Solyndra “scapegoat”?

Jonathan Silver, the Department of Energy official who supervised the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, announced he will be leaving the Department of Energy.  According to the DOE, Mr. Silver decided in July, (before the public knew the Solyndra deal “blew up”, but after the DOE knew that it would) that he would be leaving at the end of the fiscal year.

In all fairness to Mr. Silver, the original loan guarantee to Solyndra was made two months before Mr. Silver took over the position of “green energy loan czar”. However, he was in charge of the loan’s restructuring earlier this year that put the Solyndra investors before the federal government in the event of a bankruptcy…a clear violation of federal law.

Funding for these loans (part of the Stimulus bill) expired on September 30, 2011, and Mr. Silver remained with DOE, perhaps to insure that every penny of the stimulus funds, all of which simply contributed to our deficit, was spent.  After the Solyndra scandal broke in August, under Mr. Silver’s leadership, the DOE shoveled out another $7.9 billion in loan guarantees, $4.7 billion of which happened in the last week of September.

All told, this program issued $35 billion in loan guarantees in less than two years…easy, if it’s not your money.

In researching this post, I came across an article from CNBC, and I would be remiss if it did not share this quote from a news article:

Until the fossil fuel industry has to pay for the carbon it emits, renewables such as solar and wind are unlikely to attain the scale needed to compete with cheaper coal, oil and natural gas, and will depend on government support.

Back in the day when I was News Editor of my college newspaper, I would have told the reporter who wrote that sentence that it belonged on the op ed page, not the front page.  Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that “opinion” is increasingly found in front page articles?

 

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

6 Comments

  1. winnie on October 8, 2011 at 5:00 am

    Oh, SOS, the opinion as front page headline really became big during the Clinton years.? That’s when I used to have newspaper delivery (like the Couran).? Just for fun, I’d read all the headlines and determine just how many of them were actual news headlines and how many were opinion and not based on anything factual.? Majority belonged on the op-ed page.? Journalists should be ashamed of themselves…but, hey, it’s “hard” to report negative, factual stuff on your guy, so just spin it the other way and turn him into a victim of the right.?



    • mickey1943 on October 11, 2011 at 3:18 pm

      The Hartford Courant started posting opinion columns as news columns years ago.? Headline, Bush Said such and such about Obama.? Inside you find Bush never mentioned Obama by name.? Hinted, intimated, suggested etc acceptable but Said!? Another article has every named Democrat in bold but all others in plain text.? I have close to 100 examples and canceled subscription over 2 years ago.? The Waterbury Rep-Am seems fairly unbiased but articles/opinion from sister papers grossly liberal. ? Mike



  2. JBS on October 8, 2011 at 8:06 am

    When a media shill is a mouthpiece for the regime, nothing is beneath him or her. Shame has nothing to do with it, only getting the regime’s message out and trumpeting the glory of the DNC’s shaky Zero. As such, a media “reporter” has to make everything done by the regime sound plausible and good no matter how dishonest and vacuous it seems, all the time disregarding any facts to the contrary. It is, after all, about telling a story.
    From Solyndra to Fast and Furious, how will the regime spin that one to make the Zero sound like the champion of all that is right in lefty world? No doubt they will try.



  3. Lynn on October 8, 2011 at 8:27 am

    SOS, it is Not just you!



  4. free431 on October 8, 2011 at 11:33 am

    The common theme in these recent scandals is cronyism and corruption running rampant in all branches of our government.? This is just another example.
    Consider what just happened in a federal court in Texas.? A Dallas business owner was involved in a civil dispute and paid millions of dollars to lawyers, and when he objected to their fees, they had a ?friendly? judge seize all of his property, without any notice or hearing, and essentially ordered him to be an involuntary servant to the lawyers. The business owner has been under this “servant” order for 10 months and is prohibited from owning any possessions,? prohibited from working, etc…
    http://lawinjustice.com has details about this disturbing case.



  5. ricbee on October 8, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    I want to know how much the top guys got & what they did with it. And where they frittered this fortune away.



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