support and then, a year later, closed a plant, laid off workers, and eventually had to renegotiate the loan guarantee’s terms while working to shore up its finances. Now, the shortcuts at the dawn of the deal identified by government auditors have stoked more questions.

Energy Department officials said their analysts had gathered more than enough information to bet on Solyndra. They said politics played no role, and that they did not give Solyndra or any other company special treatment.

“All applicants within any solicitation are treated the same way,” said Jonathan Silver [9], executive director of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office [10], which oversees the administration’s $90 billion in spending on promising alternative energy and on green automobile projects. A former venture capitalist, Silver himself has been an early-stage investor in alternative energy technology. He joined DOE after the Solyndra financing.

When the Obama administration announced financing for Solyndra in 2009, the company was only four years old, and had been shipping solar panels for about a year. Officials said the administration was eager to stimulate the economy and spur green energy start-ups. Energy Secretary Steven Chu promised the package alone would create more than 4,000 jobs.

One year later, in March 2010, the signs were not so encouraging. Solyndra’s accountant, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, wrote in an audit being prepared for an initial public offering: “The Company has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders’ deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” Solyndra has since boosted revenues, though some analysts remain skeptical about its long-term prospects.

Two months later, in May 2010, President Obama visited [11] Solyndra’s Fremont plant and heralded the project as “a symbol of promise” for the loan program.

A month after Obama’s visit, Solyndra canceled its planned IPO.

The loan guarantee agreement was among 10 examined by the GAO [12] last year, and Congress’ investigative arm privately singled out Solyndra as one of five applications that had received conditional approvals before outside experts had finished vetting the deals. The GAO did not identify the companies, but said the Energy Department had “treated applicants inconsistently, favoring some and disadvantaging others.”

ABC and iWatch News pieced together a fuller picture of the circumstances and identified the companies involved. The Energy Department confirmed that Solyndra and two other projects were those cited in the GAO report.

The vetting of applicants for government financial packages is not merely a technical, bureaucratic concern. “If you don’t have really strong processes in place, and if you’re under pressure to get a lot of these dollars allocated, you can make unproductive decisions and ones that ultimately put taxpayers’ dollars at risk,” said Rusco, director of the GAO’s natural resources and environment team.

The GAO audit said the rules are clear: Before the Energy Department makes a conditional commitment to guarantee a loan, its “procedures call for engineering, financial, legal, and marketing reviews of proposed projects as part of the due diligence process for identifying and mitigating risk.”

Those reviews are meant to form a full portrait of a project’s strengths and potential weaknesses. The legal review explores everything from the equity stake of individual partners to the fine-point details of contracts. The marketing review is crucial in determining a project’s potential to make sales and build a customer base.

In announcing the Solyndra loan guarantee, the Energy Department noted in a public statement that before offering conditional commitments, the government “takes significant steps to

ensure risks are properly mitigated” and undertakes “a thorough investigation and analysis of each project’s financial, technical and legal strengths and weaknesses.”

Yet when Chu announced conditional approval for Solyndra that March, neither the legal nor marketing reviews had been finalized, iWatch News and ABC have learned. For Solyndra, the marketing review had special relevance because of the financial troubles that soon surfaced.

Energy officials say they felt they had enough marketing information in hand to proceed. “We had an extensive market analysis conducted prior to the conditional commitment for Solyndra which was updated and finalized prior to closing,” spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller wrote in an email.

Energy Department loan director Silver said Solyndra and two other projects secured conditional commitments without completed legal reviews, which can cost companies thousands of dollars. Red River Environmental Products LLC obtained a $245 million loan guarantee to build an activated carbon manufacturing facility in Red River Parish, La.,and a project to build two new nuclear reactors in Burke, Ga., received an $8.3 billion guarantee. That project involves Georgia Power Company, Oglethorpe Power Corporation and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia.

Silver called the decisions to make conditional commitments without full legal reviews routine, and said the arrangements did not subject taxpayers to heightened risk. By the time of the Solyndra closing, six months after Chu’s announcement, he said, all required reviews had taken place.

“A conditional commitment is only an interim step to a loan guarantee. It is not a loan guarantee itself,” said Silver. “Final legal reports would not be expected at conditional commitment. It would only be expected at final close.”

A conditional commitment along with an announcement of financial support from the Energy Department can help startup clean tech firms attract more investors — and distance themselves from competitors lacking the government’s stamp of approval. Final approvals, virtually assured, are granted at closing. By then, companies have already banked on the financial momentum of the agency’s guarantee: The department routinely issues press releases touting its conditional commitments.

Energy boasts of  “aggressive timeline” on loan guarantee
Obama’s desire to shift the nation into more environmentally friendly sources of energy while creating jobs during a recession have fueled a raft of projects involving billions of federal dollars.

Against that backdrop, Solyndra was to be an early prototype for government-boosted private sector innovation. The company was the first recipient of an energy loan guarantee through the Obama administration’s $787 billion package of economic stimulus programs. It was the Energy Department’s first loan guarantee since the 1980s.

There’s a long history of federal support for energy exploration. Under past administrations most of those benefiting were from the oil and gas industries. Back room meetings in 2001 between then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force and top oil executives exemplified what many regarded as coziness between government leaders and Big Oil. When Obama took office, he pledged to help the U.S. pull away from dependence on traditional energy.

When announcing the Solyndra loan guarantee two months after Obama took office, the Energy Department boasted of its speed. Secretary Chu had set a target of May — three months into his own tenure — to announce his initial  loan commitment, “but today’s announcement significantly outpaces that aggressive timeline,” the Energy Department noted in a press release [5].

“Secretary Chu credited the Department's loan team for their work accelerating the process to offer this conditional commitment in less than two months, demonstrating the power of teamwork and the speed at which the Department can operate when barriers to success are removed,” it said.

That financing came at a time the Department of Energy was thin on staffing in its loan office. When Obama took office in January 2009, the energy loan office had just 15-20 people, director Silver said. Now, he said, it boasts 175 and a rigorous application screening process.

To close the loan, Chu said Solyndra had to meet an equity commitment. It took months to happen. Among the key backers of the $198 million raised: Oklahoma oilman Kaiser’s Argonaut Private Equity, as well as Madrone Capital Partners, a private investment firm affiliated with S. Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Kaiser’s Argonaut Private Equity and its affiliates were the largest shareholder of Solyndra as it pushed for the IPO. Kaiser’s firm remains a “significant financial backer of Solyndra,” Solyndra spokesman David Miller confirmed. The Oklahoma oil magnate hosted a 2007 Tulsa fundraiser for Obama and regularly visits White House staff, visitor logs show.

“I don’t think anybody said we didn’t go through the full process. After the conditional commitment we still went through extensive due diligence. It was still a competitive process,” Miller said. “We applied for the loan guarantee in 2006. It was awarded three years later. It was not like something was done to make this thing really fast. It was a long, arduous process.”

The payoff came with financing that bankrolled a manufacturing plant for the company’s proprietary panels for the commercial rooftop market. The loan guarantee helped trigger 3,000 construction jobs to build the new plant and promised to create another 1,000 fulltime jobs once it was fully operating. “This investment is part of President Obama's aggressive strategy to put Americans back to work and reduce our dependence on foreign oil by developing clean, renewable sources of energy,” Secretary Chu said. “We'll rely on America's innovation, America's resources, and America's workers.”

In September 2009, the deal officially closed, with Solyndra using the $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank to fund construction of the so-called Fab 2 factory, headquarters and customer demonstration facility. Under the terms, taxpayers pick up the tab if the borrower defaults.

At groundbreaking, Chu and then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were on hand. “This announcement today is part of the unprecedented investment this administration is making in renewable energy and exactly what the Recovery Act is all about,” said Vice President Joe Biden, appearing via satellite from Washington.

“The promise of clean energy isn’t

just an article of faith — not anymore,” Obama told Solyndra workers eight months later. “The future is here.”

Yet Solyndra ran into trouble amid analyst concerns its manufacturing costs were too high. It laid off nearly 180 workers, most of them part-time, as it shuttered another plant and cancelled the IPO.

This year, the Energy Department agreed to a restructuring that pushed back the date on which it will repay lenders. Silver said the modification “was an effort on our part to ensure we had the tightest and best structured project.”

He said early hiccups are not unique for such projects and that the company will prove successful. “I have never seen a company go straight up without a bump along the way,” Silver said. “I have no doubt they will continue to hire more people.”

Despite speed, officials dispute taking shortcuts
During interviews and email exchanges with iWatch News and ABC News, Energy Department officials and independent government auditors told two different versions of exactly when the outside reviews are required — and on the significance of the timing. While the GAO questioned the department for green-lighting loan guarantee commitments without all reviews in hand, energy officials say they have discretion to complete those reports in time for closing.

The GAO noted [12] that the advantages of bypassing the outside reviews were significant, “allowing these applicants to receive conditional commitments before incurring expenses that other applicants were required to pay.” It added, “DOE has treated applicants inconsistently. Although our past work has shown that agencies should process applications with the goals of treating applicants fairly and minimizing applicant confusion, DOE’s implementation of the program has favored some applicants and disadvantaged others in a number of ways.”

The Energy Department’s own documents spell out the importance of the pre-approval scrutiny. “Because each project will be unique and each loan guarantee potentially subjects the Federal government to significant financial liability,” an official notice says, “DOE plans to engage in a rigorous review of a proposed project before determining whether it may be eligible for a Loan Guarantee Agreement and subsequently approving and issuing loan guarantees.”

For its part, Solyndra said the outside legal review was a small matter. “My understanding was it was a procedural thing, there was a step that … happened later,” said Miller. “My understanding is it just had to do with the timing of a form.”

The company has yet to turn a profit. But Miller said Solyndra's outlook remains bright, and predicted the company would be cash positive by the end of the year.He said Solyndra has 321 more jobs today than at the time of the loan, has already met the 3,000-force construction goal and aims to attain the long-term hiring benchmark. “As we go cash positive, if you were to get that auditor’s opinion today, it would tell a different story,” he said.

Some analysts are far from convinced.

“If anything, they’re still swimming upstream in a very competitive market,” said  Shyam Mehta [13], senior solar analyst at Greentech Media Research.

“The outlook for them has improved relative to, say, a year ago when they had to cancel their IPO or six months ago when they had to close their factory, but it doesn’t mean they are out of the water,” Mehta added. “Their viability is far from resolved, and I think it’s a real risk the company would at some point face the threat of insolvency. I don’t want to be extreme about that, but it is a definite possibility when you are competing in the global market.”

Mehta has long raised questions about the company’s manufacturing costs in a world market where China offers stiff competition. He said Solyndra has focused on cutting those costs, but that there’s no assurance the company — or the government loan guarantee — will prove successful.

“There’s a lot at stake here, not just for Solyndra,” Mehta said. “This is going to be held up as a cautionary tale if things don’t work out for Solyndra. People are watching very closely from all angles.”

Was White House in hurry to spur green jobs — or favor firm backed by fundraiser?
 [3]
Outside Solyndra's Fremont, Calif. headquarters. Paul Sakuma/AP
..Kicker:
Green energy boost - or favor?
Featured title:
Skipping safeguards, officials rushed benefit to politically-connected ener
Did White House hurry to spur jobs - or favor firm backed by fundraiser?
Feature in term:
Environment
Independent investigations involving the environment, energy, toxic hazards, worker safety, pollution and climate change.

..Profiles in Patronage
 [1]
CarbonNYC/flickr .
A series on the access and rewards for big-money political bundlers.

...
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Source URL: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/05/24/4710/skipping-safeguards-officials-rushed-benefit-politically-connected-energy-company



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so now Obama is a venture capitalist? 


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Politics Return to Article Solyndra Strikes: Obama Silent on Green Energy
Eric Rosenbaum
09/09/11 - 09:41 AM EDT



NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When President Obama was given the nickname President Zero by some Republicans in reference to the fact that in August the U.S. economy created no new jobs, it was just more propaganda from opponents. When it comes to green energy, though, the president now does deserve to be called President Zero.

Why? Well, here's the number of times President Obama mentioned green energy during his major jobs speech on Thursday night: zero. That's right, and that's a pretty big change for a president who has made the formula "green energy=jobs" a major component of previous economic stimulus rhetoric and policy.

The reason for Obama's sudden silence on green energy is as simple as one word -- Solyndra. It's the gift that just keeps on giving to opponents of green energy investment from the government.

If you aren't familiar with the Solyndra debacle by now, it's a U.S. solar company that announced its bankruptcy last week. Before its demise, Solyndra was the most high-profile project funded by the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program, part of Obama's first economic stimulus act. Pictures of Obama touring the Solyndra plant in 2010 and saying it was a model for green energy=jobs are now everywhere in the press. Claims that Solyndra was a pork project of big Obama boosters -- a solar panel to nowhere, which have been around for months -- are now back in the spotlight, with White House logs requisitioned showing the proverbial "nights that Solyndra execs spent sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom" shortly followed by an FBI raid on Solyndra's offices on Thursday.

You can try to make the case that having spoken so much about green energy in past speeches Obama was moving on to new ideas, but plenty else in the speech was boilerplate. So if you heard about Solyndra and have an interest in green energy, and you asked yourself the question, "What is the impact from the Solyndra bankruptcy going to be for the Obama administration?" last night's Obama jobs speech provided an answer. The impact exists, plain for all to see in the fact that a president who had previously always linked green energy to job growth struck any mention of it from a major jobs speech.
It can be said that Obama did make one direct reference to alternative energy, but notably, it didn't invoke solar, wind, geothermal or any energy generation technology. Buried in the middle of the speech was a comment limited to transportation, mentioning fuel-efficient cars and biofuels. It's important to note that advanced vehicle manufacturing has its own Department of Energy loan guarantee program, which has not been a direct focus of green energy critics in Congress. Right after listing fuel-efficient cars and biofuels, Obama mentioned semiconductors as another sector in which America needs to innovate and create. Interestingly, the solar sector is traditionally classified as an off-shoot of semiconductors, but you didn't hear the word solar breathed in the same sentence.

You could strain to find places in the jobs speech when Obama referenced the failure of Solyndra. Obama spoke to the goal of making sure that "manufacturing takes root not in China or Europe, but right here, in the United States of America. If we provide the right incentives and support -- and if we make sure our trading partners play by the rules -- we can be the ones to build everything from fuel-efficient cars to advanced biofuels to semiconductors." Read: Just like Solyndra said in its press release, China was responsible for its bankruptcy.

Here's another: "We now live in a world where technology has made it possible for companies to take their business anywhere. If we want them to start here and stay here and hire here, we have to be able to out-build and out-educate and out-innovate every other country on Earth." Read: This comment is generalized about the corporate sector, but it's also about China kicking our butt in the alternative energy space.

Obama's comment, already a staple of his party, that oil companies should no longer receive tax breaks is another comment that plays great at the Sierra Club Peoria chapter, but isn't specific to the green energy sector. The president also went out of his way to argue for the protection of environmental regulations, which "keep our kids from being exposed to mercury," potentially a signal that he is unwilling to moderate his stance on mercury as he has already done on greenhouse gases and smog rules.

But it's not just about letting the environmental interests know you haven't completely forgotten about them, or about pollution standards as policy tool for requiring a new, or at least modified, energy infrastructure. Given the negative headlines about Solyndra that keep piling up, it would be giving the administration too much of a benefit of the doubt to entertain that idea that green energy didn't make the president's speech on jobs simply because there were fresh ideas to cover this time around. So Obama's silence on green energy raises important questions.

What does the new President Zero Energy imply about energy policy?

Has the Obama administration already done so much in terms of green energy funding that it's simply time to push the money to other players at the table?

Will Obama just be quiet for a while until the Solyndra situation becomes a casualty of the news cycle? (If anything, though, so far it's just getting more play).

Was his command to Congress on Thursday night -- "pass this now" -- a sign that it's no time for any stimulus item that could be a sticking point with Republicans? (Isn't it all a sticking point, though?)
Or, has a fundamental bargaining stance of the Obama administration been weakened in pushing its green energy agenda because any attempt it makes to do so will be met by the dredging up of Solyndra?

The Department of Energy has been moving full speed ahead in closing loan guarantees this week, and much has been made of this, "even after" Solyndra's demise. But the clock has been ticking on getting these deals closed regardless, with a Sept. 30 deadline for these loans to move ahead on the books well before Solyndra reared its ugliest head. Given this, it's not as if the fact that the DOE closed loan guarantees this week means it is undeterred. With the negative Solyndra headlines piling up, the Obama administration has even more reason to move to close as soon as possible on any green energy commitments outstanding.

The New York Times editorial page hailed Obama's jobs speech as the work of "an aggressive president at last." The truth though, is that making that determination is a matter of subject specificity. It was a high-energy performance low on talk about green energy. A hallmark of Obama's jobs policy up until now, the president said not one word about solar, wind, geothermal, take your pick, of former stars of the green energy=jobs argument. Count 'em, zero. Because we all know there was only one word that needed to be said, even if it's not in the dictionary. It starts with an "s" and here's a hint, it's not "stimulus."

-- Written by Eric Rosenbaum from New York.

http://www.thestreet.com/print/story/11243920.html


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anytime any company in america is investigated by Obama's justice dept, we have a duty to

1) criticize obama for interfering with american business indepdence

2) criticize obama for not interfering with american business independence enough

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anytime any company in america is investigated by Obama's justice dept, we have a duty to

1) criticize obama for interfering with american business indepdence

2) criticize obama for not interfering with american business independence enough

Have you remotely followed this story? 

The backers of this scam were in the WH at least 20 times and Obama Admn fast tracked the loan to do away with normal safeguards.  He also changed it so that the taxpayer is last on the list of creditors to be repaid in bankruptcy  costing us 535 MILLION!


Thats ok with you?   


 


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Have you remotely followed this story? 

The backers of this scam were in the WH at least 20 times and Obama Admn fast tracked the loan to do away with normal safeguards.  He also changed it so that the taxpayer is last on the list of creditors to be repaid in bankruptcy  costing us 535 MILLION!


Thats ok with you?   

Obama's justic dept is investigating them.  Props for that.  It can be tough to order an investigation upon a firm that has been so helpful in contributing to the govt functioning.  However, the law is the law - and they need to be held accountable.

Holder is leading the charge to investigate them, correct?  Nice.

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Obama Officials Sat In On Solyndra Meetings

FBI agent carry dozens of boxes of evidence from Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif., Sept. 8, 2011. (Paul Sakuma/AP Photo)
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Text Size- / +By RONNIE GREENE and MATTHEW MOSK
iWATCH NEWS and ABC NEWS
Sept. 9, 2011



Officials from the Department of Energy have for months been sitting in on board meetings as "observers" at Solyndra, getting an up-close view as the solar energy company careened towards bankruptcy after spending more than $500 million in federal loan money.

Word of the Energy Department's unusual arrangement came as federal agents on Thursday converged on the California headquarters of the failed solar company, focusing fresh attention on the first corporate beneficiary of President Obama's stimulus program to create new clean energy jobs.

The company, which closed its doors last week and laid off 1,100 workers, has been a subject of an ongoing series of stories by the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News in collaboration with ABC News.

"The FBI is here this morning executing a search warrant," Solyndra spokesman David Miller said Thursday. "We'll cooperate with them and given them whatever they are looking for, but certainly it was a surprise," Miller said. "I came to work this morning and they were here and I've been sorting it out."

The early morning search was a joint operation involving the FBI and the Energy Department's inspector general, indicating the focus of the investigation, at least in part, is a $535 million government loan to the solar company. One of the company's primary investors was a top fundraiser for Obama's 2008 campaign.

Questions about the loan have been simmering for months. In 2009, the Energy Department put Solyndra's application on a fast-track for approval, and announced the award with great fanfare. The generous terms of the government loan included the lowest interest of all the green projects benefitting from Energy Department help, iWatch News and ABC News found.

And as part of the deal, the Energy Department agreed that if the company went bust, private investors could recoup their losses before the government. Republicans in Congress called the investment "a bad bet" and said it "put taxpayers at unnecessary risk."

 Paul Sakuma/AP PhotoFBI agent carry dozens of boxes of evidence... View Full Size Paul Sakuma/AP PhotoFBI agent carry dozens of boxes of evidence from Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif., Sept. 8, 2011.
 Security Up Amid Terror Threat, Man's Error Causes Massive Blackout Watch Video
  Obama-Backed 'Green' Company Goes Bankrupt Watch Video
  Will Company's Bankruptcy Hurt Obama Jobs Record? Watch Video
 House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said the company's collapse came in sharp contrast to the rosy picture being painted by CEO Brian Harrison on a visit to Washington less than two months ago. He toured Capitol Hill, trumpeting the company's successes and praising the loan. Now, the House committee is inviting Harrison to testify as a witness in a hearing next week.

"As our investigation continues, we hope to hear directly from Solyndra's executives next week -- the same executives who visited Capitol Hill as part of a PR campaign in July and misrepresented the company's financial situation," Upton and and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said in a statement.

In Washington, the crash of the politically-connected firm has unleashed a barrage of fresh questions from House and Senate investigators, who want to know what can be done to recover the losses for the taxpayers.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative panel will hold hearings next Wednesday. After Thursday's raid, members of a House committee investigating Solyndra said they have invited OMB Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients, Executive Director of DOE's Loans Programs Office Jonathan Silver and Solyndra chief financial officer W.G. "Bill" Stover to testify.

"The FBI raid further underscores that Solyndra was a bad bet from the beginning and put taxpayers at unnecessary risk," said Reps. Upton and Stearns. "President Obama's signature green jobs program went from a darling of the administration, to bankruptcy, to now the subject of an FBI raid in a matter of days."

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera on Thursday still defended the decision to give Solyndra federal backing, saying the department "conducted exhaustive reviews of Solyndra's technology and business model prior to approving their loan guarantee application."

 

"Sophisticated, professional private investors, who put more than $1 billion of their own money behind Solyndra, came to the same conclusion as the Department: that Solyndra was an extremely promising company with innovative technology and a very good investment," LaVera said. "In the end, the company completed the project they said they would complete, were producing the products they said they would produce and were selling those products around the world."



http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/obama-officials-sat-solyndra-meetings/story?id=14476848




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What did obama know and when did he know it.   

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Obama fundraiser at George Kaiser's home? (Flashback: Private fundraiser with Solyndra key investor)
Tulsa Now ^ | 3/19/2007 | Tulsa Now




Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama surprised the staff of Tulsa's Educare Center, 2511 E. Fifth Place, with a surprise visit on Monday.

Obama was in Tulsa for a private fundraiser.

"I've been a big proponent of early childhood education for some time," said Obama. "I'm extremely pleased and proud of Oklahoma for the ground-breaking work that's being done here."

Obama's campaign had kept his stop at the Educare Center so quiet only a two staff members of the staff knew he was coming.

Those two, Co-Director Carol Rowland and Associate Director of Early Childhood Education Lyn Lucas, were sworn to secrecy.

"We didn't find out until Friday, and we were told not to tell anyone," said Rowland.

Obama strolled through the center, asking questions of the staff and peeking into rooms where children were stretched out for early afternoon naps.

"Can I have a mat, too?" he said at one point.

After the private fundraiser at the home of George Kaiser, Obama was scheduled to travel on to Oklahoma City for a public rally, a fundraiser and an appearance on Larry King Live.

USRufnex: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070319_1_BR1_Democ85858&breadcrumb=Breaking%20News

 

Barack Obama visits Tulsa By Staff Reports 3/19/2007  2:43 PM

(Emphasis added)


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This is going to get ugly.


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This is going to get ugly.



Team Dildo would prefer to talk about bachmann and palin than obama tossing away 500 million to his fundraisers. 

   

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Solyndra investigation expands with raid of executives' homes and files
iwatch ^ | iwatch




CEO and founder of politically connected company questioned on day of raid. Now some Democrats wonder if they'd been misled

Federal agents have expanded their examination of the now-bankrupt California solar power company Solyndra, searching the homes of the company's chief executive, a founder, and a former executive, examining computer files and documents, the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News and ABC News have learned.

Agents visited the homes of CEO Brian Harrison and company founder Chris Gronet. Agents also visited the home of a third executive involved in the company from the start, according to a source who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because of the legal sensitivity of the situation.

Gronet, reached at his home Friday morning, did not dispute that his home was searched by federal agents a day earlier.

“I’m sorry,” Gronet said in an interview. “You probably understand full well that I cannot comment.”

Solyndra spokesman David Miller confirmed agents visited Harrison’s home on Thursday, when the FBI and Energy Department Inspector General arrived at the company's headquarters in Fremont, Calif., seizing boxes of records.

“Yeah, they did go to his house and speak to him briefly,” Miller said. “I don’t know what they may have taken. I believe they took a look at his computer.”

The third executive, identified by the source, could not be reached for comment.


(Excerpt) Read more at iwatchnews.org ...

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Solyndra: Illustrating a Recovery Act Supply Chain
White House Blog ^ | 5.26.2010 | Matt Rogers




President Obama is in Fremont, California today to visit Solyndra, Inc, an innovative solar panel manufacturer that is building a new facility with funding made possible by the Recovery Act. Here's a look at what they're doing:

The direct benefits of this investment are easy to see. The plant expansion now underway has already enabled the creation of over 3,000 construction-related jobs and Solyndra estimates that the new factory could create as many as 1,000 long-term jobs in operations and supply. Likewise, a formerly empty field will soon be home to a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant that produces clean energy products that can be exported to the world.

What the television cameras won’t capture are the indirect benefits of supporting Solyndra. The impact of Solyndra’s success is being felt throughout the chain of companies that supply Solyndra with goods and materials.

The project is creating jobs around the country. Construction materials for the facility itself are being manufactured by workers in Arkansas, Washington, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and 18 other states. The advanced manufacturing equipment is being made by workers in Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, and 8 other states. The raw materials to run the facility will come from 15 states including Wisconsin, Ohio, and Kentucky. When the first solar panels are shipped in late 2010, they will be delivered by freight companies and installed by even more new workers.

The map below from Solyndra shows where they have ordered the materials to construct the new facility. Many of the companies in these states have added workers of their own to handle the new orders.

This map from Solyndra shows the states supplying advanced manufacturing equipment to the company.

The Recovery Act’s investment in clean energy is having a ripple effect throughout our economy. A recent survey by Frost and Sullivan of 676 clean energy companies found that while only 3 percent of those companies directly received Recovery Act funds more than 50 percent recognized a positive impact from that legislation.

We still have a long way to go to get America’s economy back on track and to make the United States the world leader in clean energy technologies, but companies like Solyndra and Recovery Act investments like this one are helping drive progress across the country.



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http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/09/obamas-crony-capitalism
Reason Magazine•reason.org




Obama's Crony Capitalism

What the Solyndra debacle reveals about Obama's economic strategy
A. Barton Hinkle | September 9, 2011

The president's address on jobs last night included some soaring phrases, but it left out one crucial word that epitomizes his approach to economics: Solyndra.

Fourteen months ago, the president was using his sonorous baritone to deliver soaring rhetoric about how his policies helped launch that now-broke company, which made cylindrical solar panels. The administration fast-tracked Solyndra's loan guarantee through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—i.e. the stimulus—perhaps because Solyndra's principal backers just happened to have donated huge sums to the Obama election campaign. Washington guaranteed more than a half-billion in loans to Solyndra on the promise of 4,000 jobs.

"This new factory is the result of those loans," the president said at the Fremont, Calif., facility—a facility The Washington Post termed a "signature project of President Obama's initiative to help create clean-energy jobs." The result of those loans now? Solyndra has shut its doors, its 1,100 former employees are jobless, and the taxpayers are on the hook for perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.

Viewed in isolation, the Solyndra story is mildly troubling. But it is nothing Washington has not seen before. The late, great columnist Molly Ivins wrote some crackerjack pieces about the return on investment that corporate sharpies used to get from their campaign donations to Republican politicians. The Solyndra story sounds like the same old, same old.

Except it isn't. The Solyndra story encapsulates a much bigger issue than mere crony capitalism, bad as that is. Because Solyndra is not alone. The Obama administration has sunk billions into loan guarantees for dozens of other renewable-energy companies as well.

This is known as the political allocation of economic resources, and it entails all kinds of problems. The first and most basic: It's wrong. Government should not be picking winners and losers in the marketplace.

Problem No. 2: corruption. When government puts its massive thumb on the market scale, corporations have a huge incentive to try to win government's favor. Hence: campaign contributions and lobbyists galore. Progressives who want to keep money out of politics should help libertarians build a high wall between economy and state.

Problem No. 3: the distortion of market incentives. Although federal policy was far from the only reason for the recent housing bubble and crash, it played a significant role. And even when market intervention does not produce a crash, it can still produce a creature like the Chevy Volt—an electric vehicle for which there is zero demand despite a whopping $7,500 federal tax credit for purchase—or Cash for Clunkers. That idea, now universally derided, seemed bright at the time, at least to some. In retrospect, it seems as smart as paying people to burn down their houses to stimulate demand for new ones.

Such market distortion shifts resources from more productive to less productive purposes, which inevitably produces less prosperity—fewer jobs at lower pay. Want evidence? See last month's New York Times story "Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises," which concluded: "Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show." For the Times to concede that government intervention in pursuit of progressive political goals has not worked is like National Review criticizing a Republican. The proof has to be overwhelming.

The fourth problem inherent in the political allocation of economic resources is the biggest: The underlying assumption that it is a good thing because politicians and bureaucrats have more knowledge, wisdom and virtue than everyone else.

But they do not. First, there is simply no way a government of even leviathan proportions can know more about, say, Joe's Auto Parts than Joe himself does. To think it can know more about the entire auto industry than the industry itself is absurd. Repeat this formula for all other industries.

Government and politicians also like to think they know what is best for America. Energy Secretary Steven Chu epitomized this attitude when he argued for new lightbulb standards by saying, "We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money." (The morons.) But since America is simply the sum of all the citizens who live in it, then to say the government knows what is best for the country is to say the government knows more about what is best for Abigail Anderson of 423 Morris Lane, Wilmington, Del., than Ms. Anderson does herself—and likewise for each of America's other 311 million citizens. Absurd.

Then there is the notion that government action proceeds from a place of virtue because politicians are not motivated by self-interest. Instead, like shepherds tending the flock, they seek only to protect the sheep (stupid and helpless creatures that they are) from the wolves at the edge of the clearing. It is a flattering conceit, and has no more to do with reality than an LSD trip.

It is not disinterested altruism that makes Obama think he can reshape the energy sector for the better, or conjure up jobs where employers do not want them. Such beliefs stem from unbridled hubris. And the result of hubris can be summed up in one word: Solyndra.

A. Barton Hinkle is a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This article originally appeared at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.


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Corruption: A top bundler and major investor in a now-bankrupt green company made multiple White House visits before he got a guaranteed stimulus loan that the administration monitored to ensure it was granted.


http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=583962&p=1



During the Clinton administration, when the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House became a favorite place for campaign contributors to rest their weary wallets, the infamous Johnny Chung made the observation that the White House was like a subway turnstile. You put your token in and you got inside.

Getting inside the White House was easy for billionaire investor George Kaiser, who made multiple visits to the White House and appeared at White House events next to administration officials. One of the prime investors in the green energy company Solyndra, Kaiser put quite a few tokens in the White House turnstile.

As the Daily Caller reports, Kaiser himself donated $53,000 to Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, divided between Obama for America and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. A world-class bundler, Kaiser also raised $50,000 to $100,000 from others for the senator's campaign.

Despite a warning from Solyndra's own accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers that the company's business model was suspect and raised "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern," President Obama visited the company and gave it a glowing endorsement as a government-picked winner alongside electric cars and high-speed rail.

Despite its spotty business record, Solyndra was the first recipient of green stimulus cash in the form of a $535 million guaranteed loan. The loan not only escaped serious scrutiny, according to the Government Accountability Office, but also was — despite denials by White House officials — fast-tracked by an administration that monitored every step in the process.

Last Thursday, House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., sent a letter to the White House asking for all correspondence among administration officials, Solyndra and its investors. "We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra's application with (Energy Department) and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review," the letter says.

Kaiser wasn't the only one involved with Solyndra putting tokens in the turnstile. Solyndra itself spent more than $1 million from 2008 to 2011 lobbying Congress for various green legislation from which it would benefit, including the "Solar Manufacturing Jobs Creation Act."

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Solyndra board members donated at least $27,400 to various Democratic campaigns and organizations. Ben Bierman, executive vice president of operations and engineering for Solyndra, donated $5,500 to Obama's re-election effort. Karen Alter, senior vice president of marketing, put up $23,000 in 2008.

The ever vigilant Christopher Horner notes in a piece for BigGovernment,com that Solyndra is based in the Fremont, Calif., district of Rep. Pete Stark. When he was chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee, Stark played a critical role in squeezing ObamaCare through Congress.

That process, with its Cornhusker Kickback and Louisiana Purchase, also involved the dispensation of favors for political support. Was Solyndra a favor to Stark for his efforts? We still don't know why and how some 1,700 ObamaCare waivers were granted — 50% to unions representing just 7% of the population.

Defenders of Obama's green energy policies say other industries have received subsidies or incentives and are involved in the political process. True, but absent oppressive regulations and restrictions, industries such as oil, coal and natural gas can compete in the marketplace and turn a profit without them. Solar cannot.

The Solyndra affair is more than just the latest example of crony capitalism. It is the Chicago Way brought to Washington, D.C. — reciprocal back-scratching with taxpayer dollars. The whys and hows of it need to be brought out into the, er, sunlight.


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Solyndra CEO questioned by FBI
news.cnet.com ^ | Sept 9 2011 | Martin LaMonica




The CEO of government-backed solar company Solyndra was visited by the FBI yesterday but agents did not search his house, according to a Solyndra representative.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the home of Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison was searched after the FBI conducted a surprise raid at Solyndra's Fremont, Calif., solar panel plant. ABC News reported today the FBI also searched the homes of former CEO Chris Gronet and another executive, who is said to be co-founder Kelly Truman.

Solyndra made solar collectors by covering glass tubes with thin-film solar cells. (Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Solyndra spokesperson David Miller confirmed that agents came to Harrison's home but no search occurred. "FBI agents spoke to Brian Harrison at his house, they did not search it," Miller said.

An FBI representative today could not confirm or deny whether agents visited or searched anyplace other than Solyndra's headquarters, saying it is a sealed investigation. The FBI and the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General spent the better part of yesterday in a joint search of Solyndra's offices where agents were seen taking documents.

It's still not clear what information the FBI and Energy Department are seeking, but it is expected to be related to the company's $535 million loan guarantee it secured from the Department of Energy in 2010 to build the Fremont factory. The Energy Department's Office of Inspector General conducts audits and investigations around the agency's programs.

The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations next week is scheduled to hold a hearing seeking to find out more about the loan guarantee Solyndra received. Invited guests include the executive director of the loan guarantee program and Solyndra's CEO and CFO.

Solyndra abruptly shut down its operations last week, laying off more than 1,000 people and on Tuesday declared bankruptcy. Through bankruptcy, the company indicated that it may have buyers for its technology and its operations.

The loan guarantee for Solyndra has opened the Obama administration to criticism and raised questions over the effectiveness of backing specific companies, rather than setting broader policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions or encouraging green-technology businesses.

The case of Solyndra specifically, though, has drawn so much attention because of the size of its loan guarantee and because there had been signs for months that the company could not keep pace with rapidly falling solar costs from Asian manufacturers.

"Their cost structure was not competitive, that piece was a widely held assumption in the industry. The question was whether they could get it down fast enough to get to cash-flow positive," said Rob DeLine, the vice president of marketing at Miasole, another Silicon Valley solar startup.

In a letter yesterday to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to request that Solyndra CEO Harrison testify at the hearing. "Less than two months ago, Mr. Harrison met with us and other Committee members to assure us that Solyndra was in no danger of failing," wrote Energy and Commerce Committee member Henry Waxman.

Solyndra, which had raised over $1 billion from private sources, had reportedly tried to gain more financing to continue operations but was unable to, leading to the shutdown.

One worker who was at Solyndra's office yesterday during the FBI raid told the San Jose Mercury News that the company's manufacturing process regularly yielded flawed components, which meant it had to throw away some of the equipment it was making.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20103991-54/solyndra-ceo-questioned-by-fbi/#ixzz1XUMLqIEp



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