The American Petroleum Institute, a umbrella lobbying group for the oil industry, has new ads out thanking GOP members of the super committee for preserving billions in oil subsidies. The ads, posted on the industry group’s YouTube page last night, thank GOP super committee members Sens. Rob Portman (OH) and Pat Toomey (PA) and Reps. Dave Camp (MI) and Fred Upton (MI), and for opposing efforts to eliminate wasteful taxpayer subsidies to oil companies. API, which represents ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, Chevron, and other major oil corporations, calls the attempt to cut the subsidies “new job-crushing energy taxes!” Watch a sample of the Orwellian ads below:

As NPR has reported, the oil industry is moving into hyperdrive to crush any attempt to get rid of its subsidies.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest oil companies recently posted quarterly profits of $24 billion.

“Can’t escape from the common rule: If you hate something, don’t you do it too.”  — Pearl Jam

Playing up the Solyndra bankruptcy to the highest political degree possible, Republicans are using their best rhetorical tricks.  They have homed in on two phrases to describe loan guarantees — calling them a tool of “crony capitalism” and claiming that they allow the government “to pick winners and losers.”

Practically every conservative politician speaking to the press about Solyndra has used these phrases, often in the exact same sentence.

But a Climate Progress examination of public Department of Energy data finds over $11.8 billion in conditional commitments or closed loan guarantees for renewable energy and nuclear projects in Republican House districts around the country.

The data does not prove whether individual members of Congress lobbied for support of specific projects. However, recent stories from the Associated Press and the New York Times show that a number of high-profile political leaders have helped secure grants and loan guarantees through the stimulus package for projects in their districts. AP highlighted a few of the contradictions in a story yesterday:

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The Solyndra investigation has brought loan guarantees out of the obscure world of political wonkery and into the living rooms of Americans around the country.

The problem is, many in the media are completely misrepresenting how the instrument works and who supports it.  So we’ve put together a video primer on how loan guarantees work, posted below.

Some Republicans may want you to believe they don’t support this Obama-era display of government largesse. But in fact, one of the loan guarantee programs for clean energy was signed into law by the Bush Administration. And what did the Bush folks have to say about it in 2007?

“The administration is one step closer to issuing guarantees for loans for clean energy projects that will help reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources, boost economic competitiveness, and combat climate change,” DOE spokeswoman Megan Barnett wrote in an e-mail.

If that statement were made by the Obama Administration today, conservative politicians would be all over the airwaves complaining about government manipulation of markets. The fact is, loan guarantees have historically enjoyed bipartisan support — until it wasn’t politically convenient to do so.

That includes Michigan Republican Fred Upton, chairman of the committee leading the investigation into the failed loan guarantee, who was an early backer of the policy. In 2007, he proposed adding $4 billion more to the loan guarantee program in order to help build new nuclear facilities around the country.

But speaking during a subcommittee hearing on Solyndra this week, Upton explained that he thinks they are “speculative”:

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The U.S. solar industry had $1.8 billion in net exports last year.  But it faces daunting challenges from both Chinese competitors and GOP budget cutters.  Not every U.S. company will survive global industry consolidation.  But the PV segment as a whole has seen more than 10% annual job growth since 2003 and is certain to continue being a big job creator — if the U.S. government doesn’t let the playing field tilt to foreign companies.

The news broke yesterday that solar manufacturer Solyndra was filing for bankruptcy.  The thin-film producer closed its California-based manufacturing facility and laid off 1,100 workers.

One more business going bankrupt in these tough times wouldn’t normally make big news and draw GOP cheers.  Solyndra, though, had received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government to manufacture a unique cylindrical solar module that reduced installation time, increased efficiencies, and didn’t use the most expensive material in conventional solar modules, silicon.

GTM Research Senior Solar Analyst Shyam Mehta made an accurate (if somewhat understated) observation about the coming blowback:

Unfortunately, most coverage of today’s news is likely to gloss over the market’s subtleties and conclude that supporting domestic solar manufacturing is a waste of taxpayer money. Thus, the image of the U.S. solar industry is likely to be affected negatively in the minds of both policymakers and the general public in this post-Solyndra world.

The fact is that with a glut of solar panels on the market today, depressed silicon prices, and the Chinese government lavishing huge amounts of subsidies on domestic manufacturers — 30 times the amount of loans as the U.S. in 2010 — Solyndra’s cost structure simply couldn’t compete in an increasingly-commoditized market. In a statement yesterday, the company cited “global economic conditions” as the main reason for the shutdown.

Conservatives are dancing all over Solyndra’s grave, trying to turn it into a referendum on renewable energy and green jobs.  But the U.S. invented the modern solar cell half a century ago, and the route to sustainable wealth can’t possibly be one where we invent technologies and other countries manufacture them.

No, rather than a referendum, this should be is a chance to learn the lesson of how the US can compete in one of the fastest job-creating sectors in the world.

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