Even though the Solyndra decision was above Chu’s pay grade, in tomorrow’s Congressional testimony (release tonight), Energy Secretary Steven Chu volunteers to take the blame for Solyndra.
Chu will testify tomorrow that,
As the Secretary of Energy, the final decisions on Solyndra were mine, and I made them with the best interest of the taxpayer in mind.
Click to read Chu’s prepared remarks.
Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigations panel, said in response to Environment and Energy PM,
“He can talk about the big picture” of the global energy market, Stearns said. But “the hearing tomorrow is about Solyndra, it going bankrupt, being investigated by the FBI and the lack of administrative control by Secretary Chu and the Department of Energy.”
Tune in tomorrow for the fireworks.
“The President’s Venture Capitalist: Steven Chu, Solyndra and the political allocation of capital.”
REVIEW & OUTLOOK, The Wall Street Journal, 16 ovember, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577040073454668362.html
“Loan programs like DOE’s are always going to pick the Solyndras of the world, since their reason for being is to help companies that can’t acquire private financing, and can’t persuade enough investors that the risks they take on will be profitable. A government program dedicated to uneconomic goals is naturally going to end in economic failure.
“The amazing thing is that by this standard Solyndra may not be the worst investment, relatively speaking, since the entire DOE portfolio seems to be such a dog. “What’s terrifying is that after looking at some of the ones that came next, this one started to look better,” one White House budget staffer wrote in an April 2010 email. “Bad days are coming.”
The level of corruption in our country is starting to resemble Nigeria or a banana republic.
Consider also what just happened in a federal court in Texas. In this case, As described at http://LawInjustice.com , a Dallas business owner was involved in a civil dispute and paid millions of dollars to lawyers, and when he objected to additional fees after settling the case, they had a “friendly” judge, appointed by President Clinton, seize all of his possessions, without any notice or hearing, and essentially ordered him under “house arrest” as an involuntary servant to the lawyers and denied a jury trial. The business owner has been under this “servant” order for 10 months and is prohibited from owning any possessions, prohibited from working, etc..
Chu makes much of the “rigorous” review that the loan received. He leaves out the information that those familiar with the application under the Bush administration recommended against the loan for fiscal reasons. During Obama’s tenure, there were no shortage of warnings from those familiar with the application. These warnings were roundly ignored in favor of political favoritism.