Solyndra tried to influence Energy Department, e-mails show

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

In the two years preceding its collapse, Solyndra and its biggest investor aggressively asserted themselves in dealings with the Obama administration, pushing Energy Secretary Steven Chu to visit the company’s headquarters to help it raise private money and later suggesting it would file for bankruptcy if the Energy Department rejected its proposed rescue plan.

Executives associated with the California solar panel company also privately described Energy Department officials as more concerned with appearances than with sound business decisions.

“The DOE really thinks politically before it thinks economically,” a Solyndra board member wrote in December to George Kaiser, an Obama fundraiser whose family funds owned a third of the company.

At another point, an investment adviser to Kaiser wrote in an e-mail: “DOE is willing to accommodate Solyndra . . . but they appear to be concerned about ‘looking bad.’ ”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/solyndra-tried-to-influence-energy-department-e-mails-show/2011/11/16/gIQAJBDZSN_singlePage.html

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Why should this be such an issue in 2012 when for years, Big Oil has been the biggest corporate welfare queen that has influenced the government far worse than Solyndra ever did?

[Abq_Sarah]

1. And their efforts paid off

Except of course for the taxpayers and solyndra employees.