E-Mails: OMB Staffers Joked About Solyndra Bilking Tax Payers

Just months after receiving the first “Green Jobs” stimulus money from the Obama Administration, the Department of Energy was poised to funnel another $469 million to Solyndra, the failed solar energy start-up at the center of a growing scandal within the Obama Administration.

E-mails released today show that White House staffers in the Dept. of Office and Management had grave concerns over the proposed “Phase II” funding which would have brought the total amount of tax payer money delivered to Solyndra to just under $1 billion.

The Energy Department was actively pushing to provide the second loan guarantee to the troubled solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, when Solyndra’s auditors warned the company was in danger of closing due to its rapidly mounting debts and expenses, according to complete e-mails just released by a House committee investigating the original loan.

Most damning to the Obama Administration is the responses shown in the e-mails by career staffers at OMB. Clearly not buying the value in throwing good money after bad at a company that was supposed to be part of President Obama’s “Winning the Future” plan for America, unnamed staffers resorted to gallows humor when contemplating the second proposed loan.

From the e-mails:

OMB Staffer: “Apparently the loan size for Phase II is $469 million. I’ve been told we should expect the see that project soon for conditional commitment.”

Another joked: “Possible to close and default on one before closing on a second??? Could be a new record.”

Indeed.

The Solyndra fiasco has already enveloped Sec. Steven Chu’s Energy Department and revelations of e-mails warning about the impending disaster sent to the president’s closest adviser have brought the scandal to the door of the oval office.

Further investigations into the influence of major Obama fundraiser and Solyndra investor George Kaiser, who visited the White House multiple times in the days leading up to the loan approval, are expected from the Republican-controlled House in the coming days.