GOP leaders have a message for any Republicans who dare hold a nuanced position on loan guarantees and clean energy deployment: Be quiet and get back in line to “where they’re supposed to be.”

That’s the message from GOP energy and environmental adviser Mike McKenna, who has been helping House Republican leaders wrangle dissenting lawmakers who’ve expressed concerns about their party’s attempt to dismantle the loan guarantee program.

The conflict emerged after Cliff Stearns (R-FL) introduced a bill called the “No More Solyndras Act” designed to end loan guarantees for clean energy. Rather than toe the party line, a few critical-thinking Republicans said they would rather see the the program reformed to better protect taxpayers, not kill the whole thing.

That didn’t sit well with leaders in the party who have made the loan guarantee program a political target this election season. Politico reported on the defection with the GOP after the legislation was introduced:

The spat over the bill started last week when Barton told his fellow committee Republicans at a closed-door meeting on the Solyndra bill that he opposed ending the loan guarantee program.

Barton publicly expressed his opposition to killing the program for the first time the next day at a joint subcommittee hearing on the legislation.

“I don’t think we need to throw out the whole program. I think we can clean it up,” Barton said, calling for a series of reforms to prevent another Solyndra-like bankruptcy.

In the end, supporters of the measure expect that nearly all committee Republicans will rally behind the bill.

“It’s been an interesting thing, but I think at the end everybody’s going to end up where they’re supposed to be,” McKenna said.

Barton was joined by fellow Texas Republican Michael Burgess and Georgia Republican Phil Gingrey, who publicly said they supported reforming the program rather than ending it. Politico reported that three other Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — Brian Bilbray, Mary Bono Mack, and Charlie Bass — also expressed concerns about the decision to kill loan guarantees.

It is perhaps no surprise that two Texas Republicans are being attacked for critical thinking — since the Texas GOP’s 2012 Platform actually opposes any teaching of “critical thinking skills.” The Platform contains a plank on “Knowledge-Based Education” that reads (on page 12 here):

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

None of that fancy “knowledge-based education” for Texas!

As TPM notes:

Elsewhere in the document, the platform stipulates that “[e]very Republican is responsible for implementing this platform.”

Under these standards, Texas Republicans Barton and Burgess were way out of line.

The loan guarantee program was established in 2005 under the George W. Bush Administration. The program is designed to help bridge the “Valley of Death” by providing government backing of private loans for first-of-a-kind projects and innovative technologies. By guaranteeing that the government pays back the loan if a recipient cannot, the program helps leverage private financing that would otherwise not be available.

Many Republicans — including the three top House leaders who’ve trumped up the Solyndra bankruptcy — have been very supportive of loan guarantees. In 2007, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton requested adding $4 billion to the program for new nuclear power projects; House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa pushed loan guarantees for nuclear projects in 2010; and Cliff Stearns, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, requested loan guarantees for an innovative biofuels facility in his home state.

Why? Because these lawmakers understood that the program could fill in a major financing gap.

Since the three different loan guarantee programs were established, they have helped draw private financing for the world’s largest wind farm, some of the world’s largest solar plants, and the first nuclear power project in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Loan guarantees have financed 32 projects across 20 states, helping leverage $20 billion in private capital and create 22,000 jobs.

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In an interview with Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) this morning, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien did what many television anchors have failed to do in discussions about the clean energy loan guarantee program: come prepared with facts.

Senator Johnson attempted to re-hash “pants on fire” GOP talking points on Solyndra and the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program. But rather than take the claims at face value, O’Brien, who had clearly done her homework, easily deflated Johnson’s claims with a blunt statement of the facts.

Late in the interview, O’Brien incredulously responded to Johnson’s rant about the Soviet Union: “You surely are not suggesting that the concept behind Solyndra and other green energy technologies like Solyndra is comparable to the Soviet Union and Cuba, right?”

Johnson confirms he is indeed comparing loan guarantees — a policy long supported by mainstream Republicans — to Soviet economics. Ironically, Johnson’s manufacturing company, Pacur, expanded in the 1980′s with the help of a $2.5 million government-subsidized loan.

Check out the interview below. As candidates continue to push the bogus “crony capitalism” messaging around clean energy, let’s hope more television reporters can be this prepared:

by Richard W. Caperton

Imagine a government program that had produced dozens of success stories, cost less than expected, and helped build an industry of the future. Wouldn’t you want to expand that program?  Yes, you probably would.  Unless, of course, you were Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL).

If you were Rep. Cliff Stearns, you would introduce legislation to end the program.  And, if the program somehow did survive, your legislation would make sure that it operated with more bureaucratic red tape and weaker financial standing.

Welcome to the bizarre politics around the Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program. Tomorrow, two subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider a piece of legislation written by Stearns called the “No More Solyndras Act.”  Every aspect of this bill is bad. If Congress really wants to improve the loan guarantee program, they should do so by allowing it to fund many more projects with a full portfolio of financial tools. Let’s look at why.

The Loan Guarantee Program has been a success

First, some background. DOE’s loan guarantee program was created in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and was strengthened in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus bill). The program is built to provide financing to new clean energy technologies that the private sector is unable to finance.  These companies are trying to cross the “Valley of Death,” where they need many millions — even billions — of dollars to build new projects.  Traditional lenders won’t finance these projects because they’re generally the first-of-a-kind, and venture capitalists who would finance innovative projects simply don’t have enough money to meet these companies’ needs.  So, the government stepped in and guaranteed that they’ll pay back a loan if the company is unable to.  This guarantee unlocks capital.

The program has been an overwhelming success.  The loan guarantee program alone financed 32 projects in more than 20 states, ultimately creating 22,000 jobs directly. Best of all, the government only spent $2.5 billion to mobilize more than $20 billion in private capital.

Even projects without guarantees have benefited from the process. For example, the due diligence process helped bring in a $1 billion investment from Bank of America for the largest residential solar project in U.S. history. The chief executive officer of the solar company deploying the project said that without the due diligence process to attract private lenders, “We would not have been able to make the economics of this project work.”

Enter the “No More Solyndras Act”: A potential disaster

Despite the fact that the Title XVII loan guarantee program has been a success and should be expanded, Rep. Stearns’ legislation would effectively end the program, mandate unnecessary and duplicate consultations, and tie the government’s hands behind when it’s representing taxpayers.

The “No More Solyndras Act” does three main things:

1. It sets a retrospective deadline by which applications must have been received in order to be considered for loan guarantees. No application that was submitted after December 31, 2011, is eligible for a new guarantee.
2. It creates a new process for the Secretary of the Treasury to influence the outcome of a decision on a guarantee, and requires the Secretary of Energy to explain why he or she did or did not follow Treasury’s recommendation.
3. It says that taxpayers must always be the senior debt holder, even after a restructuring of a guarantee for a troubled company.

Each of these is a mistake.

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CNN has two dynamite pieces on Solyndra, “Romney wrong on Solyndra facts” and “Seven things you should know about Solyndra.”

The first one, by Steve Hargreaves of CNN Money, ends:

It’s one thing to spin something to one’s advantage. It’s another to simply make things up to make the other guy look bad. Romney’s Solyndra speech was an example of the latter. Disgraceful.

Hargreaves shows that Mitt Romney’s key claim — “An independent inspector general looked at this investment and concluded that the Administration had steered money to friends and family and campaign contributors” — has no basis in fact.

The second piece, also by Hargreaves, lists 7 key facts:

1.  It was started by Bush: The DOE loan program that funded Solyndra was actually started by President Bush in 2005. It was intended to provide government support for “innovative technologies”….

In fact, as Climate Progress reported back in September, the “Bush Administration advanced the Solyndra loan guarantee for two years” before Obama became President.

2.  Congress thought there would be more failures: Two companies have declared bankruptcy under the loan program so far, out of the 33 projects funded. Congress was expecting more….

Congress appropriated money to cover expected losses, and multiple independent reviews have confirmed that the actual losses will likely be less than Congress expected.

3. Solyndra wanted more: The company applied for another $468 million in funding shortly after its first DOE loan closed. The government did not award the second request.

4. Taxpayers aren’t the only losers: Private investors lost almost twice what the government did — nearly $1 billion.

While much has been made that the largest private investor was an Obama supporter, the second largest was a fund controlled by the Walton family — of Wal-Mart fame. Walton family members are noted Republican donors.

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The Romney campaign released yet another ad today on Solyndra and the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program. Romney’s ad repeats the same half-truths and lies about stimulus funding that factcheckers have repeatedly debunked.

During the campaign, Romney has routinely dismissed the nation’s 3.1 million clean energy jobs while intensifying his attacks on the industry. Ironically, the clean energy industry is booming in his home state of Massachusetts, creating 64,000 jobs across the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors.

In a story published over the weekend, the Boston Globe highlights how solar is “flourishing” in his home state:

In the past two years alone, solar energy-generating capacity in the state has more than doubled to 105 megawatts, ­according to the state Department of Energy Resources. That’s enough to power at least 15,750 homes.

The number of solar installation firms in the state has also exploded, to nearly 200 last year from about 43 in 2007. In total, state energy officials estimate that more than 1,300 solar energy firms — installers, manufacturers, and others — operate in Massachusetts, employing about 14,000.

In addition, Massachusetts has created a market for solar renewable energy credits, which solar project owners can sell to power plant operators to meet state regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

The money from those sales helps further lower the cost of solar power.

Such policies have made solar economically competitive in the state, despite less than optimal sun, said Jim Dumas, principal at Solect Inc., a Hopkinton company with 10 employees. Solect is currently installing a 475-kilowatt solar system atop a commercial building in Northborough.

In April, the Center for American Progress filmed a short documentary on the explosion of activity in Massachusetts’ clean energy sector.

Even while solar grows quickly in Massachusetts, helping grow new businesses, Romney’s plan would reduce investments in clean energy. He would strike subsidies, loans, and research for the clean energy industry — all while endorsing a House GOP budget that maintains subsidies for oil and coal giants.

Despite a year of investigation finding no evidence of political misconduct, the GOP has hammered away at Solyndra. American Crossroads is up with its own ad today on Solyndra, following an earlier fact-challenged ad from its affiliate Crossroads GPS.

Factcheckers have called every one of these ads bogus. The Washington Post FactChecker labeled these ads a “depressing duty” because the same “erroneous assertions” had been debunked years ago. And Politifact gave a “false” to the claim that Solyndra contributed to higher gas prices.

In fact, an independent review of the loan guarantee program that supported Solyndra found that it will cost $2 billion less than originally anticipated.

AP Photo

Monday’s news that yet another solar company that received Energy Department backing is filing for bankruptcy protection at first looked like the Obama administration had funded another expensive loser.

But unlike Solyndra’s high-profile and costly flameout, this time the news came with a twist that tripped up wire services, talking heads and members of Congress.

The company, Solar Trust, never took the money….

Even The Associated Press and Reuters got it wrong.

When the media latches on to a narrative, mistakes happen. Why? Confirmation bias sets in, so reporters and editors don’t do the same amount of due diligence as they would on a story that strikes their intuition — their nose for news — as incorrect.

The media mistakenly believes unrestricted emissions of greenhouse gases are unlikely to have a catastrophic impact, so they downplay the story and play up the 1 in 20 articles that doesn’t show  the situation is more dire than scientists thought.

Now, the media erroneously thinks solar power is flaming out and that government support for solar isn’t a good idea. They have wildly overhyped Solyndra, ignoring anything that would undermine the narrative, such as the December Bloomberg report that concluded: “The focus on Solyndra is not proportional to its impact.”

So I suppose it’s no surprise that leading news outlets got the Solar Trust story wrong. Politico notes in its story, “A $2 billion solar mistake — from the media“ that the error underscores “the eagerness of many in the media to discover the next Solyndra.”

Precisely. In this case, their error was abetted by the right-wing disinformation machine:

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Boehner's absurd investigation is enough to make a grown man cry.

by Richard W. Caperton

Here we go again.

After spending the last year investigating the scandal-free DOE Loan Guarantee Program, House Republicans have thrown in the towel.  Instead of getting down to serious business, though (like, extending the Production Tax Credit), they’ve decided to waste more time and taxpayer money investigating another clean energy incentive: the Section 1603 tax credit reimbursement program.

Here’s what Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) had to say on this topic yesterday:

“You know, I made clear earlier this year that oversight of the Obama administration’s policies on jobs, on the economy, and its spending taxpayer dollars was going to be a priority. Two weeks ago, Chairman Upton at the Energy & Commerce Committee began looking into the Department of Energy’s Section 1603 grant program, a Solyndra-style ‘stimulus’ program that offers cash payments to renewable energy companies. More than $10 billion – that’s with a ‘b’ — $10 billion has been spent on this, and Secretary Chu said it created ‘tens of thousands of jobs,’ except there’s no evidence to support that.

“The Energy & Commerce Committee set a deadline for today for the Energy Department & Treasury Department to produce documents or information about what taxpayers got for their $10 billion. The administration thus far has failed to provide the committee with any information to justify this claim.

“Listen, the American people continue to ask the question ‘Where are the jobs?’ They deserve answers and they deserve the truth.”

Fair enough. Americans deserve to know the truth, and here it is: the 1603 program led to thousands of clean energy jobs, leveraged billions of dollars in private investment, and helped clean energy industries grow despite tough economic times.

You know how you can tell that Boehner is not interested in the truth?  The entire premise of this investigation is based on a misleading statement, that the 1603 program is a “Solyndra-style” program.

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