The claim that the many beneficiaries (like Solyndra and Fisker Automotive) of President Obama’s green energy stimulus
program received their millions of taxpayer dollars based on measurable
metrics rather than political favoritism has always been undermined by
the circumstantial evidence, but documents obtained by Complete Colorado indicate the White House applied direct pressure to its own Department of Energy to reward (another) one of its allies.
The company that reaped the benefit was Abound Solar, which filed for bankruptcy in June.
In a copy of a June 2010 email, as analysts who evaluated applications
were discussing doubts about the Loveland, Colo.-based solar panel
manufacturer, DOE Loan Program Executive Director Jonathan Silver
informed an agency credit advisor “that the WH (White House) wants to
move Abound forward.” Another message from that loan program credit
adviser, James McCrea, describes an atmosphere of “transaction pressure
under which we are all now operating….”
The documentary evidence would seem to contradict a claim made by President Obama in a weekend interview
with KUSA, Denver’s NBC affiliate, who was dismissive of what he
considered to be only a few failures in DOE’s stimulus grant and loan
decisions.
“These are decisions, by the way, that are made by
the Department of Energy,” the president said. “They have nothing to do
with politics.”
At least one reason the Obama administration would
have an intense interest in seeing Abound receive a loan guarantee is
because one of the top investors in the company is Pat Stryker, a bundler for the president’s campaign and top donor to Democrats. Reports about White House logs show the billionairess may have visited up to three times
contemporaneous to the progress of Abound’s loan application at DOE.
Stryker has donated $475,599 to federal Democrat candidates and causes
over the 2008 to 2012 election cycles, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. Included in that amount is $11,900 in maximum
contributions to President Obama’s two campaigns for the White House.
Stryker also was an $87,500 bundler for the president’s Inaugural
Committee, and donated $50,000 herself. The Sunlight Foundation reported
that she gave $35,800 to the 2012 Obama Victory Fund, and she’s also
given roughly $50,000 this cycle to Democratic campaign committees.
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