Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, opened her questioning of Energy Department (DOE) Secretary so often answering that he didn’t know about any of the most suspect issues related to political involvement in the SOlyndra loan, but then Chu had to repeat that formula and say that he didn’t know about any White House conversations with the DOE about restructuring Solyndra’s loan guarantee to protect investors.
“Certainly, at the time that we were discussing this [Solyndra loan restructuring] I was aware of no communication at the time with the White House,” Chu told Blackburn. “I was made aware of it [these conversations] as of yesterday.”
“I have to tell you, Mr. Secretary, it’s really troublesome to me the number of times I’ve heard you say today that this is the frst time you’ve been made aware of something, or that you know something now, you didn’t know it then,” Blackburn said to Chu in the lead-up to her question. “So it leads me to believe that maybe you had some staff that was kind of keeping you out of the loop on some decisions.”
The Department of Energy restructured the Solyndra loan in such a way as to make the company have to pay back the taxpayer money only after paying its private investors. Chu testified today that, as a result of that restructuring, taxpayers will “not [recover] very much” of the money loaned to the now-bankrupt company.
