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GOP House Energy chairman advocated loan for struggling solar company
A key House Republican who has been highly critical of the Obama administration for providing loan guarantees to now-bankrupt solar energy firm Solyndra urged the Energy Department to help fund a Michigan solar company that has now also suspended operations.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) sent a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in 2009 recommending a loan for United Solar Ovonics, a solar company in his home state, according to the Washington Post. But the company announced earlier this month that it would be laying off 140 workers at two manufacturing plants.
Democrats argue that Upton's advocacy is exactly the type of choosing "winners and losers" that the chairman has denounced in the investigation in to Solyndra, another solar company that went bankrupt after recieving a large federal loan guarantee. But Upton's office dismissed the comparison, saying that the Energy Department is the one tasked with making decisions about backing loans, and that Upton had simply asked the Department to evaluate United Solar.
"Many in Congress questioned whether the stimulus would produce the promised jobs. At the same time, members on both sides of the aisle wanted to see jobs created and folks put back to work, especially in Michigan,” said Alexa Marrero, Upton's spokesman, to the Post.
The questions from Democrats are similar to those asked when House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) first raised issue with the Solyndra loan program.
Issa sought to obtain a federal energy loan for a green-car company in his state, and received a campaign donation from one of the business’s trustees and advisers.
“There is nothing new or surprising about the existence of federal loan guarantee programs or members of Congress writing letters in support of home state businesses who apply for them,” said Frederick Hill, a spokesman for Issa, said at the time.
“The focus of questions and concerns are about actual bill provisions and their interpretation by the administration that resulted in decisions to bestow connected firms like Solyndra with special treatment.”
As with Upton, the company Issa advocated on behalf of did not receive its loan.
The Obama administration has denied wrongdoing in the Solyndra case, saying that the Department of Energy followed guidelines in providing the loan guarantees. Secretary Chu testified about the program Thursday before Congress.
“As the secretary of Energy, the final decisions on Solyndra were mine, and I made them with the best interest of the taxpayer in mind,” Chu said, surrounded by about a dozen photographers. “I want to be clear: Over the course of Solyndra’s loan guarantee, I did not make any decision based on political considerations.”
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