People can debate all day whether government should be in the business of picking winners and losers in the marketplace by selectively awarding loan guarantees. What's beyond dispute is that any official decision that results in the loss of half-a-billion tax dollars should elicit an apology from somebody in government. Just don't expect that somebody to be Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, even though he's the guy who ignored multiple warnings beforehand and approved the $535 billion federal loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt Solyndra...a green
technological winnerpicked by the B.O. regime that cost the taxpayers a half billion dollars, with the added benefit of the campaign contributors who put money into the project getting paid before the taxpayers when the wreckage went up for sale...
solar panel maker. He's also the guy who approved a loan restructuring that resulted in private investors -- including one of President B.O.'s wealthiest campaign contributors -- being repaid before the taxpayers, an arrangement virtually without precedent in the government.
| "Well, it is extremely unfortunate what has happened with Solyndra. Was there incompetence? Was there any influence of a political nature? I would have to say no." |
The energy secretary's arrogance likely will inspire a lot more howling about Solyndra and a host of similar loan guarantees handed out by Chu and his fellow Obama appointees. What many of these loans have in common with Solyndra is that all used tax dollars to line the pockets of key Obama fundraisers and donors. Take, for example, Solar Reserve, which received an even bigger loan guarantee -- $737 million -- than Solyndra. Solar Reserve's biggest investor is a company owned by Michael Froman, former deputy assistant to the president who bundled as much as $500,000 for Obama in 2008.
Then there is Abound Solar, which got a $400 million guarantee. A key investor in Abound Solar is Pat Stryker who contributed $87,000 to Obama's inauguration festivities. Next up is Granite Reliable Wind Generation, which got $168.9 million loan guarantee. Granite's majority owner is a firm formerly headed by Nancy Ann DeParle, deputy White House chief of staff and head of communications during the Obamacare campaign -- and wife of New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
news hound Jason DeParle. Finally, there's BrightSource Energy, whose principal adviser is Robert Kennedy Jr., one of Obama's earliest backers in 2008. Kennedy's firm received $1.6 billion in loan guarantees.
Chu wants us to believe political influence had nothing to do with any of these decisions. He might as well tell us the moon is made of green cheese. Leave it to the Hoover Institution's Peter Schweizer, who has studied the energy loans in detail, to state the obvious: "This is a payoff to people who are your political backers and supporters. And this is really a wealth transfer from middle class taxpayers to billionaires."