Last Thursday, the White House informed the committee investigating Solyndra’s bankruptcy that it will comply with a subpoena to provide internal communications regarding the solar firm.
President Obama at Solyndra's headquarters in Fremont, CA in 2010. Photo Credit: The Daily Caller
The Fremont, CA firm received a $535 Department of Energy loan guarantee in 2010, only to file for bankruptcy on September of this year. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the Department’s loan program for almost nine months.
Representatives Fred Upton (R-MI) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL), leading figures of the committee, announced the administration’s response to the subpoenas in a statement on November 10.
The statement noted that “[i]nternal documents and emails produced as part of the investigation…show significant interest in and monitoring of the Solyndra loan guarantee by senior West Wing staff.”
The following day, the Representatives revealed that the documents turned over include “a limited number of self-selected documents, along with their own interpretation of what those documents show…[W]e’re hoping this is the beginning of an effort to finally make public these missing pieces of a process that left us all holding the bag for over 500 million dollars.”
“We appreciate that the White House has now responded to our subpoena with some of the responsive documents, and we look forward to further productive discussions as we continue to pursue a full and complete picture of how this administration manages the taxpayers’ dollars, whether it is fulfilling its commitments to transparency and good government, and what lessons can be learned to prevent a similar loss in the future.”
This production of documents from the White House comes less than a week after White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler called the committee’s request too broad and unnecessary.
