The GOP Solar witch hunt, has ended uneventfully. Yet another one of GOP's mythological strawmen, is still desperately in need of a brain.
Solyndra hearing: unflappable Steven Chu endures five-hour grilling
Energy secretary assailed for repeatedly claiming to have had no real-time knowledge of key events in firm's collapse
by Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, guardian.co.uk --
Thursday 17 November 2011
The US energy secretary, Steven Chu, put up a strong defence of the administration's loan to a failed solar company on Thursday, but the Nobel physics laureate's own wisdom and judgment was put under the microscope in a hostile congressional hearing.
In five and a half hours of gruelling testimony to the house energy and commerce committee, Chu was assailed for repeatedly claiming to have had no real-time knowledge of key events in the collapse of Solyndra, which went bankrupt in August after receiving $535m in government loans.
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Chu refused on multiple occasions to apologise for the Solyndra debacle -- although he did go so far as to describe the company's collapse and the loss of US public funds as "extremely unfortunate" and "regrettable".
The five and a half hour hearing was extraordinarily long by the usual congressional standards. As a comparison, BP's Tony Hayward was grilled for just half that time at the height of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
The way the FOX-ka-teers have been going on and on about the Solyndra Loan Guarantees, I was thinking that they must have broke the Clean Energy Bank ...
Hardly! ... if the facts be told.
Republicans grill Secretary Chu on Solyndra loan, loan guarantee process at U.S. congressional hearing
solarserver.com -- 2011-11-21|
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The DOE's Loans Programs Office is supporting USD 35.9 billion in loans for clean energy and nuclear projects, and as such the loan guarantees to Solyndra and Beacon Power together represent less than 2% of its portfolio.
Republicans oppose clean energy loans, except in their states.
Such is the GOP way -- What's in it for them?
What's more -- DOE’s Loan guarantee program, on the whole, is MUCH more successful than even the Small Business Administration's loan program, at least in terms of default rates.
And the DOE is creating Jobs.
Case Dismissed: Chu Swats Down Solyndra Attacks
by Mijin Cha, policyshop.net -- 11/20/2011
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Despite what critics say, the DoE’s guaranteed loan program is a successful program. The default rate for the loan portfolio is less than 4%. By comparison, the loan default rate for the Small Business Administration is nearly 12%, three times as high as the DoE’s loan program. Secretary Chu also pointed out that the DoE faced a difficult choice when deciding to restructure Solyndra’s loan: either they could pull funding when Solyndra’s factory was half built and guarantee bankruptcy or restructure the loan in the hope that the company could pull itself out of trouble.
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Secretary Chu also clarified that the actual cost to the taxpayer of DoE's loan program will be roughly $2.5 billion, which is the actual amount appropriated to the program, and not the $38.6 billion that is often cited. Considering the program has created over 60,000 jobs, it cost taxpayers roughly $42,000 per job created, much less than the average cost calculation of over $60,000 per job created.
The GOP Green inquisition had its heated moments as the following "live blog" shows, however we can always count on Henry Waxman to stand up and tell it like it is.
Blogging the Solyndra hearing
by Brad Plumer, WashingtonPost, ezra-klein.blog -- 11/17/2011
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10:14 am. How many loans have actually gone bad? Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) opened his hearing on Solyndra by noting that two of the Energy Department’s first three high-profile alternative-energy loans have gone bad. But how many have gone bad overall? A Bloomberg report notes that the default rate on the department’s $16.1 loan portfolio has been just 3.6 percent. The White House planned for (and budgeted for) a 12.85 percent default rate. It’s very possible that we could still see more defaults, but experts quoted by Bloomberg think it’s unlikely that we’ll ever get to the planned-for 13 percent.
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11:20 Solar loans vs. nuclear loans. Donna Christensen, the Democratic delegate to the Virgin Islands pointed out that the bulk of energy loan guarantees go to nuclear power. That’s somewhat true. The Energy Department has conditionally committed to $10.6 billion worth of loan guarantees for nuclear projects, including $8 billion for a big new reactor being planned by Southern Company in Georgia (those loans are under a slight different program than Solyndra; unlike the solar company, nuclear companies have to put up a 3 percent credit-subsidy fee). Overall, the department has $18 billion in loan authority for nuclear.
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2:00 Waxman: “There’s no scandal there!” Republicans: Yes there is! Towards the end of the hearing, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) throws up his hands and says, “There’s no scandal there, there’s nothing there!” Waxman diligently recounts the various defenses of the Energy Department: Chu had no idea that an Obama donor was involved, there was no political involvement in approving the loan, the restructuring was a reasonable gamble to take. He then argues that the only scandalous thing Republicans have unearthed, amid thousands of pages of e-mails, is that someone in the Energy Department asked Solyndra to hold off on announcing layoffs until after the 2010 midterms (Chu says he has no idea who did this, but he promises to look into it). “Stop dancing on Solyndra’s grave,” Waxman exclaims.
The only "scandal" is how the GOP continues to relentlessly pursue all their failed Energy policies of the past.
And the fact that they get to put the brakes the Country's inevitable Energy Future, in the process ... all to benefit their Big Oil benefactors. As they continue provide untold billions in their Oil subsidies. Subsidies unexamined, by the harsh glare of GOP hypocrisy.