The sun has set on government-subsidized solar panel company Solyndra.
But now House Republicans are turning the heat on the White House and the company’s largest private investor, a foundation whose billionaire founder also happens to be an Obama 2010 fundraiser.
Solyndra, a Freemont, Ca.-based manufacturer of circular solar panels that was touted by President Obama and received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, declared bankruptcy on Wednesday, saying it couldn’t compete with more heavily-subsidized international competitors.
But House Republicans, who have been investigating the loan guarantee since February (incidentally coinciding with their early 2012 federal budget slashing efforts, when they began eyeing the Department of Energy as a juicy target), think that something more sinister is afoot.
On Thursday, House energy and commerce subcommittee chair Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fl.) and committee chair Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mi.) published a letter they sent to the White House demanding “all documents containing communications relating to the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, Inc., between the White House and Solyndra, Inc.” and all documents “containing communications…between the White House and the investors of Solyndra, Inc., including the administrators, employees, attorneys, agents, advisors, consultants, staff, principals, or any other persons acting on behalf of those investors.”
As the letter explains, “we are also aware that a major investor in Solyndra, George Kaiser, was a bundler for President Obama’s 2008 campaign.”
Upton and Stearns put it less charitably on Wednesday, saying in a separate statement “We smelled a rat from the onset,” of the Solyndra loan guarantee.
Indeed, Kaiser, a billionaire Oklahoma oil chairman who’s joined the Gates/Buffett billionaire philanthropy initiative, reportedly helped raise $50,000 for Obama’s 2010 campaign, according to a critical post on the loan guarantee from non-partisan group The Center for Public Integrity.
Kaiser’s eponymous charitable foundation was one private investor in Solyndra, which also earned $1 billion in total venture capital-funding from an assortment of companies.
Today, The George Kaiser Family Foundation responded to the bankruptcy of Solyndra and its 35 percent stake in the company, saying it “suffered a loss as a result of the company’s inability to overcome serious challenges in the marketplace, especially the drastic decline in solar panel prices during the past two years caused in part by subsidies provided by the government of China to Chinese solar panel manufacturers,” The Washington Post reported.
The statement also noted that “George Kaiser is not an investor in Solyndra and did not participate in any discussions with the US Government regarding the loan.”
Solyndra competitor Westinghouse Solar’s CEO yesterday disputed the argument that China’s heavily-subsidized solar manufacturers were the primary cause of Solyndra’s downfall, saying the company had only itself and two big bad bets on technology it made to blame.
The optics certainly don’t look good for Obama, especially considering he gave a speech at Solyndra’s manufacturing plant last year, championing the company in a lengthy speech on how green energy could re-vitalize American industry.
And House Republicans are clearly not going to be swayed by The George Kaiser Foundation’s claims. They haven’t yet set a date for a new hearing on the loan guarantee, but they have set a deadline for when they want to see the documents: Sept. 12.
