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Scandal: The White House pressured federal officials to OK a loan to an insolvent but politically tied green energy company in advance of a vice-presidential photo-op. Corruption is not an energy policy. Emails released to the Washington Post before Wednesday's hearings on the $535 million stimulus loan guarantee issued to now-bankrupt Solyndra Inc. reveal the extent of, and resistance to, White House pressure to get the loan approved so Vice President Joe Biden could announce it at a Sept. 4, 2009, groundbreaking event. The White House has denied applying pressure or even monitoring the review process, saying the stimulus loan...

House Republicans look beneath the green fig leafPresident Obama is selling a repackaged “jobs” spending spree to the nation. Americans need assurance that blowing another half-trillion dollars on stimulus - the American Jobs Act - isn’t a recipe for more crony capitalism. It’s telling that hours before the president pitched his plan last week to a joint session of Congress, the FBI raided the Fremont, Calif., offices of Solyndra, a solar-panel manufacturer Mr. Obama once held up as a model for the coming “green” economy. The firm blew through $535 million in federal loans to build a state-of-the-art facility. Then...

Bay State start-up 1366 Technologies Inc. has steered clear of the dark clouds shrouding the nation’s solar industry. The Lexington company yesterday finalized a $150 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy — the same day FBI agents raided bankrupt Solyndra, a DOE-backed California solar panel maker that’s become a symbol of “green” government investment gone wrong. “There are a lot of taxpayer protections in here,” 1366 spokesman Craig Lund said. “If we deliver on certain milestones then we’ve got certainty of funding, and on the flip side I think the government has very strong conditions in there.”...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Residential solar power provider SolarCity and the U.S. government announced a deal Wednesday to put solar panels on military housing units, a move that could double the number of rooftop solar power installed in the United States. The complex plan calls for SolarCity to receive a $344 million Department of Energy-backed loan from financiers U.S. Renewables Group and Bank of America. SolarCity will then use the money to put up to 160,000 rooftop solar installations on top of privately run military housing complexes at 124 military bases across 34 states. SolarCity will own and operating the...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Wednesday it is providing a loan guarantee for a massive solar energy project that could double the number of glimmering solar panels on residential rooftops in the U.S.The Energy Department said it provided a partial guarantee for a $344 million loan to San Mateo, Calif.-based SolarCity for the SolarStrong Project, which seeks to place solar panels on 160,000 homes across 124 military bases in 33 states."This is the largest domestic residential rooftop solar project in history," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a news release. "This groundbreaking project is expected to create hundreds of...

Last week, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy announced it is extending an $852 million loan guarantee to something called the Genesis Solar Project in California. Genesis, according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, will be built on federal land and ultimately employ perhaps 800 people during its construction and 47 people once it is up and running. This would seem to be a lot of money to generate very few jobs at a time when the nation is on the verge of bankruptcy, but the project really isn’t about jobs. It’s the latest in the administration’s attempt to turn us...

Corruption: A top bundler and major investor in a now-bankrupt green company made multiple White House visits before he got a guaranteed stimulus loan that the administration monitored to ensure it was granted. During the Clinton administration, when the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House became a favorite place for campaign contributors to rest their weary wallets, the infamous Johnny Chung made the observation that the White House was like a subway turnstile. You put your token in and you got inside. Getting inside the White House was easy for billionaire investor George Kaiser, who made multiple visits to the...

Power Sources: A solar panel manufacturer touted by the president as a symbol of his successful green energy policies files for bankruptcy and cuts a thousand green jobs. Maybe its time to drill, baby, drill. During a visit to Solyndra Inc.'s Fremont, Calif., facility in spring of 2010, President Obama boasted of what the company was going to do with the $535 million in loan guarantees his stimulus package provided. "We can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra," he said. "Through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations. This new factory is the...

In a preview of what’s likely to become a common occurrence in the Obama energy strategy, a California manufacturer of solar systems that was financed by a half-a-billion loan through the Obama administration announced that it would seek bankruptcy protection last week. Last month publicly-traded Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy protection as the solar market continues to shake out on declining government handouts and fierce competition. More trouble is expected in the solar industry in the weeks to come. Some of it will come from Congress. "Last February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation. Now that Solyndra has bit the dust, the DOE loan...

Solar power plants stand as major culprits in lead emissions and lead poisoning in India and China, according to a study conducted by a University of Tennessee-Knoxville professor Chris Cherry. Solar plants make significant use of lead batteries.

Rich Lowry calls it “Obama’s Enron.” Over to you, House Republicans: House investigators said they have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an Energy Department review of a hot-button $535 million loan guarantee to the now-failed California solar company Solyndra…“We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra’s application and communicated with [Department of Energy] and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review,” the letter says…“Here’s the bottom line,” [solar industry analyst Peter] Lynch said. “It costs them $6 to make a unit. They’re selling it for $3....

Solyndra might be bankrupt, but their website is still up: From the President's speech in 2010: Every day that you build this expanded facility, as you fill orders for solar panels to ship around the world, you’re demonstrating that the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith -- not anymore. It’s not some abstract possibility for science fiction movies or a distant future -- 10 years down the road or 20 years down the road. It’s happening right now. The future is here.

Link only - Questions Raised After DOE Hides Costs Of Energy Projects Each project is listed in detail on the DOE's website, but the costs were recently taken down.

Solyndra LLC, a Fremont, Calif.-based solar panel maker, was partially funded by Tulsan George Kaiser. It had long been an administration favorite. Over the past two years, President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu each had made congratulatory visits to the company's headquarters. House Republicans and government auditors had questioned the wisdom of the administration's loan guarantees to the company, backed in part by capital from a group controlled by Kaiser, a billionaire Tulsa oilman, banker and Democratic fundraiser. The largest investor, according to a report by CNN Money, was the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The Treasury Department provided...

Solyndra Bankruptcy Could Dry Up Solar Industry FundingSeptember 1, 2011 8:37 AM FREMONT (KCBS) – While many venture capitalists remain bullish about solar companies, a Republican call for further investigation of how bankrupt Solyndra spent millions in federal loans could mean less public money for the solar industry. In February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee looked into how Solyndra won approval in 2009 for a $535 million Department of Energy loan guarantee. That investigation focused on one of the company’s investors, George Kaiser, who contributor to President Barack Obama’s campaign. Energy Department officials said the company’s application was carefully...

A solar energy company that intends to file bankruptcy received $535 million in backing from the federal government and has a cozy history with Democrats and the Obama administration, campaign finance records show. Shareholders and executives of Solyndra, a green energy company producing solar panels, fundraised for and donated to the Obama administration to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser, a key Obama backer who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the president’s election campaign, is one of Solyndra’s primary investors. Kaiser himself donated $53,500 to Obama’s 2008 election campaign, split between the DSCC...

In a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to create green jobs, solar-cell maker Solyndra announced Wednesday that it will close its remaining Fremont factory, lay off its 1,100 employees and file for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy represents a high-profile failure for a federal stimulus program that gives loan guarantees to green-tech manufacturers. Solyndra was the first company to win one of the guarantees, receiving $535 million in 2009. The federal government must now try to recover its investment through Solyndra's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, or taxpayers will be on the hook. Employees were not offered severance and were told their...

NBC is reporting on yet another green scheme going belly-up and this one is a big one. Scott McGrew reports: Solyndra, a major manufacturer of solar technology in Fremont, has shut its doors, according to employees at the campus. "I was told by a security guard to get my [stuff] and leave," one employee said. The company employs a little more than 1,000 employees worldwide, according to its website. Solyndra was touted by the Obama administration as a prime example of how green technology could deliver jobs. The President visited the facility in May of last year and said "it...

Solyndra, the first recipient of a loan from the Department of Energy, told us that it thinks it will produce solar panels at a price that's competitive with standard sources of energy in the next 2-3 years. "We see a clear path," says Kelly Truman, the VP of marketing, sales and business development, "and in 2-3 years we'll hit grid parity." We spoke with Truman yesterday who said the $535 million loan from the DOE will finance 73% of a new factory, though he declined to say how the company would pay for the remainder of the project. The current...

Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday. Top-selling Ta Nea daily said the project, which has a tentative budget of 20 billion euros ($29 billion), could create 60,000 jobs at a time when Greece is battling a deep recession and record unemployment figures. Germany is looking for alternative energy sources after chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to shut down all 17 of the country's nuclear reactors over 11 years, following the disaster at the...