House GOP examining Chu's internal Solyndra emails

House Energy and Commerce Committee staff examined Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s internal emails Tuesday in preparation for a hearing later this week on the $535 million loan guarantee to failed solar firm Solyndra.

A Republican committee aide said the Energy Department agreed to allow staff to review emails from Chu regarding the Solyndra loan guarantee. But the department did not provide the committee with copies of the documents.

Chu is slated to testify Thursday in front of the committee’s investigative panel, which has launched a months-long probe of the loan guarantee. Thursday’s hearing marks the culmination of the Solyndra investigation.

Republicans on the committee said Tuesday that they plan to press Chu about the department’s decision to greenlight the loan guarantee in 2009 and restructure the financing agreement in February. The GOP argues that the Energy Department broke the law when it ensured in the restructuring agreement that private investors would be repaid before the taxpayer if Solyndra went under. The administration strongly objects to that claim.

The Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The Obama administration has provided the committee with about 185,000 pages of documents related to the Solyndra loan guarantee, including 100,000 pages from the Energy Department last week.

Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in September after laying off 1,100 workers. Republicans have used the bankruptcy to question the administration’s green-energy agenda, and they’ve alleged that politics played a role in the decision to grant the loan guarantee.

None of the documents produced by the committee have shown evidence of political favoritism, though emails released by Republicans indicate that the White House pressed administration officials to make a swift decision on helping Solyndra. They also show that there was disagreement within the administration on the wisdom of approving the loan guarantee.

Committee Republicans also released a memo Tuesday that suggests the administration pressed Solyndra to delay a 2010 lay-off announcement until after the midterm elections.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the committee’s investigative panel, said he plans to press Chu Thursday on the legality of restructuring the loan to “subordinate” the taxpayer’s investment to that of private investors.

“Why did the administration push this? Why did the inner circle continue to push Solyndra? Was it for political reasons, or was it because they were just hell-bent on their philosophy of turning these jobs into green jobs and they just wanted to move it forward? And I think that's a big question,” Stearns said in an interview on Fox Business Monday.

Stearns also criticized the White House for rebuffing the scope of the committee’s Solyndra subpoena and providing the panel with 135 pages of documents Tuesday. The committee’s subpoena requested all internal White House Solyndra communications.

“[W]e're not totally satisfied because it appears we're getting sort of selected documents on these e-mails,” Stearns said.