President Obama, when asked during Thursday’s news conference “what he knew” about the now failed CH 11 solar energy company Solyndra and (alleged) White House connection? Obama responded by saying the ($535 million federal loan ) his administration made, was based “on the merits” and not on political influence. ( of course it was only on that basis)
Naturally, the President did not go into details explaining why P. Kaiser (one of America’s richest individuals) a major contributor to Obama’s campaign for President and also a major investor in failed Solyndra, had 16 White House meetings, inclusive several with senior presidential aides.
What we know now as fact, Solyndra went into bankruptcy just a year after getting a $535 million federal loan, laying off over 1,000 workers. We also know the Department of Justice has not charged “anyone” at Solyndra with a crime. Further, Solyndra has no idea how much it owes creditors.
What we have here, is another instance of millions of taxpayer dollars been wasted, and we may never know what really transpired in the Solyndra investigation until years after Obama is gone. Despite what happened with Solyndra, last Friday, and after the markets closed, the DOE – Energy Department made a further dubious $4.5 billion loans to four solar energy companies. Newsworthy is the fact, First Solar Inc of Arizona sold a planned 550 megawatt solar project to Florida’s NextEra just a week before NextEra received a $1.5 billion loan from the DOE. On same day, First Solar also sold a 230 megawatt solar plant project in California’s high desert to Illinois based Exelon Corp. and mysteriously a week later the Illinois company received a $646 million DOE loan.
Only in the future will we learn, if the planned solar energy companies also had White House (influence) connection? especially the one from the state of Illinois. Troublesome is the knowledge both companies were acquired a week prior to getting a federal loan – and as if the buyer knew a loan was coming?