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
