As you may recall, Judicial Watch has been investigating Vice President Biden’s role in securing a bailout for auto manufacturer Fisker Automotive, which opened a facility in V.P. Biden’s home state of Delaware in 2009. Well, that investigation has taken a new turn now that Fisker’s domestic operation is crumbling while funds and jobs promised to American taxpayers are heading overseas to Finland.

On February 1, 2012, JW sued the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for records regarding the $529 million loan granted by the DOE to Fisker – funds that were to be used to manufacture the company’s Karma and Nina electric vehicles. While the Obama White House (led by V.P. Biden) and the DOE promoted the loan as a means to generate American jobs, Fisker, which has facilities in California and Delaware, came under fire in 2011 for manufacturing cars in Finland and was recently beset with massive layoffs at their domestic operations.

Here’s what Judicial Watch is after pursuant to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed with the DOE on November 15, 2011:

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Reuters recently offered an apologetic profile on Solyndra figurehead, RockPort Capital Managing Partner, and Solyndra Board Member David Prend.

The article, a fawning exhibition of non-investigative journalism, referred to Prend as the “Guru of Green.” Reuters neglected to question whether Prend’s close government connections had created conflicts of interest as he secured multi-million dollar government loans and grants for his investments.

Prend lobbied the Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, Carol Browner, for Solyndra’s doomed $535 million DOE loan and presidential endorsement. Prend also visited the White House at least twice and discussed two companies with Browner while lobbying for Solyndra. (The White House refuses to release the second company’s name.)

Prend’s other investments suggest that he is benefiting from taxpayer support for far more than just two companies.

Prend is a board member for scandal-plagued concrete sealant manufacturer Hycrete. Around 2008, Hycrete received a $2 million Corps of Engineers earmark from Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-IN) shortly before company executives donated $20,000 to his campaign and the DCCC. In July 2009, former Hycrete CEO David Rosenberg was invited to a WH Summit on Energy Innovation and Jobs where Obama praised Hycrete as a job creation leader.

Prend was apparently involved in another RockPort Capital investment, Soliant Energy. Soliant went bankrupt even after receiving a $4 million DOE grant. Prend also apparently sits on the board of SustainX, which recently secured a $5.39 million DOE grant. (more…)

From The Hill:

A Massachusetts company that received a $43 million Energy Department loan guarantee last year filed for bankruptcy Sunday, a step certain to fuel criticism of federal green energy financing in the wake of the solar company Solyndra’s collapse.

Beacon Power Corp., which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

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From The Hill:

House Republicans released an email Friday evening showing that a senior Treasury Department official in August expressed concern that the Energy Department’s early 2011 restructuring of the solar company Solyndra’s $535 million loan guarantee may have been illegal.

The restructuring put private investors, who were providing another $75 million to the struggling company, first in line for repayment if the company went under. In addition, House Republicans probing Solyndra – which collapsed several weeks ago – say DOE may have violated requirements to consult with Treasury on the revision of the loan agreement.

The Energy and Commerce Committee’s GOP leaders wrote to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Friday seeking documents about Treasury’s communication with the White House, DOE and other agencies on the financing.

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President Obama promised to have the most transparent and ethical administration in our country’s history.  His White House web page on ethics claims they have “the strongest ethics standards in U.S. government history.”  It may be true, but having high standards means nothing if you consistently fail to meet those standards.

Follow along on the latest Solyndra revelations:

Steve Spinner was a major fundraiser for the Obama Campaign in 2008.  He became a loan adviser for the Dept. of Energy after President Obama took office.  He was married to a partner at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini, which was representing Solyndra in its loan application.  He had signed an “ethics agreement” in which he said he would not engage in negotiations about the loan for the company.

There you go.  A fine example of the Obama Administration’s “strongest ethics standards” in action.

So, what did Mr. Spinner do with regard to the Solyndra loan?

Yet throughout Solyndra’s loan process, Spinner worked hard to defend the company from criticisms inside the government, including questions from climate czar Carol Browner’s office. He pushed to get a final decision on approving the loan in August.

“How f***ing hard is this?” Spinner wrote on Aug. 28 an another department official. “What is he waiting for” Will we have it by the end of the day?”

Do those sound like the words of a man who had recused himself from working on the Solyndra loan process?

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From The Washington Post:

Under Silver’s leadership, the program grew to be the largest project finance effort in the United States. He headed both a $70 billion dollar investment program in alternative energy and a $20 billion investment program in advanced automotive technology.

The House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee is investigating a range of issues surrounding the federal government’s loan guarantee to Solyndra, including the fact that DOE officials learned the company was violating its loan deal and subsequently changed the loan terms so that it could continue receiving taxpayer funds.

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Two weeks ago, alternative energy company Solyndra, which received $535 million in “stimulus” loan guarantees from the Obama administration, collapsed. Solyndra was the poster child for the Obama administration’s claim that it could create green jobs with taxpayer money. Now 1,100 more people are out of work and American taxpayers are on the hook for half a billion dollars.

But while this ought to be an abject embarrassment for the dirigistes in the Obama administration, there’s a much bigger story behind the Solyndra scandal. It involves a concerted effort by White House officials to improperly rush the Solyndra loan decision for political reasons.

The Washington Post had the exclusive story:

The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s factory, newly obtained e-mails show.

The Silicon Valley company, a centerpiece in President Obama’s initiative to develop clean energy technologies, had been tentatively approved for the loan by the Energy Department but was awaiting a final financial review by the Office of Management and Budget.

The August 2009 e-mails, released exclusively to The Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to information provided by Republican congressional investigators.

The Post goes on to detail some of these email messages. Here’s one of them:

“We have ended up with a situation of having to do rushed approvals on a couple of occasions (and we are worried about Solyndra at the end of the week),” one official wrote. That Aug. 31, 2009, message, written by a senior OMB staffer and sent to Terrell P. McSweeny, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, concluded, “We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due diligence reviews.”

Now here’s where mere incompetence turns into corruption. Want to guess the name of Solyndra’s biggest financial backer? Tulsa billionaire and Obama fundraiser George Kaiser.

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Any American who wants the opportunity for a college education, or a degree that can help provide gainful employment, should be outraged at the Obama Administration’s back-room dealings to kill for-profit schools.  Obama supporters themselves should be asking how restricting financial aid to people, just because they want to go to a for-profit school, reflects the ideals they voted for…and that Obama promised would become easier.

Brian Darling’s excellent article, “For-Profit Education Under Assault“, exposes the details of this insidious plot.

There is, however, another aspect of this story — continued wealth destruction by the Administration.

The DOE’s plan to kill for-profit education is to restrict financial aid to students, as Mr. Darling described.  Therefore, enrollment will fall.  If enrollment falls, for-profit schools have less revenue, which means they have to cut services.

What services?  Teachers.

Voilá, these people get tossed onto the unemployment lines.

Hey, that’s okay!  Maybe they can get jobs in the public schools, which would require them to join the Teacher’s Union, and pay their dues into a union that is bankrupting the country state-by-state.

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