Solyndra Hypocrisy: David Vitter Sought Energy Loans He Now Seeks to Scrutinize

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Solyndra Hypocrisy: David Vitter Sought Energy Loans He Now Seeks to Scrutinize



Washington “scandals” have a predictable rhythm, and the Solyndra solar loan “scandal” has entered the phase where critics start exploiting the controversy to push their ideological agenda. For example, Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana has filed a bill to increase scrutiny of taxpayer-financed renewable energy projects. It wouldn’t scrutinize taxpayer-financed non-renewable energy projects, like the nuclear reactors that Vitter so ardently supports. It wouldn’t scrutinize why a certain Louisiana Senator has worked so hard to protect oil companies from liability for their spills. It would just crack down on Big Renewables.


“We can’t afford any more crony capitalism,” Vitter said on Wednesday. Vitter should know. He’s written a bunch of letters to the Energy Department’s loan program seeking loans for renewable energy firms.


For example, on July 1, 2009, Vitter and Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana wrote Energy Secretary Steven Chu to support a loan application by the V Vehicle Company, a clean-car start-up (backed by T. Boone Pickens and the venture capital leviathan Kleiner Perkins) that was planning a Louisiana factory. “This vehicle would serve as a catalyst for job creation,” they wrote. A year later, Vitter joined the entire Louisiana delegation in another letter pushing “expedited consideration” for VVC. Alas, the Energy Department rejected the loan, citing concerns about the company’s financial viability. Vitter must have been annoyed by all this due diligence, because in December 2010–after VVC changed its name to Next Autoworks–he, Landrieu and Congressman Rodney Alexander tried once more. “Every day that Next Autoworks’ application is delayed is another day that workers cannot be hired,” the wrote. So far, no luck.


No wonder Vitter’s angry: His cronies are losing!


Vitter had better luck when he and Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison pitched Chu on a loan guarantee for Diamond Green Fuels, a project (led by the Texas petroleum refiner Valero) to build a plant near New Orleans to convert animal fats and used cooking oils into renewable diesel. “Funding from the loan guarantee program can play an important role in its construction,” they wrote. In March, the Energy Department provided conditional approval for a $241 million loan guarantee. But Diamond later withdrew its application, saying the government process was too burdensome; in other words, once again, the feds were being too careful with taxpayer dollars. Instead, Valero plans to finance the plant itself.



vitter.jpg
 
Solyndra Hypocrisy: David Vitter Sought Energy Loans He Now Seeks to Scrutinize

Washington “scandals” have a predictable rhythm, and the Solyndra solar loan “scandal” has entered the phase where critics start exploiting the controversy to push their ideological agenda. For example, Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana has filed a bill to increase scrutiny of taxpayer-financed renewable energy projects. It wouldn’t scrutinize taxpayer-financed non-renewable energy projects, like the nuclear reactors that Vitter so ardently supports. It wouldn’t scrutinize why a certain Louisiana Senator has worked so hard to protect oil companies from liability for their spills. It would just crack down on Big Renewables.


“We can’t afford any more crony capitalism,” Vitter said on Wednesday. Vitter should know. He’s written a bunch of letters to the Energy Department’s loan program seeking loans for renewable energy firms.


For example, on July 1, 2009, Vitter and Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana wrote Energy Secretary Steven Chu to support a loan application by the V Vehicle Company, a clean-car start-up (backed by T. Boone Pickens and the venture capital leviathan Kleiner Perkins) that was planning a Louisiana factory. “This vehicle would serve as a catalyst for job creation,” they wrote. A year later, Vitter joined the entire Louisiana delegation in another letter pushing “expedited consideration” for VVC. Alas, the Energy Department rejected the loan, citing concerns about the company’s financial viability. Vitter must have been annoyed by all this due diligence, because in December 2010–after VVC changed its name to Next Autoworks–he, Landrieu and Congressman Rodney Alexander tried once more. “Every day that Next Autoworks’ application is delayed is another day that workers cannot be hired,” the wrote. So far, no luck.


No wonder Vitter’s angry: His cronies are losing!


Vitter had better luck when he and Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison pitched Chu on a loan guarantee for Diamond Green Fuels, a project (led by the Texas petroleum refiner Valero) to build a plant near New Orleans to convert animal fats and used cooking oils into renewable diesel. “Funding from the loan guarantee program can play an important role in its construction,” they wrote. In March, the Energy Department provided conditional approval for a $241 million loan guarantee. But Diamond later withdrew its application, saying the government process was too burdensome; in other words, once again, the feds were being too careful with taxpayer dollars. Instead, Valero plans to finance the plant itself.

vitter.jpg

So let me get this straight, you're drawing an analogy between not loaning money to a startup that you have been told is too risky and loaning money to a startup that you have been told is too risky? The former makes sense the latter not so much, yet defend the latter and bitch about the former.

Are you a mental patient or something?
 
Last edited:
Don't question the Grand Poobah...
:eusa_eh:
White House targets lawmaker for criticizing solar energy loans
10/04/11 : The White House blasted Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), a top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Tuesday for saying that the United States “can’t compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines.”
“Chairman Stearns and other members of his party in Congress believe that America cannot, or should not, try to compete for jobs in a cutting edge and rapidly growing industry,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer wrote in a blog post. “We simply disagree: the answer to this challenge is not to wave the white flag and give up on American workers. America has never declared defeat after a single setback – and we shouldn’t start now.” Pfeiffer dismissed Stearns' remarks as “counterproductive defeatism.”

Tuesday’s blog post is part of an aggressive campaign by the White House to defend its clean energy policies in the aftermath of the September bankruptcy of Solyndra, a California solar company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration in 2009. Republicans are pummeling the White House over the bankruptcy, raising questions about the viability of the administration’s “green jobs” agenda and alleging that the Energy Department missed red flags that hinted at Solyndra’s financial troubles.

In an interview with National Public Radio Tuesday, Stearns – the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel – said the United States “can’t compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines,” and that the government should no longer subsidize green-energy programs. “I think the administration is putting taxpayers’ money at risk in areas that are not creating jobs,” he said.

In the Capitol Tuesday afternoon, Stearns expanded on his remarks, arguing that NPR glossed over the nuance of his statement. “I said, as it’s structured now, we can’t compete with China because they have low wages, access to materials and they have no environmental conditions,” Stearns said. “The only way we can compete is to bring the technological advantage we’ve got in the computer industry and the aerospace industry and to manufacture our products with that [information technology] advantage, otherwise we can’t compete. So, they left that whole quote out.”

Stearns said he supports loan guarantees, but raised questions about investing in solar manufacturing. Solar generation, for example, offers better opportunities, he said. “I think loan guarantees, when national security is involved and when we have a technological advantage, are completely appropriate,” he said. Stearns said President Obama’s green jobs agenda is fundamentally flawed. “The basic flaw is that [President Obama] thinks he’s going to create a thriving economy by manufacturing solar panels and I think he’s mistaken,” he said.

Source
 
Solyndra Hypocrisy: David Vitter Sought Energy Loans He Now Seeks to Scrutinize



Washington “scandals” have a predictable rhythm, and the Solyndra solar loan “scandal” has entered the phase where critics start exploiting the controversy to push their ideological agenda. For example, Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana has filed a bill to increase scrutiny of taxpayer-financed renewable energy projects. It wouldn’t scrutinize taxpayer-financed non-renewable energy projects, like the nuclear reactors that Vitter so ardently supports. It wouldn’t scrutinize why a certain Louisiana Senator has worked so hard to protect oil companies from liability for their spills. It would just crack down on Big Renewables.


“We can’t afford any more crony capitalism,” Vitter said on Wednesday. Vitter should know. He’s written a bunch of letters to the Energy Department’s loan program seeking loans for renewable energy firms.


For example, on July 1, 2009, Vitter and Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana wrote Energy Secretary Steven Chu to support a loan application by the V Vehicle Company, a clean-car start-up (backed by T. Boone Pickens and the venture capital leviathan Kleiner Perkins) that was planning a Louisiana factory. “This vehicle would serve as a catalyst for job creation,” they wrote. A year later, Vitter joined the entire Louisiana delegation in another letter pushing “expedited consideration” for VVC. Alas, the Energy Department rejected the loan, citing concerns about the company’s financial viability. Vitter must have been annoyed by all this due diligence, because in December 2010–after VVC changed its name to Next Autoworks–he, Landrieu and Congressman Rodney Alexander tried once more. “Every day that Next Autoworks’ application is delayed is another day that workers cannot be hired,” the wrote. So far, no luck.


No wonder Vitter’s angry: His cronies are losing!


Vitter had better luck when he and Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison pitched Chu on a loan guarantee for Diamond Green Fuels, a project (led by the Texas petroleum refiner Valero) to build a plant near New Orleans to convert animal fats and used cooking oils into renewable diesel. “Funding from the loan guarantee program can play an important role in its construction,” they wrote. In March, the Energy Department provided conditional approval for a $241 million loan guarantee. But Diamond later withdrew its application, saying the government process was too burdensome; in other words, once again, the feds were being too careful with taxpayer dollars. Instead, Valero plans to finance the plant itself.

I am a little confused, how is this hypocrisy?
 

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