Solyndra Debacle: Fire Top DOE Loan Official, Cliff Stearns Declares (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chair of the House subcommittee that's leading the probe into the federal government's loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc., has called for the Energy Department’s top loan official to be fired.

The remarks come just a day after Jonathan Silver, executive director of DOE’s loan programs office, testified before the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations regarding the approval of a federal loan guarantee to the California-based solar company for more than half a billion dollars.

"Mr. Silver is of course the top loan officer in the Department of Energy, and I think he should be fired," Stearns said in a Thursday interview with the Fox Business Network.

At the Wednesday hearing, Silver said he wasn't under pressure from the Obama administration to approve Solyndra's financing, insisting approval of Solyndra's federal loan guarantee was based entirely on merit.

Solyndra, which laid off 1,100 workers and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August after receiving a $535 million federal loan guarantee from the U.S. government in Sept. 2009, has become a central talking point for House Republicans attacking the president's clean energy policies, with many seeking to place blame for the approval of a loan guarantee to Solyndra -- just two years before it filing for bankruptcy -- squarely on the shoulders of the Obama administration.

"The problem is with these scandals no one gets fired and they’re all covered up," said Stearns, who heads the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "I don’t want to see that happen. I think the taxpayers losing half a billion dollars is significant."

Stearns assertion that Silver should be fired comes after days of reiterating that somebody in the administration needs to take responsibility for the Solyndra debacle.

"In the end someone should be fired because of this," Stearns said in a Tuesday interview with the Fox Business Network. "Half a billion dollars is an enormous amount of money. Eleven hundred people got laid off, and there’s criminality here. Someone has to step up and be fired."

The extent to which Silver or the Obama administration can be blamed for the Solyndra debacle is questionable. As Silver noted in his testimony, the Energy Department during the Bush administration rejected more than 100 other applications while inviting Solyndra and 15 other companies to continue their applications, and the Obama administration ultimately approved the Solyndra loan guarantee on “the exact schedule that had been developed during the Bush administration.”

Comments

[chlai88]

12:18 AM on 10/01/2011

Half a billion bucks is a lot of money sure. But what about the trillions lost in 2 failed wars, billions of wasteful contracts given to crony war contractors like Halliburton, thousands of lives lost? Never heard anyone got fired then.

[vh47]

02:26 PM on 09/19/2011

This is laughable,Billions of dollars were lost and accounted for in Iraq and Afghanistan and
the right is trying make an issue of Solyndra.Solyndra was given a federal loan which has to be paid back.
The politics of the right are idiotic as heck,they are having hearings to find out who should be fired over 500 million dollars invested in a company thats filing chapter 11 bankruptcy,but no hearing to find out who stole billions of dollars in the two wars.How about getting to bottom of that and when you find them dont fire them send their butts to jail where they belong

[Bystander]

02:26 PM on 09/19/2011

Much more investigation of this Solyndra scandal is required, particularly regarding political influence at top levels of the BO administration. Additionally, more visibility (and adult supervisions) is required to prevent further squandering of taxpayer money on other green boondogles, through gross incompetence, politial hackery or both.

[Ginzu Mawa]

12:35 PM on 09/19/2011

if they fire the guy, it should be part of a house cleaning and policy push to dis-entangle lobbying and insider take overs of exec branch offices.

it should also be the start of a new R&D tech push for high risk high reward techs with promise. thats the real issue behind solyndra. it was a tech investment not a jobs investment. we really really need a tech investment policy. US capitalists bet on short term fluctuations in markets instead of investment in high risk high reward areas that drive growth.

[Lindytindy]

11:18 AM on 09/19/2011

Don't stop there. How about impeaching Obama.

[JasonTromm]

10:17 AM on 09/19/2011

Obama should take this advice: Firings at the DOE are the only way for him to avoid having the Solyndra story hung around his neck by the Republicans.

[Ginzu Mawa]

12:36 PM on 09/19/2011

its a fake issue. reacting to fake issues legitsimizes fantasy.

[JasonTromm]

01:03 PM on 09/19/2011

So tying Republicans to the Enron scandal was a fantasy too?

[nothingchanges]

06:04 AM on 09/19/2011

""The problem is with these scandals no one gets fired and they’re all covered up," said Stearns, who heads the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "I don’t want to see that happen. I think the taxpayers losing half a billion dollars is significant."

NO MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW.

At least that's the way it should be..................................

Torture has been illegal in the United States since it's inception, at least up until about 2004

Shouldn't those responsible for this stain on our National honor, be held accountable as well?

I guess the answer depends, on what party you represent?

Not good law, not good governance, and can in no way be justified by an ethical society.

[VFNY]

07:27 AM on 09/19/2011

Can you EVER move on? Breaking news.... Bush is no longer President, physically he's been gone for nearly 3 years, realistically, he's been out of office even longer than that (since Congress changed hands in 2006). Yes, you are correct, people should have been held accountable for torture (actually, they were held accountable in the voting booth), BUT, many of the people that complained about torture have been completely silent on Obama's execution order on Qaddafi. Torture is bad but execution is okay?? Please explain....

Let's just face it, Bush gave crony companies like Halliburton sweet deals with taxpayer money, and Obama has done the same, maybe worse, with Solyndra (at least Halliburton delivered a service for the money). And how about Obama's Executive Order 13502 - does bribery get any worse than that?

Bush was in bed with his benefactors and he spent like a drunken sailor.. I didn't think it could ever be possible, but Obama makes Bush look like a saint and a miser.

They both use the federal kitty as their own cash stash to buy votes and reap rewards on people in their "friends and Family" plan.. Those who deny it on one side but attack on the other are the true hypocrites. It's time to move beyond this silly party affiliation, as both of these parties are inherently corrupted. Open your eyes... There is NOTHING worse than being a hypocrite.

[brt929]

03:49 PM on 09/19/2011

At least Haliburton provided a service?  Really?

Your post is ludicrous.  

Do you know how many crimes were committed to provide those "services?"  How many service people were killed due to Haliburton's "services?"  

This is just the tip of the iceberg:

http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=275

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/halliburton-and-the-upcom_b_775762.html

Solyndra may not have succeeded (yet), but at least there was no criminal behavior, and no one was killed.

At least Halliburton provided a service?  You really have gall.  

BTW, Obama has not ordered Gadaffi's execution, spare us from your right-winged propaganda.  He ordered him to step-down, but he has never publicly ordered his execution.  

If you meant bin-Laden, that wasn't an execution order either.  They were ordered to bring him in dead or alive.

[gary357]

12:30 AM on 09/19/2011

I will promise you this: Obama will have this swept under the back door rug before next week!

[Bonnie Larkin]

11:59 PM on 09/18/2011

Does obama blame President Bush for the sun coming up everyday ?

[Mister Serene]

12:32 PM on 09/19/2011

In poll after poll, most Americans recognize the President has been saddled with an economic nightmare created under the Bush administration. By the same token, most Americans recognize that the rich have to go back to paying their fair share if we are going to crawl out of our economic crisis. So your talking point is basically falling on deaf ears which it should.

[RockyMissouri]

10:04 PM on 09/18/2011

Fox attempts to maneuver and manipulate and control our country... for what....?

[Dale Birmingham]

08:39 PM on 09/18/2011

You don't have to worry about firing any one from Obama's administration. They leave when it gets hot in there anyway.

[NHGranite]

08:39 PM on 09/18/2011

If they are squealing, Obama must be doing something right. Bunch of do-nothings, Obama asked them to act to help America and not their party and he's right. Thus the polls where Congress just dropped again.

[RockyMissouri]

10:36 PM on 09/18/2011

I think he must be doing something right as well...!

[Jeffrey Williams]

08:24 PM on 09/18/2011

Our ENTIRE GOVERNMENT is failing this country, the people are very divided and our leaders continue to fail us ... Obama is just the one in the Hot Seat and he is good at dodging responsibility ~ This is just the tip of the iceberg !

[msbeal]

06:02 PM on 09/18/2011

This coming from a Party that squandered 100 billion dollars on a missile defense system that couldn't hit a Cessna 150 if it were glued to the Empire State Building.

[goleafsgo]

09:13 PM on 09/18/2011

Back in March of 2011, Reps. Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns were pushing the DOE to get the money spent quicker.  They complained the funding was too slow!   Now these hypocritical jokers are "claiming the Administration was pushing funds out the door too quickly."   

As well, the critics fail to mention that this deal was more than 3 years old.  It started under Bush in 2007.  And, he tried to get it pushed through before Obama was inaugurated in 2008.    "In fact, rather than rushing the loan...the Obama Administration restructured the original Bush-era deal to further protect the taxpayers investment

For a time line  and much more information on this Teapublican attempt to create a scandal where non exists see the following links;

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/09/how-to-talk-about-solyndra

http:thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/13/317594/timeline-bush-administration-solyndra-loan-guarantee

[RockyMissouri]

10:40 PM on 09/18/2011

Thank you....

[demsrsilly]

05:11 AM on 09/19/2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-history-of-solyndra/2011/09/13/gIQA1r5qQK_story.html

March 2009: Energy Secretary Steven Chu announces $535 million conditional loan guarantee to Solyndra, the first for Obama administration.
● Late August 2009: White House asks Office of Management and Budget whether it can “speed along” final approval of the Solyndra loan for a scheduled press event with Vice President Biden.
● Sept. 1, 2009: OMB gives final approval.
● Sept. 4, 2009: Biden and Chu announce final approval at Solyndra groundbreaking.

[bones4209]

03:29 PM on 09/18/2011

For this amount of money, "somebody needs to step up and be fired!" Crash the economy, destroy millions of jobs, and hold the country hostage for trillions in loans and bailouts, you keep your job and reward yourselves with obscene bonuses. Yep that's the ticket!!