A Washington Post article dated Christmas Day, a day when people were certain to be busy with other things, tells the story about how politics took precedence in Obama administration decisions surrounding Solyndra. That's the solar panel company that got over a half billion dollars in Department of Energy loans and then went bankrupt.
The documents reviewed by The Post, which began examining the clean-technology program a year ago, provide a detailed look inside the day-to-day workings of the upper levels of the Obama administration. They also give an unprecedented glimpse into high-level maneuvering by politically connected clean-technology investors.
They show that as Solyndra tottered, officials discussed the political fallout from its troubles, the “optics” in Washington and the impact that the company’s failure could have on the president’s prospects for a second term. Rarely, if ever, was there discussion of the impact that Solyndra’s collapse would have on laid-off workers or on the development of clean-energy technology.
“What’s so troubling is that politics seems to be the dominant factor,” said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group. “They’re not talking about what the taxpayers are losing; they’re not talking about the failure of the technology, whether we bet on the wrong horse. What they are talking about is ‘How are we going to manage this politically?’ ”
It was apparently a given that with administrative support green technology could only flourish. It didn't, though, and now come the questions. Who made the decision to give Solyndra a half billion dollars, only to see the firm go belly up in less than two years? Was improper political influence brought to bear?
“Everything disclosed . . . affirms what we said on day one: This was a merit-based decision made by expert staffers at the Department of Energy,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement.
We're in that familiar place, where administration officials assure us that even though it looks pretty bad, nothing unethical happened. Maybe it would be better if it did. At least then we could believe that there might be a smidgeon of competence among the expert staffers at the Department of Energy. As it stands we now have to wonder what exactly are their areas of expertise that they were able to find merit in the Solyndra deal. That's our best case scenario — administration officials, elected and appointed, are merely incompetent.
Realistically speaking we have thinly disguised corruption, White House honesty that's really only technical in nature. It's crony capitalism at its worst, with the Obama Department of Energy having become so politicized as to engage in electioneering for the 2010 mid-terms. In a bid to save Democratic congressional seats, the Obama Department of Energy all but dictated a delay in Solyndra's layoff announcements.
In late 2010, Solyndra board member Steve Mitchell told his associates that Energy Department officials had conceded that additional financing was necessary yet said in private meetings that they lacked the political muscle to deliver it. “The DOE really thinks politically before it thinks economically,” Mitchell concluded. A spokesman for Mitchell said he would have no comment for this article. An Energy Department spokesman said that all decisions regarding the loan were based on merit.
Solyndra eventually realized that it had to lay off workers to stay afloat — no small step for a company that the president had backed to create jobs in a recession. But records indicate that the Energy Department urged company officials to delay the move until after the contentious November 2010 midterm elections, which imperiled Democratic control of Congress.
Despite the effect that timing might have on workers, one e-mail among company investors ended the discussion by asserting: “No announcement till after elections at doe request.” An Energy Department spokesman did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
The norm with the Obama administration is taking care of their friends. George Kaiser, a political contributer who raised hundreds of thousands for the Obama campaign, is the connection between the Obama administration and Solyndra. Kaiser denies that he lobbied the administration on behalf of the failing company, and in the technical sense what he says is probably true.
...emails released by the committee clearly show that Kaiser and Levit did not support asking the White House to intervene or agree to lobby on behalf of Solyndra.
“I question the assumption that WH is the path to pursue when both of your issues are with DOE,” Kaiser states to Mitchell in an Oct. 6, 2010, email.
The same day, Levit wrote to Mitchell and Kaiser that Solyndra’s lobbyists, not Kaiser, should be the ones lobbying the White House.
“I’d rather consult with them for them to do this than have this come from us. ... George may feel differently but I think it’s real tricky,” Levit’s email states.
Kaiser clearly recognized the problems it could pose if he discussed Solyndra with White House officials.
Kaiser did no lobbying himself because It made so much more sense to have paid lobbyists lobby the White House. Real tricky. Also real tricky: George Kaiser could claim that he had none of his own money riding on Solyndra. He would not benefit personally from any federal loans to the company. But back in September Muniland reported that it was really the George Kaiser Family Foundation that had the stake in Solyndra, not Kaiser himself. As if that makes a difference.
Two of Solyndra’s largest investors are Argonaut Ventures I, L.L.C. and the GKFF Investment Company, LLC. Both firms are represented on the Solyndra board of directors by Steven R. Mitchell (see Solyndra S-1 page 119). Both are investment vehicles of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
George Kaiser was a bundler for President Barack Obama in 2008 election. The Daily Caller has done an excellent job of establishing that Mr. Kaiser visited the White House 16 of the 20 times that Solyndra investors or management visited there. From the Daily Caller (emphasis mine):
According to White House visitor logs, between March 12, 2009, and April 14, 2011, Solyndra officials and investors made no fewer than 20 trips to the West Wing. In the week before the administration awarded Solyndra with the first-ever alternative energy loan guarantee on March 20, four separate visits were logged.
George Kaiser, who has in the past been labeled a major Solyndra investor as well as a Obama donor, made three visits to the White House on March 12, 2009, and one on March 13. Kaiser has denied any direct involvement in the Solyndra deal and through a statement from his foundation said he “did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan.”
George Kaiser alleges that he didn’t discuss Solyndra with any White House officials but his investment vehicles were very hot for Solyndra. I went back into Solyndra’s IPO filing and totaled up the amount of funding Kaiser’s investment businesses gave Solyndra. Over 9 rounds of financing it invested approximately $337 million, or 48% of all equity raised for the business. Although Kaiser, through Argonaut and GKFF Investment Company, LLC, did not participate in the initial two private financing rounds, they dominated the following funding rounds and were the major venture capital investors in the firm.
By dumping this Solyndra story on Christmas Day, perhaps the Washington Post is hoping it will disappear down the memory hole. It doesn't seem likely. It must be hell to be a Washington Post editor these days, trying desperately to shape news that already has a shape of its own.
Nothing left to do but manage the timing. According to the URL this story was ready to go nearly two weeks ago: http://www.washingtonpost.com/solyndra-politics-infused-obama-energy-programs/2011/12/14/gIQA4HllHP_story_4.html. Delay til Christmas. Best they could do.
Though not impossible, it's going to be pretty tough for the professional journalists at the Washington Post to get their man elected. It's because we can see the promise of Barack Obama, and we know what we can expect from this most transparently corrupt of administrations for the next four years. Business as usual in the Obama administration means helping progressive political organizations with federal dollars. It means leveraging administration departments for partisan purposes. I have little doubt that congress has made it all perfectly legal as long rules are followed. Like George Kaiser making certain never to say the words "Solyndra" or "loan" while lobbying Obama. But it's really corruption. We've been watching it ramp up for three years and we've really had enough.
Solindra(and that OTHER one)? Canadian Pipeline? Fast and Furious? "Free" Health care? Unsupplanted Coal Power plant eradication? Nobel Prize? Two month tax break? All those crazy things Beck said about the desert folk, that are unexpectedly coming to fruition? Pfft.....you go girl.
Aloha.
Off Topic.
I'll confess to being asleep at the wheel for a bit during the holiday distraction.
What happened to DBD?
And, other than the fact that I still use dial-up,
why does it still take freakin' FOREVER (you know-a WHOLE MINUTE)
for the site to load, even WITHOUT DBD graphics?
Don't get me wrong, worth the wait for the content(as I generally use the lag time to scratch any itchy parts and refill my coffee), but ...inquiring minds want to know!
Posted by: CaptDMO | December 28, 2011 at 07:01 PM
Regarding DBD, I didn't feel LL was getting much benefit from it since the only comments I got on it were from people who weren't getting the jokes. I had to admit some of them are pretty obscure. So in the interest of faster page loads I ditched it. Sorry to hear it's not helping much. Eventually I'll get around to ditching much of my blogroll since that also provides LL with very little benefit.
Glad to hear that you find it worthwhile to wait the lag time. It will inspire me to a more consistent effort.
"...you go girl?" What girl?
Posted by: Tom Bowler | December 29, 2011 at 12:35 PM