White House to release post-Solyndra review of green-energy loans

The White House will release next week a review of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program that was ordered after the bankruptcy of solar firm Solyndra.

The review is certain to provide fodder for Republican attacks on the White House over the administration’s $535 million Solyndra deal.

Then-White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley ordered the review in October amid growing Republican criticism of the Solyndra loan guarantee, which was issued by the Energy Department in 2009. The California-based company filed for bankruptcy in early September, shortly after laying off 1,100 workers.

{mosads}Herb Allison, a former Treasury Department official who oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), conducted the review and delivered his report to the White House late last month.

“We have received Mr. Allison’s report and we thank him for his service,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. “We are reviewing the report’s findings and look forward to releasing it by the end of the next week.”

Allison’s review takes a broad view of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program.

Republicans, who have spent months investigating Solyndra, are eagerly awaiting the review. The GOP has used the Solyndra bankruptcy to raise questions about the program, which offers companies taxpayer-backed loans for energy projects.

The loan guarantee program is aimed at boosting projects that might otherwise have difficulty obtaining private financing.

The program was authorized in 2005 and expanded in the 2009 stimulus law. Solyndra was the first company to receive a loan guarantee under the program, which the administration touted with a visit by President Obama to the company’s headquarters.