President Obama gambled $535 million on Solyndra LLC and failed, but his Energy Department has doubled down on eco-energy energy, attempting to approve up to $9.2 billion in government funding for as many as 14 green energy companies.
Damien LeVera, the Energy Department spokesman who called Solyndra a success after it’s bankruptcy, told Bloomberg News that the government “want[s] to get as many of these done in a way that responsibly protects the taxpayers’ interest. If they meet conditions set out in the agreement, then they’ll close.”
Such willingness to move on loans in the face of demonstrable risk is consistent with Vice President Joe Biden’s apparent decision to neglect the warning signs, and warning emails from government staffers sent to the VPOTUS chief of staff, that might have prevented government investment in Solyndra.
Jeff Broin, CEO of Poet LLC, which currently enjoys a “conditional commitment” of $105 million from the Department of Energy, acknowledged to Bloomberg the inherent instability of federal bankrolling of these companies. “We’re fairly confident that our process is moving along very well [but] It’s expected that some project will fail,” Broin said. “That’s why a loan guarantee program does exist in the first place.”
Loan guarantees closed since the bankruptcy of Solyndra include $150 million to 1366 Technologies, Inc., to develop solar energy technology and $90.6 million to Cogentrix of Alamosa LLC, “a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.”
And as the Energy Department moves into new green energy projects, Solyndra has gone into high-gear damage control, hiring new lobbyists from both sides of the aisle, including a former aide to Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
