March 17, 2014

HOUSE PANEL REJECTS IMMEDIATELY ENDING DOE LOAN PROGRAM IN ‘SOLYNDRAS’ BILL

By ExchangeMonitor

The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced legislation yesterday aimed at reforming the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, after rejecting an amendment that would have terminated the program. The legislation was prompted by DOE’s loan to the now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra and aims to eventually phase out the program, but still allows loans to be granted to companies that submitted applications prior to 2012. That would leave USEC eligible for a $2 billion loan guarantee for its American Centrifuge Project. At a full committee markup yesterday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) offered an amendment “in order to test whether the Republicans actually wanted to end the program,” according to a release by Markey’s office. The amendment failed in a vote of 3 to 39, with 25 Republicans voting against it.

Republican supporters of the bill said the 2012 cutoff is to avoid liability issues with companies that had already applied. Markey presented a different interpretation. “Democrats oppose terminating the loan guarantee program, and despite Republican rhetoric, we’ve known all along that they’ve opposed terminating it in order to protect the $32.5 billion for nuclear and fossil loan guarantees,” he said in a statement. “We’ve called the Republican’s bluff today, and they are now on the record in their opposition to ending the loan guarantee program despite their statements to the contrary.”

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