"Chu Still Have No Clue"
Posted on 09/29/2011 4:17:59 AM PDT by Libloather
GOP's Solyndra probe threatens to ensnare Energy Secretary Chu
By Andrew Restuccia - 09/29/11 05:00 AM ET
The controversy over a $535 million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt California solar firm Solyndra is threatening to dim the star of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner who has rarely been thrust into the political spotlight.
Republican lawmakers have set their sites on Chu, who for three years has managed to avoid being dragged into a litany of political battles waged by Republicans and the White House on energy and environmental issues.
The GOP has for weeks lobbed a slew of allegations at the administration, arguing officials rushed a final decision on the loan guarantee and missed a series of red flags that hinted at the company’s financial troubles. Solyndra declared bankruptcy two years after receiving the Energy Department loan, resulting in layoffs for 1,100 workers.
Now, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are increasingly turning their attention to the role that Chu played in overseeing the loan guarantee program.
The ongoing fight over Solyndra could put Chu, who is not known as a political brawler, in uncharted waters.
Republicans are pointing to a recent Los Angeles Times story that says Chu disagreed with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others when they raised concerns about the loan guarantee program during a meeting last October.
“We need to hear from Secretary Chu and [White House Office of Management and Budget Director Jack] Lew to fill in some of the blanks,” Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who sits on the Energy panel’s investigative subcommittee, told The Hill in a phone interview Wednesday. “The buck has to stop someplace and presumably it stops with the heads of those agencies.”
Republicans on the panel wrote to Chu last week to request all communications between the Energy Department and the White House on the Solyndra loan guarantee.
The document request is part of a broader effort by Republicans to determine if the White House rushed consideration of the loan guarantee.
The committee, which launched its investigation into Solyndra in February, has already received more than 35,000 documents and has released select emails that Republicans say show that the White House tried to rush a decision on the company’s financing so that the loan guarantee could be announced at the Sept. 2009 groundbreaking of the company’s factory.
The administration has insisted that it thoroughly reviewed the project and has strongly denied any wrondoing.
Though Republicans say they want to hear from Chu, Sean Bonyun, spokesman for committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), said the panel has not yet formalized plans for the secretary to testify.
Democrats and clean energy advocates have criticized Republicans for their investigation, arguing it is a transparent attempt to score political points.
"This is not about Solyndra, this is not about the loan guarantee program, this is about Republicans going after the president," Marchant Wentworth, who focuses on clean energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said.
Before Obama chose him as his Energy secretary, Chu had little experience running a massive bureaucracy like a federal agency. In 2004, Chu became the director of the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. The laboratory employs about 4,000 people. By contrast, the Energy Department employs about four times that number.
Chu represents an unfamiliar target for the GOP, which has frequently sparred with top administration officials on energy policy.
Republicans bashed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for imposing a series of more stringent offshore drilling regulations in the aftermath of last year’s oil spill that Republicans and some drill-state Democrats said unfairly slowed down the pace of drilling.
And Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson has testified before Congress so many times one congressman even joked that she should have her own parking space. Jackson has borne the brunt of more criticism than any other top administration official for moving forward with a series of air regulations that Republicans say will place a massive burden on the economy.
Though Chu has largely avoided controversy, he came under fire from Republicans before he was confirmed by the Senate for calling coal his "worst nightmare" during a 2008 speech.. Chu walked back those comments slightly during a Senate hearing in 2009, after he was confirmed, calling over-reliance on coal a "bad dream," but stressing that it will remain a major part of the country's energy portfolio.
Chu has won the praise of clean energy advocates and is generally well respected by Republicans too.
"He’s been public about renewable energy and energy efficiency and knowledgeable in a way that we have not seen in an Energy secretary for a long time," Wentworth said.
Chu is best known for offering detailed and nuanced analyses of the energy landscape.
He has been a staunch advocate of making large and consistent investments in clean energy, arguing that it’s the only way that the United States can compete with countries like China, which have put billions into solar and wind.
Even amid growing criticism from Republicans, Chu has said the Energy Department will continue making such investments. The department, for example, announced the finalization of two loan guarantees for solar companies Wednesday totaling more than $1 billion
At an event in Washington this week, Chu delighted a crowd of energy industry officials with a rough history of the automobile – an anecdote he used to encourage long-term investment in low-carbon technology to ensure the United States wins what he calls the “clean energy race.”
“So, lesson number one,” Chu told the crowd. “The United States didn’t invent the automobile, it actually became the dominant automobile manufacturing force in the 20th Century by becoming the low-cost producer.”
After the meeting, Chu huddled in the corner with a group of scientists and listened intently for about ten minutes.
“These are his people. He’d stay here all day if he could,” one of Chu’s aides remarked.
Also, Nancy Pelosi's Brother in Law just got a $735 MILLION DOLLAR LOAN GUANANTEE from US, the Taxpayers , for an ENERGY Com!!!!!
THIS also must be investigated!
Chu is for 10$ a gallon gasoline.
Obviously, this will assure his Obama-level antiUSA dream.
Al Gore’s scam is growing and the taxpayers are now paying for his nightmare, in higher prices for energy and loans.
Chu doesn’t get to plead the 5th - this may be interesting.
Which one? Gore-Bull Warming or his US-funded, electric car factory in Finland which makes $89,000 hybrid sportscars?
You paint your roof white Chu has no clue?
Now that the terrorist have their hands on 20,000 surface to air missiles, they have qualified for one of Zippo’s “Green Energy” loans, they have presented a sound business plan for reducing the carbon footprint of the airline industry.
What a waste. Let the free market decide when we are ready for solar.
Good.
Maybe that ‘snare’ will become a ‘noose’ for the entire crooked administration................treasonous bastards..........
Cozy ... after doling out billions to political cronies, maybe Chu can cash in at Generation Investment Management or Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
FLASHBACK:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-12-11/news/17129916_1_energy-secretary-energy-czar-climate-change/2
Word of Chu’s likely nomination came a day after Obama met with former Vice President Al Gore, also a Nobel Prize winner and one of the world’s leading voices on the fight against global warming.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.