Shock Report: Administration Was Preparing To Give Solyndra Another Loan Despite Known Financial Issues

The Obama administration’s Department of Energy was set to give Solyndra a second major taxpayer loan of $469 million, even as the company’s financial situation was growing direr, reports the Washington Post.

The Energy Department was actively pursuing a second loan guarantee for Solyndra in April and May 2010.

What else happened at that time in 2010?

In April of that year, a month before the president visited the solar power company, recently released emails reveal that some people within the White House knew that "bad days" were on the way, reports CBS.

And the Energy Department was pushing for a another million dollar loan guarantee?

The Washington Post reports the details:

White House career staffers, who had first raised concerns in the fall of 2009 about the Department of Energy providing Solyndra with its first taxpayer-backed loan of $535 million , wrote e-mails in gallows humor in April 2010 about the prospect of giving Solyndra more money. That spring, industry analysts were publicly questioning how the Silicon Valley startup could so quickly be running out both the federal loan and $933 million in private capital.

“Apparently the loan size for Phase II is $469 million,” one Office of Management and Budget analyst wrote of DOE seeking a second loan for Solyndra. “I’ve been told we should expect the see that project soon for conditional commitment.”

“Possible to close and default on one before closing on a second??? Could be a new record,” another analyst wrote.

It was not until October of 2010 that the idea of a second loan guarantee was abandoned, a Department of Energy spokesman  recently confirmed to the Post. At the same time, Solyndra executives and investors were also warning the DOE that the company was facing the threat of having to "liquidate without emergency cash."

According to the same article:

Even in May 2010, Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s top advisers — his senior adviser on stimulus , Matt Rogers, and his chief of staff, Rod O’Connor — were telling the White House not to worry about the auditors’ warnings on Solyndra’s finances. They also referenced the need for more federal money for Solyndra.

O’Connor told a top White House adviser to Vice President Biden that the warnings were exaggerated, when a venture capitalist and Obama donor had flagged the company’s finances as a reason the president shouldn’t visit Solyndra as scheduled on May 25. O’Connor also raised the issue of more government support for Solyndra.