[Update below original post] White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley was warned 6 months before Solyndra went bust.
Washington Post headlines with a blockbuster which could turn the Solyndra scandal into even more of a nightmare for Barack Obama three months away from the November presidential elections.
"White House analyst warned saving Solyndra could cost more than letting it fail"
Via Politico:
White House chief of staff Jack Lew may have disregarded warnings from lower-level budget employees that the administration's efforts to prop up Solyndra were unwise and possibly illegal, The Washington Post is reporting based on an upcoming House Energy and Commerce Committee report.
The Post's story says the report "suggests" that Lew — in his previous role as director of the Office of Management and Budget — "let the refinancing move forward without intervening, even though some OMB analysts thought a refinancing plan that favored private investors might violate the law."
It quotes from January 2011 emails by OMB analyst Kelly Colyar suggesting that taxpayers would lose only $141 million if the company were immediately liquidated, as opposed to $385 million if the government restructured the loan agreement and released more money to Solyndra.Instead, the Energy Department approved a restructuring in which private investors agreed to put more money into the company in return for getting first crack at repayment — ahead of taxpayers — if the company went under. Now, under a proposed Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Solyndra may end up repaying only $24 million of its $527 million government-backed loan, according to some analysts.
Colyar called herself "vastly confused by DOE's decision to negotiate away their senior position in this transaction," according to emails quoted by the Post. She also wrote that proceeds of an immediate sale of the company would be "significantly HIGHER than DOE's estimate," adding that the government "is better off liquidating the assets today than restructuring under DOE's proposal," the Post reported.
Solyndra was one of the
[Update] ABC News "WH Chief of Staff Daley Briefed on Solyndra Concerns, Email Says"
Buried in the treasure trove of White House emails related to Solyndra released Thursday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee is one suggesting that concerns about Solyndra’s viability were shared all the way up to then-White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley a full six months before the company went bust.
[Update #2] The RNC just released an ad about the emails, titled "Email Evidence".
[WATCH]