The Treasury Department failed to meet a Republican-set deadline Friday for issuing the results of an investigation into rampant fraud under federal tax subsidy programs for solar energy.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Arizona pressed Treasury inspectors to release the long-overdue report by April 22 in a letter the lawmakers sent earlier in the month.
The senators did not receive the results of the investigation, but instead were told by Treasury that they are still attempting to compile the information.
A spokesman for Murkowski said the inspectors “have not provided a substantive response,” and they don’t anticipate anything more from Treasury by the end of the day. The senators have been pressing the agency to release the report since last year.
The senators said in their April 11 letter that the department had indicated in recent correspondence that solar tax-credit applicants “included ineligible costs or otherwise overstated the value of their solar energy investments by claiming approximately $1.3 billion in unwarranted cash grants.”
The amount of fraud is more than two-and-a-half times the amount of the Solyndra default, the letter reads. Solyndra was a solar company that notoriously went bankrupt after receiving a federal loan guarantee worth $535 million.
The senators said they suspected that the foot-dragging was the result of a lack of cooperation by agencies involved in the solar tax programs.
They noted that the department had said in previous correspondence that resistance would likely result in delays in getting the results of the investigation to Congress.
“We hope such interference will not cause any unnecessary delays in the case,” the senators said.
The tax credits in question include the section 48 Investment Tax Credit and the 1603 Treasury Grant program.
The senators wanted the results of the investigation by Friday, which coincidentally is Earth Day.
