E-mails suggest DOE pressed Solyndra to delay layoff news until after election

By Andrew Restuccia 

 

Obama administration officials pressed the now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra to delay announcing pending layoffs until after the 2010 midterm elections, portions of emails released by House Republicans suggest.

Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison emailed the Energy Department in October of 2010 to alert officials that he planned to announce layoffs at the solar panel manufacturer on Oct. 28.
“Solyndra has received some press inquiries about rumors of problems (one of them with quite accurate information) and we have received in bound calls from potential investors. Both of these data points indicate the story is starting to leak outside Solyndra,” Harrison said, noting that he would like to soon announce the layoffs.

In an Oct. 30, 2010 email, advisers for Argonaut Private Equity, a major investor in Solyndra, said Energy Department officials asked the company to delay the announcement that Solyndra would shutter a manufacturing facility and layoff workers until Nov. 3, one day after the midterm elections.
“They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd — oddly they didn‘t give a reason for that date,” the email from the Argonaut adviser said. The news was first reported by The Washington Post Tuesday morning.
The emails will fuel claims that Obama administration officials made decisions about the solar company for political reasons.

“The plot thickens,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) writes in a tweet that linked to the Washington Post story about the emails.

However, the GOP probe — which has uncovered about 185,000 pages of documents — has not uncovered evidence that the decision to issue the loan guarantee or the early 2011 decision to restructure the terms showed political favoritism.
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who have launched an investigation into the $535 million loan guarantee to the failed solar company, released portions of the emails Tuesday in a memo.

The memo from Republicans on the committee says, “several emails produced by Argonaut to the Committee reference the fact that the layoff announcement was postponed because of the November 2 elections.”
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Solyndra ultimately announced on Nov. 3 that it would close a manufacturing facility in Fremont, Calif., and lay off 40 workers. The announcement marked the beginning of a tumultuous period for the company, which ultimately filed for bankruptcy in September after laying off an additional 1,100 workers, setting off a firestorm in Washington.
Republicans have pounced on the bankruptcy, raising broad questions about President Obama's green energy agenda.
The memo was released ahead of testimony Thursday with Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The hearing marks the culmination of a months-long investigation of the Solyndra loan guarantee.

In the memo, Republicans said Thursday’s hearing with Chu will focus on three major questions:

• "How did the stimulus and Secretary Chu‘s directive to accelerate the review of loan guarantee applications impact the review of the Solyndra application?"
• "Should DOE have better anticipated the financial problems that Solyndra experienced?"
• "Did the DOE take adequate steps to protect the taxpayer when it negotiated the terms and conditions of the Solyndra guarantee and its restructuring?"