RNC Chairman Reince Priebus seeks to make the bankruptcy and investigation of solar energy firm Solyndra into a liability for President Obama. ‘Solyndra is now the prime example of stimulus failure,’ Priebus siad in a statement. The firm was given $500 million in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy and touted by the president as a provider of green jobs. Two weeks ago, however, the company announced its bankruptcy and laid of 1,100 workers. In the aftermath, the FBI executed a search warrant as part of an investigation into whether the firm misled the federal government while securing its loans.
What Priebus failed to mention in his statement is that while the Solyndra loan was funded in part by funds from the 2009 stimulus program, it was issued and managed by a federal loan guarantee program created in 2005 under the Bush administration. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will be holding a hearing this week to investigate the loans. Solyndra President Brian Harrison and CFO W.G. Bill Stover are expected to testify.
