Energy Secretary Chu Defends How Administration Handled Solyndra
Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 9:09 PM
On May 26, 2011, the White House posted this video praising Solyndra as a Recovery Act success story.
In August, Barack Obama’s gleaming example of green technology – Solyndra – filed for bankruptcy. The solar panel manufacturer squandered $535 million of stimulus money in a little over a year.
Why Solyndra?
Top Obama bundler George Kaiser made multiple visits to the White House in the months before the company was granted a $535 million loan from the government. And top Solyndra officials also 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. The company secured the $535 million loan despite the fact that it was widely known Solyndra was in deep economic trouble and had negative cash flows since its inception.
Kaiser said he did not use political influence or talk to administration officials about a massive government loan to Solyndra. However, the Solyndra investor made multiple visits to the White House in the week before the Department of Energy approved a $535 million guaranteed loan to Solyndra on March 20, 2009
(Solyndra)
But, Barack Obama had no regrets.
In fact, 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.
In an interview with NPR Secretary of Energy Steven Chu defended the way the Obama Adiministration handled failed solar giant Solyndra.
GPB.org reported:
In an interview with NPR, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu vigorously defended the actions of the Department of Energy with regards $528 million in loans it gave the now-bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra.
Chu told All Things Considered’s Melissa Block that neither he nor any of his staff working on DOE loans program was swayed by politics and that even in hindsight there was no way to know that Solyndra would fail.
President Obama’s administration has been engulfed by the Solyndra scandal for weeks. At issue is whether the White House pressured the Department of Energy to guarantee loans for Solyndra because the company had connections with at least one big Obama donor. Another question is whether the White House and the DOE ignored red flags about the company.
Chu denied all those claims and said his department did their due diligence on Solyndra.
“We improved the [loan] process,” said Chu. “We did no cut corners. We made it more thorough and diligent… We were very thorough in the application of the loan.”
Chu said the loan application was processed by professionals and the department asked “outside people” to look at market conditions; they asked for “second and third opinions about what the landscape was.” Chu added that one thing that none of their analysts anticipated was that the price of solar modules would “plummet.”
Melissa pressed Chu. She asked him how could the DOE continue issuing payments to the company even after the firm Price Waterhouse Coopers audited it and found serious issues with its finances.
Chu said that a startup that’s trying to build a new factory “would be burning through money” and have cash-flow issues.
Melissa pressed him further. As late as February of this year, just months before it filed for bankruptcy, she told him, the federal government was still dolling out money to Solyndra.
Chu said the government was aware that Solyndra was in deep trouble, but they made a calculation based on “what would protect taxpayers the most.” Chu said they weighed pulling the plug right away and ending up with a half-finished factory or continuing the loan program, which would finish the factory and if the company went belly up they could liquidate and get more money back.
Melissa also asked him about the billionaire George Kaiser, an investor in Solyndra and a Democratic donor. Emails released earlier this month, appear to show that Kaiser attempted to influence the White House on Solyndra.
Chu denied that Kaiser had any effect on his decisions.
You can listen to the interview here.
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Published May 23, 2012 at 4:57 am - 45 Comments
MrGoodWench commented:
Chu said the government was aware that Solyndra was in deep trouble, but they made a calculation based on “what would protect taxpayers the most.”
++++
So THAT’S WHY the contract was CHANGED so that the taxpayers ended up being subordinated to the bundlers , now I get it !!
L.E. Liesner commented:
When are the people of this country going to get fed up with all these damned lies that this corrupt administration puts out. This administration really believes that the American people are naive enough to swallow this crap. I guess that they figure that about 53% of the voters voted for him, so they are dumb enough to belive anything he says.
Bonanza driver commented:
So, the democrats gave a 787 billion dollar slush fund, I mean stimulus package to a community organizer who had never had a real job…The rest is history! The criminal malfeasance in this administration is historical in proportion…
Clutch commented:
Chu needs to resign and thrown in prison and the useless Dept of Energy shut down for good (another waste that the useless Jimmuh Carter raped us with). Just how much energy does the DoEnergy produce? How many power plants does the DoEnergy have? Do they have a chain of fuel stations? I think the answer to all is “zero”; hey that is part of Zerobama’s name!
WillofLa commented:
Chu is lying his butt off. He needs to be brought before a investigation committee that is being run by an independent investigator. Chu couldn’t lie to him without going to prison, and Chu should be thinking about going to prison by standing before a regular committee let alone a independent one. Something is going to have to put the fear of God in these people. For decades none of them has had to go to prison. None have had to even worry about being caught doing something against the law, Constitution. No one in the military has had to worry about that either. I believe that once we can muster the balls to start sending these guys to prison, like Barney Frank, who by the way told two separate investigation committee’s lies that sound just like the ones the Chu is saying, and still nothing is happening to him. There is something bad wrong there.
I can already see that Obama and all involved have already got their story worked out. And just like what I’ve heard politician’s say, that when caught, lie, lie, lie, and if that doesn’t work, lie.
Ipso Facto commented:
What did you think he was going to say? These people simply try to create their own reality. They say anything they want and get away with it because the main stream media never follows up or does any type of independent verification for the public.
This absurd government we have is due in large measure to the complicity of the media. The Republicans are so meak they never push back, they never contradict, they just seem to go along and golly gee, those Democrats are a bunch of willy wascals aren’t they?
Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:
Hogwash.
If the nitwits currently running the show actually gave a you-know-what about the large sum of taxpayer money they were betting with, they’d have been keeping track of the company’s progress.
JPeden commented:
No wonder the Commies have to be Totalitarians. Otherwise everyone else will eventually try to rightfully execute them, and they seem to know it.
squeaky commented:
and what did they say…..80% of the doe loans went to obama supporters. i think we have an overload of bad actions [obvious understatement] from this adm. you can blow a fuse trying to keep up with it………..
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2011/11/14/scandal-free-update-80-doe-sec-1705-loan-went-obama-backers
[[The Arizona Daily Star's Tim Stellar is reporting the federal case file against illegal Mexican bandits accused of killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, has disappeared.]]
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/11/15/fast_and_furious_case_files_on_terry_murder_have_disappeared,_gone
charlotte commented:
http://www.blogster.com/joannemor/another-bombshell-expose-green-loans-the-real-story
THE INSIDE STORY OF THE SOLYNDRA LOANS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD EXPLODE–revealed by a blogger. Read this and know what the US is up against–wholescale fraud and corruption.
Here’s how the scam works:
Politicians know the money is coming. They let their big donors, family, friends, lawyers and Lobbiests know. They invest in failing companies. They know the company is going to go bankrupt. It’s desinged that way.
They make a pre bankruptcy agreement where they get the investment back, first, before other creditors and taxpayers see a dime.
Once they obtain the loans, the real laundering begins.
They strip every dime. Pay off each other. Donate to Obama, and other dems.
Some companies funnel money overseas, to China, Finland, Russia, and other subsidiaries.
Chu runs cover.
The companies go bankrupt as intended and the money is laundered, never to be seen again.
charlotte commented:
AND SQUEAKY: HERE’S THE SMOKING GUN FOR OPERATION GUNRUNNER–AND THE EMAIL TO PROVE IT:
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/11/ssi-exclusive-they-knew-everybody-knew.html
charlotte commented:
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HOW THIS GOVERNMENT AND PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS HAVE RIPPED OFF THE USA?
http://tdarkcabal.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-16-2011-white-hats-report-28.html
Larkin commented:
Without the traditional media as a watchdog, there will be no accountability.
It doesn’t matter how many Darrel Issas there are in Congress.
Why do I say that? I hear it every day from clueless loved ones. They aren’t interested in what I have to say. I’m just a well-meaning kook with no credibility. They need to hear it repeatedly from the major networks and print news outlets…I mean, really get fired up…before the truth will sink in. The fifth column media will never allow that to happen.
chuck in st paul commented:
‘Chu’ on THIS, ass biscuit.
Most. Corrupt. Administration. Ever.