We’re going to hear sooner than we thought we would about what really happened at the federally-backed Silicon Valley solar startup Solyndra.
House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders announced on Thursday that they’ve “invited” officials from the Department of Energy, Solyndra and the White House to come to testify next week about the DOE’s loan program and its $535 million stimulus loan guarantee to Solyndra.
The committee has been investigating the conditions surrounding the loan since this February.
Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) announced Thursday that they’ve asked Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to testify, as well as the executive director of DOE’s Loans Program, Jonathan Silver. They also want Solyndra President and CEO Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer W.G. Bill Stover to appear.
“The FBI raid further underscores that Solyndra was a bad bet from the beginning and put taxpayers at unnecessary risk,” Upton said in a press statement. “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. 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.”
As officials from the DOE have pointed out, Solyndra’s loan was one that was being pursued and vetted by both the administrations of President Bush and President Obama. Solyndra first submitted its loan application to DOE in 2006.
