Mike Simpson To Republican Colleagues: Stop 'Pointing Fingers' On Solyndra

WASHINGTON -- Following months of investigations into Solyndra and other Department of Energy loans, one Republican lawmaker says his colleagues might be too caught up in trying to find a political smoking gun.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) was asked by Environment & Energy Daily's John McArdle if this were the case at a Wednesday appropriations subcommittee meeting about the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office's 2013 budget request. Simpson replied to McArdle, "Maybe," adding that he was reluctant to discuss the Solyndra issue at the hearing.

Solar technology firm Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee issued by the Department of Energy and was lauded by the Obama administration, abruptly declared bankruptcy last August, resulting in considerable controversy.

When The Huffington Post asked Simpson to elaborate on his comments, he responded by email, “I was trying to make a very simple point that while we look at the role politics might play in the Administration’s decision-making, perhaps we should also be looking at the role it plays in our own decision-making.”

“If we are going to have these loan programs, then I want politics removed from the decision-making process so we don’t end up with more Solyndras in the future," he added. "And if we are going to remove politics from the process, it is incumbent upon Members of Congress to reflect on their own actions as much as they reflect on the actions of others, including the Administration. I’m less interested in pointing fingers and more interested in protecting taxpayers from having this happen to them again in the future.”

Simpson also admitted during Wednesday's appropriations hearing amid questioning by David Frantz, acting executive director of the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, that he had routinely queried Frantz's predecessor about a $2 billion loan guarantee for AREVA for a "clean-energy" nuclear project in Idaho Falls. AREVA received a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee from the Department to Energy in May 2010.

Since the Department of Energy has to answer to Congress for its funding, the GOP lawmaker said he could understand how some people might see his repeated meetings with Energy Department representatives about the AREVA project as applying political pressure.

"Did I put undue influence on the administration?" Simpson asked at the hearing. "Maybe."

At the meeting, Frantz, however, assured Simpson the project had been approved on its merits.

Yet Simpson isn't the only GOP lawmaker who has sought special consideration from the department for his favored energy projects.

At least 10 Republicans on the the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, which spearheaded the Solyndra investigation, have signed letters aimed at landing green energy jobs in their districts, according to HuffPost's Mike McAuliff. The committee's Darrell Issa has written to Energy Secretary Steven Chu seeking help for clean-energy projects in his home state of California. And Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), an outspoken critic of the department’s loan guarantee program, has lobbied that very program about energy projects in his home state.

Simpson appears to suggest those lawmakers should examine their actions but he isn't apologizing for his own. “I am very comfortable with my support of the AREVA project because it is important to my district and my constituents,” Simpson told HuffPost in a statement.

“The point I was trying to make is that any act of support for a project can be perceived to be political and that’s why it is important that while we are examining the actions of others, we also examine our own actions," he added. "In the end, we should be more worried about how our actions impact the folks who pay the bills, the taxpayers, than we are about exploiting any situation for political gain.”

Comments

[Blizzardo]

12:19 PM on 03/31/2012

There was nothing controversial here for people that understand the big picture and many of the people pushing this investigation know better.

We invested in something thats becoming a leading technology.
China saw this and outspent us 12 to 1.
We used to take that as a challenge and America is a world power today because we usually step up to these challenges.
But we're pretending this was a rogue effort instead and declaring sour grapes about the technology as we step aside and let China dominate.

[Superglickster1]

01:06 PM on 03/31/2012

You're right, 12 x $500,000,000 equals $6 billion to Obamas buddies. We should have invested a bunch more.

[Blizzardo]

01:22 PM on 03/31/2012

China actually spent much more than 6 billion

Has that not paid off in spades for their economy?
That a partisan endeavor these days?

[Blizzardo]

01:28 PM on 03/31/2012

...but your math was correct based on my first statement, mine was wrong,

I meant to say they spent 60x as much and now they are producing 1/2 of the worlds solar panels
thats allot of jobs and revenue for China that justifies the investment

[PlayTOE]

11:28 AM on 03/31/2012

What the H ... a Republican who actually makes sense? Very rare.

[Biminicat]

10:22 AM on 03/31/2012

Finally! A guy that does not hypocritically condemn the other party for committing the same offense. Wow how refreshing!

[manelady]

10:26 AM on 03/31/2012

Don't get too comfortable with him. By now, the "powers that be" have him locked in a windowless room and pelting him with ideology.

[Bogstomper2]

10:34 AM on 03/30/2012

"And if we are going to remove politics from the process, it is incumbent upon Members of Congress to reflect on their own actions as much as they reflect on the actions of others, including the Administration."

Talk is cheap.

[davegstein]

08:39 AM on 03/30/2012

Am I understanding this correctly,the same folks leading this witch hunt,including Issa,are quietly begging for clean energy loan guarantees and pet projects back in their own districts?
Normally,I would feign surprise,but I am reminded that the term"hypocrisy" has been excised from the Republican dictionary....

[Jim NLN]

08:29 AM on 03/30/2012

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, someone's in the kitchen I know.....

I think the repugs are trying to close this investigation before it comes around and bites them in the.........ooooooooooh, Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, someone's in the kitchen I know.....

[Opygollopy]

07:30 AM on 03/30/2012

He has no interest in the cost to taxpayers, he is just trying to cover his own butt in case it explodes in his face like Solyndra. China had a whole lot to do with it failing, they dumped all those cheap parts on the market and there went the company. Better management would have helpful but chit happens.

[hawnislesolar]

06:23 AM on 03/30/2012

Solyndra could not have anticipated the dumping of cheap solar modules from China, they were fine up until that point, the Repubs are just trying to grab at any straw they can as a good politician should,, to scratch out an argument,,, and it's up to us to see through the b**lsh*t

[azdirk]

10:41 AM on 03/30/2012

Could it be our trade policies are causing us pain? Such a thought!

[Biminicat]

10:18 AM on 03/31/2012

Naaaw ya think!?

[brucekeller]

05:54 AM on 03/30/2012

Wow, a politician that makes good sense....throw a blanket over him so he doesn't catch a cold...

[BigBearcatBill]

01:20 AM on 03/30/2012

Republican leaders have flip flopped against their own prior policies so many times this guy must really be warning his buddies to quit pointing fingers because if half of them get one spin out of synch they all will be pointing at each other half on one side and half on the other all at once.

[oldwolf49]

01:16 AM on 03/30/2012

He don't sound like a republican, what is he hiding............?

[WowJones]

12:58 AM on 03/30/2012

The Government Didn't Lose

Even though Solyndra went into bankruptcy the government didn't "lose." The purpose of the government's involvement was to help trigger the development of green-energy manufacturing in the United States, not to help individual companies. This was not a direct investment in a company with the expectation of a profit for the government. In the bigger picture of promoting American leadership in the emerging green-energy industry the government's loan guarantee was a success. Even though Solyndra's investors lost out our country retains the trained skilled employees, the intellectual property, the innovators funded, the suppliers, and the factory. As components of a national effort to trigger a key strategic industry, those are all still there and in the US.

It isn't the government's job to make sure the investors make money, the government's job is to work to keep all of these components of an industry here and to grow new ones here, and this is what has been accomplished. When a VC makes an investment, a company failing just goes on the books as a loss. But our government has succeeded even if Solyndra's investors lost money because the country as a whole benefits. All these employees are trained, all the researchers can take what they know to other solar companies.

[urnmyopinion]

04:53 AM on 03/30/2012

So you are saying that as long as it is a green-energy project there is no price to big for the tax payers to put out.Solyndra's investors lost money but all the CEO of the company made millions. As far as the researchers taking what they know to other solar companies, is as dumb as you can get. Other companies wants winners not losers.

[mapmaker]

05:55 AM on 03/30/2012

yes and i'd like to point out that the federal government has placed a tariff on chinese-made solar panels, because they're being dumped on the world market at below cost, a move by the chinese to destroy the competition and control the market.

if the playing field were level, maybe solyndra would be cruising along.

[marinemomof3]

09:41 AM on 03/30/2012

That is how the Japanese started with their televisions and then auto's !

[lildg5400]

10:47 AM on 03/30/2012

China and the chinese suck and will never play fair

[speechteach]

12:49 AM on 03/30/2012

Can you say hypocrite?

[jcd8822]

12:38 AM on 03/30/2012

Why should they stop, they do it so well?

[Barry Larkin]

12:35 AM on 03/30/2012

Wow, statements like this by Republicans like Mike Simpson (and others in recent weeks), actually give me some hope that there are still moderate voices in the GOP. They make me wonder if some in the GOP have realized that their extreme right turn in recent years is destroying their party and the nation? I hope this is a genuine move towards compromise and away from obstructionism.

However I am not going to hold my breath, it may just be some individuals veering to the center to get re-elected. We will see!

[Rachel Slur]

01:12 AM on 03/30/2012

it's because the CEO turned out to be a republican, the 2nd largest investor is a republican campaign fund and paperwork shows bush passed the loan through and his S&L disaster brother was a paid consultant to the chinese energy industry that artificially dropped prices to put solyndra out of business.

[Barry Larkin]

01:33 AM on 03/30/2012

I know, I was just trying to have a little hope. You had to go and burst my bubble (smile).

[lakegal]

03:36 AM on 03/30/2012

It is tough not to be cynical, but I too am making the effort. We can only hope that saner heads will prevail.