$ome got them$elve$ a treat!
"White House orders review of energy loans; GOP threatens to subpoena documents" October 29, 2011|By Scott Wilson, Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The White House has authorized an independent review of all loan guarantees made by the Energy Department to foster green technology following the bankruptcy this year of Solyndra, the California company that received a $535 million loan through the program.
White House officials said yesterday that chief of staff William Daley ordered the review, which will evaluate the entire $35.9 billion loan portfolio made to support the private-sector development of new technologies that could help improve the economy and create jobs.
The review is a tacit acknowledgment that the loan program, defended by President Obama and his senior advisers for months, has raised enough internal concern that an outside assessment is necessary to clear the air and determine its future. The announcement came as congressional Republicans threatened to subpoena White House records relating to the Solyndra case if the administration does not produce a batch of requested documents....
Why is it administrations come and go but they all behave the same?
The issue has become a political problem for Obama....
In recent weeks, the White House has denied some requests for documents related to Solyndra made by Representative Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who chairs the energy committee, and Representative Cliff Stearns, the Florida Republican who is heading the subcommittee investigating Solyndra.
In their statement yesterday, the congressmen said that “subpoenaing the White House is a serious step that, unfortunately, appears necessary in light of the Obama administration’s stonewall on Solyndra.’’
“What is the White House trying to hide from the American public?’’ the statement said. “It is alarming for the Obama White House to cast aside its vows of transparency and block Congress from learning more about the roles that those in the White House and other members of the administration played in the Solyndra mess.’’
White House officials said Daley’s decision to order the independent review, which will be looking primarily at the strength of the loan portfolio rather than the decision-making surrounding the Solyndra loan or any other specific one, was not prompted by the energy committee’s subpoena threat.
Uh-huh.
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal White House thinking, said the “administration has been cooperating with various agency investigations’’ on the Solyndra matter. The official said more than 70,000 pages of documents from several agencies, including 900 pages from the White House, have been made available to congressional investigators.
“The fact is that everything we produced so far has shown that this was a merit-based decision by career staffers at the Department of Energy,’’ the official said....
Everything else they kept.
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Also see: Powering up landfill
Obama's Ro$e-Colored $ungla$$e$
Related:
"An electric car company backed by more than a half-billion dollars in Energy Department loan guarantees has missed early manufacturing goals and has gradually pushed back plans for US production and the creation of thousands of jobs....
A half-billion here, a half-billion there; pretty soon we're talkin' real money.
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