The Democrats’ Solar Sinkhole for Taxpayer Money

October 4, 2011

New E-mails Show White House Was Repeatedly Warned About Solyndra’s Financial Problems, But White House Gave Them More Taxpayer Funds Anyway

Newly released e-mails in the ever-widening Solyndra scandal reveal that top White House officials brushed off concerns about Solyndra’s financial condition in the months leading up to President Obama’s then much-touted speech at the company’s California headquarters.
But mere months after the White House was warned about Solyndra’s pending financial bankruptcy, Solyndra hit a financial wall, just as predicted. Obama’s Department of Energy, however, responded by offering the company yet more taxpayer money.
Even in the wake of the Solyndra fiasco, the White House has refused to dial back its apparent habit of loan guarantees of taxpayer money to politically-connected companies linked to Democrat donors. When will they learn their lesson?

BACKGROUND

Newly released e-mails in the ever-widening Solyndra scandal reveal that top White House officials brushed off concerns about Solyndra’s financial condition in the months leading up to President Obama’s then much-touted speech at the company’s California headquarters:

“WHITE HOUSE BRUSHED OFF SOLYNDRA WORRIES, E-MAILS SHOW”: “White House officials dismissed concerns about Solyndra LLC ahead of President Barack Obama’s May 2010 visit to the failed solar-panel maker, despite acknowledging that the company and other clean-energy ventures could go ‘belly-up’ by the 2012 election, according to emails released by Democratic lawmakers.” (Deborah Solomon, “White House Brushed Off Solyndra Worries, Emails Show,” The Wall Street Journal, 10/3/2011)

AND NOW OBAMA CLAIMS “HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20,” AND SOLYNDRA “WENT THROUGH THE REGULAR REVIEW PROCESS”: “ ‘Hindsight is always 20/20,’ Obama told ABC Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview broadcast online Monday. ‘It went through the regular review process and people felt that it was a good bet.’” (Matthew Mosk and Ronnie Greene, “Obama on Solyndra: ‘Hindsight is Always 20/20,’” ABC News, 10/3/2011)

EXCEPT IT DIDN’T: SOLYNDRA REVIEW TOOK ONLY 9 DAYS; AVERAGE WAS 28 DAYS: (Ryan Tracy, “House Probes Solyndra Loan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/14/2011)

E-MAILS SHOW WHITE HOUSE TRIED “TO RUSH FEDERAL OFFICIALS” TO ISSUE SOLYNDRA LOAN: (Tim Mak, “Report: White House Pushed on Solyndra,” Politico, 9/14/2011)

OMB TO WHITE HOUSE, MARCH 2009: “THIS DEAL IS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME”: (Phillip Klein, “OMB Had Warned Solyndra ‘NOT Ready for Prime Time,’” The Washington Examiner, 9/14/2011)

OMB STAFFER CALLED OUT WHITE HOUSE: “WE WOULD PREFER TO HAVE SUFFICIENT TIME TO DO DUE DILIGENCE REVIEWS AND HAVE THE APPROVAL SET THE DATE FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT RATHER THAN THE OTHER WAY AROUND”: (Ryan Tracy, “House Probes Solyndra Loan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/14/2011)

OMB STAFF WORRIED THAT “GIVEN TIME PRESSURE WE ARE UNDER TO SIGN-OFF ON SOLYNDRA,” NO TIME FOR THOROUGH RISK ASSESSMENT: (Tim Mak, “Report: White House Pushed on Solyndra,” Politico, 9/14/2011)

OMB TOLD WHITE HOUSE: WE “WOULD PREFER THAT THIS ANNOUNCEMENT BY POSTPONED”: (Tim Mak, “Report: White House Pushed on Solyndra,” Politico, 9/14/2011)

But mere months after the White House was warned about Solyndra’s pending financial bankruptcy, Solyndra hit a financial wall, just as predicted. Obama’s Department of Energy, however, responded by offering the company yet more taxpayer money:

SOLYNDRA EXECS TOLD OBAMA’S DEPT. OF ENERGY THEY WERE “RUNNING OUT OF CASH” IN “LATE AUTUMN 2010,” AFTER OBAMA SPEECH JUST MONTHS EARLIER: “In April 2010, the company’s auditors raised doubts about whether the company could continue as a ‘going concern’ because of cash-flow problems. The following month, Obama visited the company to praise it as an ‘engine of growth.’

“In late autumn 2010, company executives confided to the Energy Department that they were running out of cash and could not make a required payment to a cash-reserve account. The company was supposed to begin making the first of $5 million payments to create a $30 million cash reserve on Dec. 1.” (Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens, “Chu Takes Responsibility for a Loan Deal that Puts More Taxpayer Money at Risk,” The Washington Post, 9/30/2011)

YET ENERGY SEC. STEPHEN CHU APPROVED MORE TAXPAYER MONEY FOR SOLYNDRA ANYWAY: “Solyndra officially defaulted on its loan that day. Chu approved a softening of the loan requirements so that the company could continue receiving loan installments. …

“The agency authorized the Federal Financing Bank to give two additional cash installments to Solyndra — one in December 2010 and another in January 2011. Both payments came before Energy Department officials finalized a deal to restructure the loan and forestall the company’s collapse in late February.” (Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens, “Chu Takes Responsibility for a Loan Deal that Puts More Taxpayer Money at Risk,” The Washington Post, 9/30/2011)

Even in the wake of the Solyndra fiasco, the White House has refused to dial back its apparent habit of loan guarantees of taxpayer money to politically-connected companies linked to Democrat donors. When will they learn their lesson?:

AS OBAMA’S DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REACHES STIMULUS LOAN DEADLINE, $1.1 BILLION FLIES OUT THE DOOR: “The Energy Department finalized two loan guarantees for solar-power plants in Nevada and Arizona two days before a looming deadline.” (Ryan Tracy, “Two Solar Panels Get Loan Guarantees,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/28/2011)

WSJ: “THE RUSH RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW CAREFULLY THESE OUTLAYS ARE BEING VETTED”: “We’ll go out on a limb and say the rush raises questions about how carefully these outlays are being vetted, especially in light of solar-panel-maker Solyndra’s August bankruptcy. The FBI, Treasury Department and Congress are all investigating who approved the politically connected California company’s loan guarantee and why. The case is an embarrassment for the White House, which touted Solyndra as a model for its green jobs agenda.” (Editorial, “What Solyndra Fiasco?”, The Wall Street Journal, 9/29/2011)

GREEN IS THE COLOR OF CAMPAIGN CASH: “OBAMA FUNDRAISERS TIED TO GREEN FIRMS THAT GOT FEDERAL CASH”: “Several of Barack Obama’s top campaign supporters went from soliciting political contributions to working from within the Energy Department as it showered billions in taxpayer-backed stimulus money on alternative energy firms, ABC News and iWatch News have learned.

“One of them was Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate. He became one of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s key loan program advisors while his wife’s law firm represented a number of companies that had applied for loans.” (Matthew Mosk and Ronnie Greene, “Obama Fundraisers Tied to Green Firms that Got Federal Cash,” ABC News and iWatch News, 9/29/2011)

“MORE SOLAR COMPANIES LED BY DEMOCRATIC DONORS RECEIVED FEDERAL LOAN GUARANTEES”: “A Daily Caller investigation has found that in addition to the failed company Solyndra, at least four other solar panel manufacturing companies receiving in excess of $500 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration employ executives or board members who have donated large sums of money to Democratic campaigns.

“And as questions swirl around possible connections between political donations and these preferential financing arrangements, the Obama White House suddenly began deflecting The Daily Caller’s questions on Wednesday to the Democratic National Committee.” (John Rossomondo, “More Solar Companies Led by Democratic Donors Received Federal Loan Guarantees,” The Daily Caller, 9/29/2011)

RECAPPING SOLYNDRA:

OBAMA BUNDLER GEORGE KAISER WAS A TOP SOLYNDRA INVESTOR: (Joe Stephens and Carol D. Leonnig, “House Republicans Steps up Solyndra Investigation,” The Washington Post, 9/1/2011)

KAISER HAD 16 MEETINGS WITH OBAMA AIDES, FOUR IN MARCH 2009—THE VERY MONTH SOLYNDRA LOAN WAS AWARDED $535 MILLION: “White House visitor logs show that Kaiser had 16 meetings with Obama aides, 11 of them in 2009. His first recorded visit to the White House was March 12, 2009, when he met separately with Austan Goolsbee, a senior economic adviser to Obama, Pete Rouse, a senior adviser to the president, and Heather Higginbottom, deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. The next day he met with Jason Furman, a member of Obama’s National Economic Council.” (Jim Snyder, “FBI Raids Bankrupt Solyndra as Lawmakers Question Panel Maker’s Finances,” Bloomberg, 9/9/2011)

“SOLYNDRA’S LAWYERS MAJOR OBAMA, DEMOCRATIC DONORS”: “Several senior lawyers at law firms that advised the now-failed solar company Solyndra from its beginnings and during the lead-up to its bankruptcy, are major donors to the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama.” (Matthew Boyle, “Solyndra’s Lawyers Major Obama, Democratic Donors,” The Daily Caller, 9/30/2011)

SOLYNDRA’S LAWYER BUNDLED $500,000 FOR OBAMA’S ’08 CAMPAIGN:“During the loan guarantee approval process, law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Solyndra. As the Washington Times reported, the firm skated away with $2.4 million from Solyndra’s coffers before the solar panel manufacturer went bankrupt. Taxpayers wrote that $2.4 million check via the stimulus, or the “Recovery Act.”

“According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wilson Sonsini CEO John Roos bundled at least $500,000 for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign; has donated, with his wife, at least $77,500 to Democrats since 1992; and was nominated by Obama to be the U.S. ambassador to Japan.” (Matthew Boyle, “Solyndra’s Lawyers Major Obama, Democratic Donors,” The Daily Caller, 9/30/2011)

FORMER DEMOCRAT REP. MEL LEVINE (D-CA)’S FIRM NETTED $1 MILLION FROM SOLYNDRA, AFTER HE BUNDLED $200,000 FOR OBAMA CAMPAIGN:“Another law firm that netted about $1 million from taxpayers via Solyndra stimulus dollars was Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, according to the Washington Times. Mel Levine, a partner with that firm, is a former Democratic congressman from California who has already personally bundled about $200,000 for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Levine, who served as a Democrat in the U.S. House from 1983 to 1993, was a registered lobbyist as recently as 2009 and has made four personal visits to the White House, according to visitor logs.” (Matthew Boyle, “Solyndra’s Lawyers Major Obama, Democratic Donors,” The Daily Caller, 9/30/2011)