Stalled Clean Energy Loan Program

Excerpt from an article in

The New York Times

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Stalled Clean Energy Loan Program Feels Solyndra’s Chill

By BILL VLASIC and MATTHEW L. WALD

More than $16 billion in loans authorized five years ago by Congress to develop fuel-efficient vehicles has yet to be disbursed, with applicants for the money complaining that the Energy Department is crippling plans for greener cars and trucks at a time of rising gas prices.

Some companies contend that the loans, administered by energy officials, have dried up because of a political firestorm that followed the bankruptcy last year of the solar panel company Solyndra, which had received a federal loan from a related program. The bankruptcy fed Republican criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of clean energy loans because one of the investors in Solyndra was a major fund-raiser for the president.

“Since Solyndra became politicized last fall, the Department of Energy has failed to make any other loans,” said William Santana Li, chief executive of Carbon Motors, which on Wednesday dropped its $310 million application to build police cars with diesel engines that use 40 percent less fuel than current models.

Echoing other companies that were denied loans or have withdrawn their applications, Mr. Li said that in recent months federal officials had repeatedly altered the terms of the possible loans. Last month, Chrysler withdrew its application for $3.5 billion in loans — after three years of negotiations — because the government kept raising the amount of collateral required, company officials said.

“I don’t want any favors,” Sergio Marchionne, the Chrysler chief executive, said before the withdrawal. “I just don’t want to be mistreated.”

Energy Department officials declined to discuss specific loan requests because of confidentiality agreements, but they denied that the political fallout of Solyndra’s bankruptcy was an issue.

“It’s not unusual for terms to continually shift and change and evolve as a negotiation moves forward,” said Damien LaVera, a department spokesman. “It’s a constantly evolving process from the day they apply to the day they close their loans.”

POET Declines DOE Loan Guarantee

News release from POET, major ethanol producer:

With new cellulosic ethanol joint venture, POET to decline DOE loan guarantee before drawing funds

POET -- DSM Cellulosic Ethanol, LLC makes loan guarantee unnecessary

1/23/2012

WASHINGTON, DC (January 23, 2012) -- In light of its joint venture with DSM, POET does not plan to utilize the loan guarantee it was awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). POET received a commitment for a $105 million loan guarantee to finance Project LIBERTY on September 23, 2011. Upon the closing of the joint venture, POET will officially decline the guarantee prior to drawing any funds.

"The loan guarantee commitment from the DOE was an important milestone in our quest to commercialize cellulosic ethanol, and we are appreciative of the work they put into the due diligence process," POET founder and CEO Jeff Broin said. "We believe that the joint venture with DSM positions us well to meet our ambitious cellulosic ethanol production goals, and thus the loan guarantee has become unnecessary."

Earlier today, POET announced a joint venture with DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, to commercially demonstrate and license cellulosic ethanol. For more information on Project LIBERTY and the POET -- DSM Cellulosic Ethanol joint venture, please visit http://www.poetdsm.com/

White House Releases More E-Mails on Solyndra

The New York Times

Saturday, January 14, 2012

White House Releases More E-Mails on Solyndra

By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON — The White House has given House Republican investigators an additional 66 pages of internal correspondence relating to Solyndra, the solar equipment manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy after accepting a $535 million loan guarantee, and the e-mails reflect significant anxiety about the poor financial prospects of the administration’s flagship choice to demonstrate how federal help could add to building a clean energy economy.

But the new documents do not appear to support the Republicans’ contention that the White House steered the loan guarantee to Solyndra, a company whose investors included an Obama campaign donor.

In one e-mail, dated Oct. 27, 2010, Heather R. Zichal, the deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change, told Carol M. Browner, the White House’s chief staff member on climate change: “Solyndra is going to announce that they are laying off 200 of their 1,200 workers. No es bueno.”

That announcement was postponed until the day after the midterm elections of Nov. 2, 2010, apparently at the urging of the Department of Energy. The newly released material, which was given to The New York Times by a government official, does not comment on the timing or include evidence to support the contention of some Republicans that the delay was requested by the White House.

Two days after the Oct. 27 e-mail, Ms. Zichal responded to one from Joe Aldy, then the special assistant to the president for energy and environment, who said, “Not a good start for the first closed loan guarantee.”

The e-mails and other documents were supplied to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which has held several hearings on Solyndra. The Republicans leading the committee and subcommittee, Representatives Fred Upton of Michigan and Cliff Stearns of Florida, respectively, said in a statement that the White House had released only a “handful” of documents and reiterated the charge that the loan guarantee process was “tainted by stimulus politics from the outset.”

The committee also announced on Thursday that it was also seeking documents from SAIC, the parent company of a consulting firm that the Energy Department hired to evaluate Solyndra, and the Government Services Administration, which operates office buildings.

==========