Cliff Stearns Continues to Pound Obama Administration on Solyndra

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns is increasingly becoming the point man for critics of the Obama administration for sending federal money to Solyndra, a green energy company that has gone bankrupt.

Solyndra was the first loan guarantee issued by the Obama administration using stimulus dollars and administration officials held out the company as a glowing example of how stimulus dollars were creating jobs. Now 1,100 Solyndra workers are out of work, the firm is bankrupt and raided by the FBI, and taxpayers are likely out $535 million, said Stearns,chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committees subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations,in a statement released on Wednesday.

After a hearing his committee held on Wednesday, Stearns insisted he was convinced that officials at the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rushed the loan process for Solyndra so the Obama administration could score political points.

It is clear that in a rush to spend $8 billion in stimulus funds for this loan guarantee program, this administration failed to review properly Solyndras viability in the global market, which is very disconcerting given that $10 billion remains to be spent by the administration before the end of this month, said Stearns. I see no reason for the taxpayers to have any confidence that these funds could be spent wisely and it should be returned to the Treasury to reduce our debt. Finally, I look forward to hearing from the Solyndra executives at our hearing next week.