Posted on 10/07/2011 3:18:10 PM PDT by reaganaut1
WASHINGTON — A senior Energy Department official pushed hard for the government’s $535 million loan to the California solar energy company Solyndra even after he had disclosed that his wife’s law firm represented the company and promised to recuse himself from matters related to its loan application, according to e-mails released by federal officials on Friday.
The official, Steven J. Spinner, a senior member of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee oversight office and a 2008 Obama fund-raiser, inquired frequently about the progress of the Solyndra loan, urging the White House Office of Management and Budget to move more quickly on approving it. He also communicated directly with Solyndra officials who were anxiously awaiting an announcement from Washington that their loan would be approved.
“Any word on OMB?” he asked another Energy Department loan officer. “Even Solyndra’s getting nervous.”
When he was told that the White House seemed to be dragging its feet, he responded, “This is beyond ridiculous.”
The new e-mails provide further evidence of high-level cheerleading on behalf of Solyndra, a maker of innovative tubular rooftop solar panels that declared bankruptcy last month and laid off 1,100 workers. The company was the first recipient of a federally guaranteed loan for alternative energy projects and had been held up as a model of how the government can assist green energy projects and create private-sector jobs.
The latest e-mails also show that senior White House and Treasury Department officials voiced concerns at all stages of the ultimately failed loan to Solyndra, asking whether the company and its products had a viable market and whether the Energy Department was adequately protecting the public money invested in the company.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
But fast and furious is worse...people died and more will die.
And Nixon was impeached because??
The Chicago way, and according to Zero my husband and I are two of the “rich” who need to pay more in taxes to fund his graft. And we make less than 1/3rd of his singles $250K between us. BTW we are retired seniors over 65, still paying income taxes, and his Navy pension took over a $500 tax hit over the past 2 years. This with NO COLA’s and no increase in income.
Yet we are paying more for food, clothes, insurance (car, home) and fuel. We are told the county needs more property taxes, (dems control our County Commission and are all crooked). We can no longer vote them out, as most have fled Memphis and Shelby CO for neighboring counties and MS, even though it has a state income tax, where TN does NOT.
I grew up on stories of the Great Depression, and we are in the OBAMA DEPRESSION.
Old people are using coupons for the first time in their lives, you can see the bewildered look on their faces as they try to figure out how they work. Salvation Army is busier than ever with people buying used clothes, instead of new, and this is all age ranges, all genders and skin colors.
They are in this up to their foreheads.
From The Hill:
An Energy Department spokesman told The Hill that Spinner’s advocacy for finalizing the Solyndra loan was not inappropriate even though his wife’s firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati – represented the company.
“Because his wife agreed not to participate in or receive any financial compensation from her law firm’s work on behalf of any loan program applicant, Mr. Spinner was authorized to oversee and monitor the progress of applications, ensure that the program met its deadlines and milestones, and coordinate possible public announcements,” Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said.
“He was not allowed to make decisions on the terms or conditions of any particular loan guarantee or decide whether or not a particular transaction was approved. This arrangement was reviewed and approved by the Department’s career ethics officer,” LaVera said in a statement.
Spinner and his immediate family should be stripped of all property and assets, their income should be limited to $35;000 any gifts they receive to be deducted.
Forever!
On a side note, I like how the NYT continues to spin, even after the demise of this company, "... Solyndra, a maker of innovative tubular rooftop solar panels ..."
Apparently, they weren't innovative enough!
Now they’re trying to make it look as if Bambi really didn’t know or understand anything about it, the whole Solyndra thing happened because he was deceived by evil (probably white) men while he was out looking for unicorns.
Should the “Energy Department’s loan guarantee oversight office “ be abolished?
Yes, I’ve seen in the last few days how they’re trying to filch this off on senior Energy Dept. people. They’ll probably fire him with a promise to get him a no-show job with a contractor that pays twice what the govt. does.
None of this stops the fact that Zero was hosting them at the White House, sitting in at their board meetings, and having lunch with the CEO & top staff. The prez doesn’t do that for just anybody, this was his A1 golden pet-project. Who’s going to tell him that it’s a loser that should be dumped? That’s like telling Don Corleone that he should stop his capos from collecting protection money.
Crony capitalism.
When was real capitalism, where investors and entrepreneurs took all the risk and then received all the reward, phased out? It was replaced with a system where we taxpayers who are given no choice, but required by politicians on the take to subsidize cronies. As I recollect this cancerous habit started years ago and has grown since then. I didn’t like it then, and dislike it much more now. We built stadiums for $100 million club owners and ball players, and with economic development giveaways, and now we have these fraudulent $500M giveaways. When does it end?
Taxpayers feel the pain but never the gain. Job creation should not be considered the taxpayer payoff. Creating jobs has always been a necessary by-product of creating and leveraging wealth. Business shouldn’t be handed tax dollars to create jobs but yet they are.
An excellent summary of what is going on. We need higher taxes to fund govt. graft.
‘Should the “Energy Department’s loan guarantee oversight office “ be abolished?’
The Energy Department, as well as several others need to be abolished. Family incomes in this country peaked in 2000...2001 is when the first cuts should have started. Think most of us know by now that Compassionate Conservativism was just capitalism with lotsa welfare!
Govt employees that screw up need held accountable. It should have started on 9-11-01. We needed accountability not medals for failure. That’s the only way to ever get an effective govt.
” - - - Family incomes in this country peaked in 2000...2001 - - - “
That is worthwhile to know. We ceased being a mainly manufacturing Country in 1972, as best I remember. Almost 30 years later incomes peaked.
Presidents come and go, but the buck STARTS by finding or making something out of what has been found.
Nixon wasn’t actually impeached. He resigned before that happened. But point taken.
Ultimately, what took Nixon down was not the crime, but the cover up. Keep that in mind since F&F and Solyndra are an order of magnitude higher than the Watergate break-in; it would follow that the cover up will be too.
FYI only two presidents were impeached by the House: Clinton of course and Andrew Johnson. Neither were convicted by the Senate.
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