Even as the big Cape Wind offshore wind farm project gets taken down a notch by a federal court, another Obama clean energy crown jewel –Solyndra – has suddenly heated up from a tepid political boil to scalding. Two items arising indicate this could be a bigger deal in terms of how exactly the U.S. Department of Energy and some of the companies it was working with through its now shuttered loan guarantee program were interacting with one another.
The White House, according to the Associated Press and other media outlets, has ordered what is being described as “an independent review” of the loan guarantee program. The Obama administration wants to see the investments it made in clean energy succeed but, as White House chief of staff Bill Daley pointed out, “we must also ensure that we are strong stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
The GOP-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee, meanwhile, will consider next week and likely approve a resolution to subpoena for internal White House communications relating to the Solyndra loan guarantee. The House committee, not satisfied with what has already been provided by them to Obama officials during their investigation, describes this step as something that “unfortunately, appears necessary in light of the Obama administration’s stonewall on Solyndra.”
The Solyndra issue, whether a scandal or not, has generated a lot of buzz since at least February. Since that time the company has filed bankruptcyand been raided by the FBI, among other issues. Where things head next is anybody’s guess.