The Center for Public Integrity

The White House budget office has agreed to turn over reams of records to a House committee investigating the first energy loan guarantee awarded by the Obama administration, a significant turn in an inquiry that had been bogged down by a no-show witness and subpoena for records.

That breakthrough means the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s investigation can now explore some fundamental questions: Whether political connections factored into the $535 million loan guarantee, and whether the government fully vetted the deal before issuing the prized financial backing.

The guarantee benefited a California solar panel maker, Solyndra Inc., whose prime financial backers include a bundler for the president, Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser. Yet not long after securing the $535 million loan guarantee from Obama’s Department of Energy in 2009, Solyndra hit financial hurdles, laying off workers and canceling a planned public offering.

When the House Committee on Energy and Commerce launched its investigation this year, it turned to the Office of Management and Budget for answers. OMB had vetted the loan guarantee’s financial risk shortly before DOE closed the deal in September 2009. Such vetting is required before the government puts taxpayer dollars on the line.

But for months, OMB resisted turning over all the records sought, saying it did not want to reveal internal analyses normally exempt from public scrutiny. The budget office said it made many records available for review, but the Committee said it failed to turn over key records – such as internal deliberations as it assessed the risk of the Solyndra loan guarantee. The Committee then called a hearing for OMB to testify, but the official, citing a scheduling conflict, didn’t show.

The White House budget office raised flags about the first energy loan guarantee awarded under the Obama administration, adding another layer of questions to the taxpayer backed financing now at the center of a House investigation.

In 2009, as the Department of Energy pushed to close the $535 million loan guarantee to California solar panel maker Solyndra Inc., the Office of Management and Budget concluded the financing was a greater risk to taxpayers than did DOE, iWatch News has learned. That higher risk rating, in turn, forced the government to set aside more money in case the company defaults on payments.

The Department of Energy pressed ahead, formally approving the deal in September 2009 while portraying the Solyndra loan guarantee as a symbol of President Obama’s quest to spread green energy projects with government backing.

Today, the Solyndra financing has evolved into something of a litmus test of how well the Energy Department has doled out billions of taxpayer dollars for clean energy initiatives. The loan guarantee is the subject of an ongoing House investigation, the center of a subpoena scuffle between House Republicans and the OMB and drawn questions from independent government auditors.

Yet even as the budget office has fought release of some of the records sought by Congress, its review at the dawn of the deal reveals questions about a guarantee that drew controversy as Solyndra hit financial hurdles after securing the prized government backing.

OMB scrutinized the loan guarantee’s financial strength shortly before DOE closed the agreement and, in the end, affixed a lower credit subsidy rating than the Energy Department had proposed.

The Obama administration’s budget office dodged a deadline Friday to hand over subpoenaed documents sought as part of a congressional investigation into a politically-connected solar panel manufacturer.

The Office of Management and Budget didn’t send over the requested documents—internal emails, memos and letters from OMB and anything in their possession from other offices—demanded in the subpoena from a House energy subcommittee on July 14. But OMB promised to make a “substantial” number of internal documents and emails available for committee staff to review, said OMB spokesman Kenneth Baer.

The House panel is looking into whether Solyndra, a California-based solar panel maker, improperly gained a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have sought answers about the decision to award the guarantee, especially given the turn of events after Solyndra won the public support. Financial difficulties forced the company to shutter a plant, lay off workers and cancel a planned initial public offering.

iWatch News reported in May that Obama administration officials bypassed measures meant to protect taxpayers in awarding the large loan guarantee to Solyndra.

Escalating its exploration of a loan guarantee benefiting a politically connected solar panel maker, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce subpoenaed the Office of Management and Budget Thursday for records revealing how it vetted the first energy loan guarantee under the Obama administration.

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, in a 14-8 vote on party lines, ordered the subpoena after a majority of lawmakers accused OMB of stonewalling an investigation into a loan guarantee that was announced with fanfare but has since drawn questions from government auditors and analysts. The committee seeks memos to or from the White House involving the loan guarantee.

The $535 million loan guarantee, awarded in 2009 to California-based Solyndra Inc., has become a flashpoint amid larger scrutiny over how well, and how fairly, the Department of Energy has doled out taxpayer dollars to bankroll green energy projects.

In all, DOE has announced 20 conditional commitments and completed 11 loan guarantees, infusing projects across the country with $11 billion in taxpayer backing. Several Energy Department guarantees, loans and grants have bankrolled companies whose financial backers include major supporters of the president, iWatch News and ABC News reported earlier this year.

Solyndra’s prime financiers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a “bundler” of campaign donations who raised at least $50,000 for the president’s 2008 election effort and has often visited the White House. Kaiser has declined interview requests about the Solyndra loan guarantee. The company said politics played no role in its award, and Energy Department officials said each loan guarantee was awarded after careful review.

A congressional subcommittee investigating a $535 million loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar panel maker sought answers Friday from the Office of Management and Budget—but the sole witness didn’t show up.

The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations has pressed for internal documents from OMB that could shed light on the loan guarantee for Solyndra Inc. The guarantee, the first issued by the Obama administration, was announced with fanfare in March 2009. Yet questions surfaced as the California firm laid off workers and cancelled a planned initial public offering after it had secured the government’s backing.

Solyndra’s prime financial backers include Obama bundler George Kaiser, an Oklahoma oil billionaire. iWatch News and ABC reported in May the Obama administration bypassed steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve the energy loan guarantee.

Stearns says OMB has refused to turn over internal emails written as the government weighed whether to grant the financial support to a company then just four years old. Jeffrey Zients, OMB’s deputy director, was asked to testify at Friday’s hearing.

Zients wrote to the committee that his schedule precluded his appearance, and Democrats contended the hearing was little more than political theater.

OMB’s absence could signal increased tensions between the Obama administration and the Republican House, which is aggressively investigating the stimulus-funded loan guarantee to Solyndra.

Subcommittee Chair Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said that if the budget office refuses to comply in the coming weeks, he might seek a subpoena to force disclosure.

A politically-connected California producer of solar panels is again benefitting from a fast-tracked U.S. government-backed loan guarantee despite an ongoing congressional investigation and concerns about the company’s finances, iWatch News has learned.

Solyndra, based in Fremont, Calif., and backed by Obama bundler George Kaiser, is a company heralded as a prime example of the Obama administration’s efforts to create so-called “green” energy and manufacturing jobs. The solar panel manufacturer received a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009 from the Energy Department—and then, a year later, closed a plant, laid off workers and had to renegotiate terms of the loan, calling into question whether the government did due diligence before backing such a sizeable loan.

iWatch News and ABC reported in May that the Department of Energy bypassed important steps meant to protect taxpayers in awarding that loan guarantee to Solyndra.

On Friday, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing on Solyndra’s loan guarantee and the Office of Management and Budget’s role in approving it. In a document, the committee says OMB has not released internal emails they have asked for.

The company’s new loan guarantee, approved after just 41 days, comes by way of the U.S. Export-Import Bank under a new program called “Renewable Express,” meant to spur exports in that industry through a streamlined process.