How does Washington work? Here’s how: Take this story of two former Department of Energy (DOE) officials. They once ran a government program that subsidizes solar companies. Today, they work for an investment firm that underwrites and provides lobbying muscle to a company that was first subsidized by this same program when they directed it.

Craig Cornelius sits on the board of directors for Solopower as a representative of Hudson Clean Energy Partners, which invested in the solar company at Cornelius’ recommendation. He first encountered Solopower, however, while leading the Solar America Initiative (SAI) at DOE from 2005 to 2007. President Bush launched SAI in order to make solar electricity “cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity from the utility grid by 2015.” To that end, DOE provided a variety of services, including “system financing options,” designed to “lower market barriers” that prevented solar electricity from being a viable commercial product.