November 08, 2011 01:32 AM UTC

Gardner's hypocritical Solyndra skating

• 6 Comments
• by: JeffcoBlue

(We shouldn’t be picking winners and losers* – promoted by Colorado Pols)

I posted in late September about the bankruptcy of solar-electric array manufacturer Solyndra, and subsequent feeding frenzy by Republicans desperate to pin President Barack Obama in his first scandal. Even though the Solyndra loan application was initiated during the Bush administration, and the loan program a product of the Republican Energy Act of 2005, opportunistic Republicans like Colorado’s Cory Gardner have waded into the Solyndra bankruptcy with the most investigative zeal seen from the GOP since Monica Lewinsky disclosed the existence of a soiled blue dress.

In mid-October, the Longmont Times Call reported “Colorado solar industry growth leads nation.” That story featured Abound Solar, a company in Gardner’s district that the good representative regularly holds up as an example of a successful company in his district. In this story, Solyndra is mentioned, but Gardner doesn’t attack Obama’s adminsitration directly, simply mentioning that Solyndra was “unfortunate.”

Because Abound Solar received a $400 million loan guarantee from the same federal program as Solyndra! Abounds VP says that loan will be “instrumental” in “remaining competitive” while their new manufacturing line is built. Meaning the funding will keep Abound afloat until they’re ready to survive in the market. Abound is a big problem for Gardner’s Solyndra scandal TPs.

The reason Solyndra went bankrupt is not waste, or bad management, or any of that. It was Solyndra’s copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) solar cells. CIGS is high tech and more efficient than regular silicon panels, but not competitive to manufacture after the price of silicon crashed in the Great Recession. Ultra-cheap solar panels from China dumped in the United States have made it hard on all solar manufacturers to compete, but it was harder for Solyndra.

In any new market for a product, there are going to be failures. Some of the failures will be big, and some small. Some won’t be considered failures at all in 10 or 15 years, after the technology is used elsewhere and succeeds. The point of a federal loan guarantee is to make capital available to these emerging technologies, when risk might deter investors otherwise. For every one that fails, like Solyndra, you can show many more success stories like Abound Solar. Republicans knew this is what would happen when they approved the Energy Act of 2005.

Today, The Denver Post has another story about Rep. Gardner, Solyndra, and the companies in his district he celebrates that have benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars of Energy Department loan guarantees. The Times Call story was weak and unquestioning of Gardner, but I think Allison Sherry of the Post is not buying Gardner’s doubletalk. I don’t see where even Gardner tries to resolve the double standard between the way he treats Solyndra vs. Abound Solar.

I’ve heard of political football, but how do you play both sides in football?