The Solyndra Scandal

It’s been several months since news of the Solyndra scandal first broke out.  Yet there are still many unanswered questions regarding it.  Like many of my peers, I find some way to keep up with the news and current events.  My methods of doing so constantly differ; one day I might watch the morning or evening news, one day I might read one or several newspapers, or some days I rely on Twitter to keep me up to date.  Though I’ve heard much about all the controversy regarding the Solyndra scandal, all I really took away from it was that it’s become yet another political piece of meat for politicians to fight over.

When I first began researching the issue for the purpose of this blog, I found myself pouring over news articles.  It was amazing to see how the issue changed in print depending on whether the journalist leaned toward the left or right in politics.  Political issues aside, the most basic fact about the entire ordeal is that the California based solar panel maker (Solyndra) managed to go bankrupt after getting $535 million dollars in loan guarantees from Obama’s administration.  Many critics ask if the Energy Department failed to truly examine the company before allowing the loan.  Many others wonder if the Obama administration was out of line in putting pressure on the loan guarantee for the struggling company.  But the major issue that both sides of government can agree on is that the energy policy needs an examination.  Sadly, there are some Right Wingers such as Cliff Stearns, a Republican Representative from Florida who argued that this downfall “proves that green energy isn’t going to be a solution”.  One can only hope that the rest of the world doesn’t choose to simply jump to conclusions as he did.  But to give him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he was simply lacking on background of this issue.  In case he or others like him ever venture to read this student blog, I’ll briefly explain a bit.

When President Obama first authorized the loan in 2009, it was the hope that the corporation would create approximately 4,000 new jobs in the United States.  Sadly, this past September the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off almost 100% of its employees, forcing the government to pay back the loan it guaranteed two years earlier.   Though many argue that Obama’s administration inappropriately pushed to get the guarantee approved, some quickly point out that the process of the loan began a few years earlier, when President George W. Bush was in office.

In 2011, The New York Times stated that the Obama administration should be held accountable for failing to properly evaluate Solyndra’s business proposals.  The paper also reported that Frank Rusco who worked in the Government Accountability Office listed findings that demonstrated the fact that the approval for the loan came before any officials had finished the legal evaluations of the company. The Washington Post stated that the Obama administration also allowed Solyndra to continue receiving money from taxpayers after it had fallen to its loan. To make matters worse for the Obama administration, it was leaked to the press that the company had spent much of their revenue on lobbying for Obama, and several top executives and shareholders of Solyndra had made financial contributions to the Obama administration. The photo below was taken during an interview with President Obama regarding the Solyndra scandal… he looks less than pleased…

Now, you might be asking yourself, what does this have to do with energy, efficiency or going green? Well the answer would be… absolutely nothing! Sadly the entire scandal falls into dirty politicians, it has nothing to do with whether or not going green is good solution to our troubled environment.  Solyndra builds alternatives to silicon-based solar panels, and may in fact be a great solution in helping our world go green, but that never seems to make it into the news.  Instead, the “scandal” is yet again, political.  It’s long past time for the government to quit debating, and be honest.  Global warming is a huge (and scary!) issue for our society today, and if government spent half the time they waste debating on working toward solutions we might finally start to make a difference.  With how big of a crisis our environment is in, clean energy subsidies are  necessary to start fixing our world.  Perhaps in a perfect world we could work without them, but unfortunately, life isn’t perfect, and to get things done often requires the financial and supportive backing of the government.

Below is a link to an video regarding this scandal. Do you think the Obama administration is guilty of “dirty politics” in this scandal?

Solyndra Scandal

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra_loan_controversy

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-18/news/ct-met-kass-0918-20110918_1_solyndra-loan-guarantee-obama-fundraisers-obama-white-house

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/09/solyndra-scandal-exposes-lie-government-investment/118393

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576558763644374614.html