The top Republican and Democratic members of a House subcommittee investigating the collapse of bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC after it received more than a half billion dollars in federal loans agreed Friday to seek the testimony of Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Days before the expiration of its loan program, the Department of Energy, under fire for backing more than a half-billion dollars in loans to now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, announced Wednesday more than $1 billion in new loan guarantees for other solar projects in Nevada and Arizona.
Before solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC went bankrupt, the U.S. Department of Energy — which had signed off on more than a half-billion dollars in loans — approved paying up to $1.1 million for an investment bank's advice on restructuring Solyndra "both in and out of bankruptcy," records show.
In the fallout of the collapse of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC — a company awarded more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans before it went bankrupt late last month — members of Congress are demanding to know how all that money was spent.
British police arrested suspected Islamic extremists on Monday in what officials called one of the most significant counterterrorism operations of the year.
A Friday vote has left the fate of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository hang ing in the balance. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is deadlocked 2-2 over whether the Energy Department could withdraw the license application for Yucca Mountain.
Obama administration officials refused to say Wednesday whether anybody would be fired over the decision to award solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra LLC a half-billion dollars in loans before it went bankrupt and saw its headquarters raided by the FBI.
The Obama administration is providing a loan guarantee for a massive solar-energy project that could double the number of glimmering solar panels on residential rooftops in the U.S.
When Energy Secretary Stephen Chu announced a half-billion dollars in federal stimulus loans to solar panel maker Solyndra, he called the move part of an aggressive effort to put more Americans to work and end U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
