Friday, November 18, 2011

The Chu Review: "Unbowed," "troubling," "failed," "well played," "clueless" "unflappable"

From Reason's Hit&Run blog:
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu contains multitudes, according to a roundup of establishment media coverage of his testimony about Solyndra, the Fremont, California solar panel maker that received a half-billion-dollar taxpayer-guaranteed loan in March 2009 and went bankrupt in September 2011.
Conventional wisdom: Chu's testimony ended with a hair's-breadth 'scape by the Nobel laureate. 
USA Today's Aamer Madhani reports that Chu has already moved on to new business successes after yesterday's mixed testimony to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce about the Solyndra debacle:
Chu is scheduled to tour a General Electric thin-solar panel facility in Arvada, Colo., this afternoon and meet with company executives. GE announced their plans to enter the solar panel business in April, and Chu will use the visit to tout the potential of the solar energy industry in the United States.
"America faces a simple choice: compete or accept defeat," Chu told the the panel investigating the $535 million DOE loan guarantee to Solyndra. "I believe we can and must compete."
Republicans blasted Chu for his decision to restructure the Solyndra loan earlier this year and argued that his decision to place $75 million in private investment ahead of taxpayer debt violated the statute of the loan guarantee program. Chu called the collapse of Solyndra "very regrettable" but declined to apologize for the Obama administration's decision to make the loan.
Washington Post columnist Glenn Kessler gives Chu "three Pinocchios" for contrary-to-fact statements in his sworn testimony...MORE