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Lawmakers
Probe Fast-Track Approval for Connected Green Companies
by Lachlan
Markay
June 2, 2012
Congressional
investigators are probing potential cronyism in a pair of federal green
energy
programs, including the Energy Department loan program that guaranteed
a $535
million loan to now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra.
In a letter
to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar sent on Tuesday, embedded below, Sen.
Jeff
Sessions (R-AL), chairman of the Budget Committee, and Rep. Darrell
Issa
(R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, ask for information
on
federal support for six different companies: Abengoa Solar,
BrightSource
Energy, First Solar, Nevada Geothermal, NextEra Energy Resources, and
SolarReserve.
Sessions
initially requested the information last year, but DOI has yet to
respond. The
letter calls the department’s silence “unacceptable.”
Session and
Issa are wondering whether DOI fast-tracked regulatory approval for a
spate of
green energy projects with notable political connections and ties to
the Obama
administration.
According
to a Republican aide on the Senate Budget Committee, Salazar’s
department has
created a two-tiered system for energy companies looking to secure
federal
support. “Politically favored, and often connected, renewable energy
plans
[receive] less rigorous review than traditional energy projects,” the
aide
asserted.
Each of the
companies mentioned in the letter has a significant political
footprint. For
instance, former BrightSource CEO John Bryson is now Commerce
Secretary. Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was instrumental in securing federal
backing
for Nevada Geothermal, even pressuring Interior to fast-track the
company’s
loan guarantee approval process.
Steve
Black, a senior official at DOI, leads the Renewable Energy Policy
Group, which
also includes NextEra lobbyist Manal Yamout. Black and Yamout are
reportedly in
a romantic relationship.
The lead
lobbyist for First Solar, vice president of government relations
Kathleen
Weiss, has had numerous meetings at the White House, according to
visitor logs.
She has met with senior White House official Valerie Jarrett, Deputy
Assistant
to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal, among
others.
While
Interior has yet to respond to the request for information on these and
other
companies, the appearance of political favoritism in DOI’s review of
green
energy projects fits with a pattern of cronyism in the administration’s
“green”
initiatives.
Source:
blog.heritage.org
Sessions
Issa Letter to Salazar can be downloaded in pdf format here
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