Another!? Obama's Secret 'Stimulus Czar' Discovered

President’s Stimulus Program Grabs Spotlight in Solyndra Failure

Written By Elizabeth MacDonald, Fox Business Network

Published November 16, 2011

 

 

A House panel probing now-bankrupt Solyndra says the President’s own $787 billion stimulus program in 2009 is partly to blame for the failings of the Department of Energy’s loan guaranty program for green energy companies like the defunct solar panel maker.

And the House panel memo notes the President’s stimulus program not only authorized even more breaks to green companies applying for taxpayer funds from the DOE, but that the President’s stimulus program planted its own sort of stimulus czar at the DOE in order to smooth out problems and to help ensure the White House’s new stimulus program was well represented.

This official also worked to more quickly facilitate the expenditure of federal stimulus money on companies like Solyndra.

President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan had an estimated $27.2 billion in planned subsidies to pay for energy efficiency and renewable, green energy, including solar. Separate from that, the DOE had a loan guaranty program for green energy dating back to 2005, launched under the George W. Bush Administration, that eventually grew to an estimated $40 billion.

Solyndra had received $535 million in federal loan guarantees, spending an estimated $528 million.

The President had toured Solyndra’s facilities before it collapsed, and Vice President Joe Biden had joined Energy Secretary Steven Chu to announce its new federal loan guaranty in September 2009. Secretary Chu is scheduled to testify about Solyndra tomorrow on Capitol Hill.

Solyndra’s top investor was an investment fund backed by billionaire George Kaiser, whose family foundation was a major donor to President Obama.