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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Time for Energy Secretary Chu to Leave?

The White House has denied the critics charges of any connection between politics and "green energy" loans, however, recent emails and scrutiny at the Solyndra Congressional Inquiry have discovered a preference  given to Democrat donors seeking loans. The emails suggest a correlation beyond just the timing timing of political announcements to questions about the White Houses overall policy of handing out taxpayer money.

The Solyndra hearing revealed a series of questionable actions, 1)the rush to announce the Solyndra loan and 2) the process that lacked appropriate financial oversight. Solyndra investor George Kaiser and other Obama contributors had "unfettered" access to the West Wing of the White House. Additionally, Energy Secretary Chu approved subordination of the Solyndra loans so that taxpayers would be repaid after two commercial firms, a violation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The green energy subsidies show that several well connected Democrats obtained taxpayer assistance for environmentally friendly projects. These recipients include: (from Fox news)

-- Solyndra, which received $535 million in loan guarantees and whose chief investor was the George Kaiser Family Foundation. George Kaiser was an Obama campaign bundler.

-- Brightsource Energy, which received $1.6 billion and whose senior adviser is Robert Kennedy, Jr., an early Obama backer;

-- Solar Reserve, which got a $737 million loan, and whose major investor is a company run by Michael Froman, who was a deputy assistant to the president. Froman bundled up to $500,000 for the president's 2008 campaign;

-- Granite Reliable Wind Generation, which received a $168.9 million loan. The company's majority owner is a firm formerly led by Nancy Ann DeParle, now a White House deputy chief of staff and former head of the president's health care communications team during the reform debate; and

-- Abound Solar, which received a loan guarantee worth $400 million. A key investor is billionaire heiress Pat Stryker, who gave $87,000 to Obama's inauguration committee, and hundreds of thousands more to Democratic causes.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/16/solyndra-case-reveals-gateway-between-administration-loans-obama-allies/#ixzz1fUqe7CB0

Peter Schweizer, author of "Throw Them All Out", wrote that at least 10 members of Obama's finance committee and more than a dozen of his campaign bundlers took money from administration loan programs.

Secretary Chu approved the Solyndra loan in September 2009. The braniac Nobel prize winner in Physics, testified that he was "not aware" of staffers predictions that Solyndra would go broke and run out of cash by September 2011. He clearly missed the the Office of Management and Budget recommendation that the deal be "notched down". At Solyndra's groundbreaking he announced, "If you build a better solar panel, the world will beat a path to your door."

In March 2010, PricewaterhouseCooppers warned that Solyndra's recurring losses and negative cash flows" raise a substantial doubt about it's ability to continue as a going concern". Chu remained a booster for the project. In May 2010, President Obama appeared at a Solyndra event and proclaimed," the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra."

By October, Solyndra CEO Brain Harrison informed the DOE that the company was about to lay off workers. The company shut one of its plants and laid off 40 workers the day after the November elections.
Secretary Chu admits he approved a  to put $75 million into Solyndra which included a sweetener that put investors ahead of taxpayers in the payback line that follows bankruptcy. This gambit failed and Solyndra laid off 1,000 workers.

The Nobel prize winner's pet pick was a bust. No scandal? In February 2009, the former Solyndra CEO Chris Gonet set 10 conditions for the Administration to meet to help Solyndra raise an additional $147 million.

No.9. "Fundraising suppport after conditional commitment: Steven Chu visits Solyndra with press interviews (target by end of March)."

Solyndra Scandal key Players

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