An Inspector General of the Department of Energy report that picked over the bones of the Solyndra green energy fiasco placed most of the blame on Solyndra executives for losing more than $500 million in taxpayer money.
But a close reading shows DOE made plenty of mistakes as well.
...While the 13-page report also criticizes DOE officials for not sufficiently vetting Solyndra and mentions political pressure placed on unnamed DOE employees to get the loan pushed through as part of the Obama administration’s stimulus program, it does not go into many specifics — especially about the political aspect of the case.
...That conclusion riles William Yeatman, senior fellow specializing in environmental policy and energy markets at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a policy group that advocates for limited government, who called the IG report “a conspicuous whitewash” that tries to absolve DOE. “It’s an outrage,” Yeatman told Watchdog.org, adding he has admired Friedman’s work in the past.
...But the agency’s loan officers “who received this spreadsheet each told us they did not examine it closely,” the report said. “While Solyndra did nothing to highlight or emphasize the new information, the Department missed an opportunity, prior to loan closing, to evaluate the fact that Solyndra’s contract customers were not buying product at the contracted terms.”
“They simply didn’t pay attention to this,” Yeatman said in a telephone interview. “That information was quantitative, hard data that, if (DOE) had paid attention to, made clear that this was a bad deal …What a piss-poor job the government does when it plays banker.”
In addition, a week before the loan closing, an employee noticed the price of rooftop solar systems was projected to be much lower than Solyndra’s estimates and sent three emails to top DOE loan officials alerting them to the issue. “Yet, no action was taken,” the report said. “Instead, it was apparently disregarded....”
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