Ecologia, Medio Ambiente y Energias Renovables en la Naturaleza

Headed by Rep. Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, the committee questioned Mr. Chu about the $535-million Solyndra loan guarantee, and whether or not the department took the necessary precautions to ensure that taxpayer money would go to a good investment, and that its approval process underwent due process.

"Our goal is to determine why D.O.E. and the administration tied themselves so closely to Solyndra, and why they were so desperate to repeatedly prop this company up. Why did D.O.E. make these bad decisions, and what can we do to prevent such a waste of taxpayer dollars in the future?" he said in a statement.

"But as our investigation has unfolded, many more questions have emerged about the loan guarantee to Solyndra, the subsequent restructuring and subordination of the taxpayer's money, and the extent of the White House's involvement," he added.

"This hearing shows that Secretary Chu failed to require appropriate oversight over the loan guarantee process, is unaware of the financial condition of the other loan guarantee recipients after two of the first three have filed for bankruptcy, did not seek legal input from the Department of Justice before subordinating taxpayers to two hedge funds, and is unable to identify who at D.O.E. asked Solyndra to withhold announcing impending layoffs until after the November 2, 2010 [mid-term] elections," Mr. Stearns said.

Mr. Stearns said the appointment of Herb Allison to review all of the loan guarantees and the call of President Barack Obama's campaign senior advisor Dan Carol to replace Mr. Chu is indicative that the White House is losing faith in the Energy Secretary.

"Chu has failed the test, and in my personal opinion I agree with Mr. Carol that he should be replaced by the President," Mr. Stearns added.

E-mail correspondence also showed that advisors for Argonaut, Solyndra's largest solar investor, discussed with D.O.E. impending loans layoffs at Solyndra, stating that the D.O.E. "did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov 3rd - oddly they didn't give a reason for that date".

"I was not part of that decision, and I certainly would not have been in favor of that decision," Mr. Chu said of the layoff delay of announcement instruction.

For his part, House committee on energy and commerce chairman Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, said: "At every opportunity, Solyndra and D.O.E. officials, including Secretary Chu, publicly assured the American people that Solyndra was on track and would eventually thrive, right up until the time that Solyndra declared bankruptcy."

"They continued telling this story even when they clearly should have known it was not the case," he added.

During the hearing when asked about the legality of Solyndra's loan restructuring - the one that would invariably reimburse the first $75 million of the loan guarantee in the event of liquidation to two Solyndra investors - Mr. Chu testified that outside counsel had known of D.O.E.'s move to restructure the loan guarantee.

However, members of the committee noted that the D.O.E. points only to an e-mail from outside counsel commenting on D.O.E.'s internal analysis as basis of that statement, whereas in fact the D.O.E. did not receive any formal written legal analysis supporting the loan restructuring from outside counsel or other federal agencies.

As it appears that Mr. Chu is in violation of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, wherein it was stated that subordination of the loan guarantee was prohibited, the House committee on energy and commerce called on the Department of Justice to investigate the matter.

In his testimony Mr. Chu refused on multiple occasions to apologize for the Solyndra fiasco - although he did go so far as say that the solar panel manufacturer's filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the loss of U.S. funds as "extremely unfortunate" and "regrettable".

"Fundamentally, this company and several others got caught in a bad tsunami," he said, adding: "I want to be clear: I did not make any decision based on political considerations. "The Solyndra transaction went through more than two years of rigorous technical, financial and legal due diligence, spanning two administrations, before a loan guarantee was issued."

"My decision to guarantee a loan to Solyndra was based on the analysis of professional -- experienced professionals and on the strength of the information they had available to them at the time."

Upon inquiry when it comes to pivotal decisions on the Solyndra loan guarantee such as why was the loan guarantee approved even though an August 2009 email of a D.O.E. staff said that Solyndra's financial model showed it was running out of cash, Mr. Chu could only offer "I'm aware of it now."

Earlier this month, the committee voted along partisan lines to subpoena the White House for internal communications about Solyndra. The White House then turned over about 135 pages of e-mail correspondence, but said that none of the pages could hold the Obama administration accountable for any wrongdoing in the Solyndra case.

Solyndra, the first ever recipient of the D.O.E.'s Loan Guarantee Program, first received stimulus funds last March 2009. After Energy department officials testified to the company's financial stability just May of this year, the Fremont, California-based solar startup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 6.

The Republican-led House of Representatives favor more drilling for oil and gas and are major critics of Mr. Obama's bids to prioritize financing for clean energy companies as a way to jump-start the sagging economy.

It started investigating the first of D.O.E.'s Loan Guarantee Program recipients, Solyndra, in February. The nine-month investigation has amassed more than 250,000 pages of documents.

The White House announced its own independent review of the D.O.E.'s $35.9-billion loan portfolio two days before another recipient of the department's loan guarantee, energy storage company Beacon Power Corp., filed for bankruptcy in late October.

Other U.S. solar companies that have filed for bankruptcy this year are Evergreen Solar and SpectraWatt.

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