The Solyndra story just keeps unfolding. Even as Secretary Chu tells NPR that “no decision we made in the loan program had anything to do with who is investing in this company,” today’s papers report that the Energy Department pressured Solyndra not to announce impending layoffs until the day after the crucial 2010 election. From the Washington Post:
The Obama administration, which gave the solar company Solyndra a half‐billion‐dollar loan to help create jobs, asked the company to delay announcing it would lay off workers until after the hotly contested November 2010 midterm elections that imperiled Democratic control of Congress, newly released e‑mails show.…
A Solyndra investment adviser wrote in an Oct. 30, 2010, e‑mail — without explaining the reason — that Energy Department officials were pushing “very hard” to delay making the layoffs public until the day after the elections.
The announcement ultimately was made on Nov. 3, 2010 — immediately following the Nov. 2 vote.
More than a month ago, I listed some of the earlier shoes in the unfolding story. But as a friend of mine asks about the Penn State scandal, is this the “other shoe,” or is this story a centipede with lots more shoes to come?
Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren ignored the politics and looked at the economics of Solyndra and energy subsidies in Forbes.
