Obama's Interior Department stalls clean energy query

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

President Obama, confronted yet again by House and Senate investigators probing the cronyism in his green energy programs, did what he often does.

He simply ignored Congress.

 

“Last November, a request was made of the Department of the Interior for information and answers about its role in the Department of Energy’s green energy loan guarantee program, as well as favorable loans and federal land-use deals provided to certain corporations,” wrote Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in a letter to Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week. “It is suggestive and troubling that more than half a year has passed without DOI providing the requested documents and information.”

 

The lawmakers fear that several politically connected green energy companies received special treatment from the Interior and Energy departments due to their relationship with Obama. They focused their inquiry on six companies in particular: Abengoa Solar, BrightSource Energy, First Solar, Nevada Geothermal Power, NextEra Energy Resources and SolarReserve.

 

Issa and Sessions suspect that Salazar initiated a “fast-tracking” process that allowed some companies to receive regulatory and environmental approval and permission to use government lands for clean energy projects without adequate vetting. Whereas the review process for establishing an oil or gas lease on federal land can take more than a decade, some of these favored projects were pushed through in less than a year.

 

The lawmakers asked Salazar months ago about SolarReserve – which received a $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy last year. SolarReserve is connected to the same Obama campaign bundler, George Kaiser, who invested heavily in Solyndra.

 

First Solar -– a company that is also using government subsidies to buy products from itself over international borders, as the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney reported -– might soon follow Solyndra into bankruptcy. So might Nevada Geothermal, despite a $98.5 million federal loan guarantee.

 

Congressional investigators have uncovered some direct White House involvement in the loan process, particularly with respect to BrightSource. John Bryson, who now serves as Obama’s Commerce Secretary, once served on the board of BrightSource. He also co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). which Republican committee staffers assert has secretly helped negotiate funding agreements between green energy companies and the federal government.

[Valin]

House GOP: Solyndra probe is like 'pulling teeth'

LEX GUILLEN | 6/3/12 10:39 PM EDT

 

Mitt Romney has been hammering away at Solyndra recently, releasing videos about the company, taking shots at fundraisers and holding a news conference outside the failed solar manufacturer’s former California headquarters on Thursday.

 

But House Republicans say they’re not done with their probe of Solyndra’s $535 million Department of Energy loan guarantee — and they’re not ready to let it become solely a campaign issue.

 

“We are still pulling teeth,” House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in the Capitol on Thursday, pointing to documents the committee is still seeking from the administration. “We don’t have an answer yet.”

 

(Snip)

 

H/T Hot Air

 

To paraphrase an old Watergate quote

What did they know...and when did they know it?

[Pepper]

@Geee

 

"Obama simply ignored Congress."

 

Remember, what is good for him is not good for us. Only he reigns supreme. Only he can be better than Chauncey Gardiner.

[SrWoodchuck]

To use their own jargon: Let's take the first 5 corrupt administration insiders, or their industry clown crony compatriots.....and crucify 'em.

 

Please make sure one of them is Salazar.......he's a huge embarrassment for Colorado....and definitely twisted.