Anthony Podesta, who has raised over $350,000 for national Democratic campaign committees this year, lobbies on behalf of two companies that are cashing in on a $737 million loan guarantee administered through the same program that gave a $535 million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt Solyndra LLC.
Anthony Podesta has raised approximately $257,000 for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $96,500 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as well as $25,400 for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. His company, The Podesta Group lobbying firm, has earned approximately $670,000 in the last two years lobbying on behalf of Solar Reserve and its primary financial backer, U.S. Renewables Group (USRG). Podesta is at least the second major bundler for Democrats involved with this loan guarantee, as billionaire George Kaiser has bundled money for President Obama and has an employee on listed as a “board participant” for Solar Reserve.
Both of the managing partners at USRG, which was the “initial investor” in Solar Reserve, sit on the board of directors at Solar Reserve. USRG paid The Podesta Group approximately $300,000 in 2010 to lobby for “congressional support for renewable energy funding,” among other things, according to reports submitted by the lobbying firm for that year. In the first quarter of 2011, USRG paid another $80,000 for The Podesta Group to lobby regarding the “Department of Energy loan guarantee program.” They then paid The Podesta Group yet another $80,000 in the second quarter of 2011 to lobby regarding the “Department of Energy loan guarantee program [and] loan programs for regional energy projects.”
Those lobbying efforts presumably redounded to the benefit of Tonopah Solar, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Solar Reserve that just just received a $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy for its Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. Solar Reserve lists the same project on its website as something they are “currently developing.”
Solar Reserve also employs The Podesta Group, paying them approximately $310 million to lobby on its behalf, although not in regards to the loan program.
This arrangement offers a window into how Washington works. The investors in Solar Reserve employ the company of a major Democratic fundraiser – the number one bundler for the DSCC and the DCCC – to make sure their investment project receives government funding. Meanwhile, the same lobbying firm helps their portfolio company, Solar Reserve, lobby the government for other business issues.
