Under fire, administration touts ‘green jobs’

The push by the Energy Department to tout its job-creation numbers comes amid growing criticism of the administration’s clean-energy policies by Republicans in Congress.

That criticism reached a fever pitch late last month when Solyndra, a California solar company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration, filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that he is launching an investigation into the administration’s investments in private companies, citing the Solyndra debacle.

Thursday’s hearing will be Issa’s first opportunity to bash administration officials over the incident as well as the administration’s clean-energy policies generally. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall are also slated to testify at the hearing.

Issa’s committee is not the only congressional panel investigating the Solyndra incident. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the loan guarantee for months.

The Energy Department has said the bankruptcy is disappointing, but stressed that the solar industry and the administration’s renewable energy loan guarantee program are both thriving.

Top administration officials say they are fully committed to investing in renewable energy. The Energy Department, for example, is in the process of finalizing 14 more loan guarantees, nine of which are for solar projects.

On Wednesday, the department pointed reporters to two recent studies that paint a rosy picture of the solar industry’s future. One study shows job growth in the solar industry, and the other says that solar panel installations increased by nearly 70 percent in the second quarter of 2011 when compared to the same period last year.

But the U.S. solar industry faces a number of significant challenges, including plummeting solar-panel prices, lower demand in Germany and Italy, uncertainty surrounding government incentives and major competition from countries like China, which have invested billions in the industry.

But the Energy Department is not just focused on solar energy; this morning it released a video touting its investments in advanced battery technology.