Solyndra CEO in 2009: Obama "Instrumental" in Securing Loan Guarantee

As you know by now, the Obama Administration gave a $535,000,000 tax-payer funded loan to the green company Solyndra, despite warnings at the time from nearly every sector that it was a bad idea.  The company quickly went belly up, and an investigation has been launched as to why the President pushed so hard to get Solyndra the loan.

According to the White House, there was nothing special about the money given to Solyndra.  Sure, Solyndra VPs donated thousands to the Obama Presidential Campaign, but that was nothing.  The President wasn't playing favorites, they say, and he didn't campaign specifically for Solyndra over other companies.  However, according to a newly found press release on Solyndra's own website, that does not seem to be he case.

Solyndra logo

Solyndra wrote a release when it received the massive loan in March of 2009.  Solyndra CEO and Founder Chris Gronet thanked President Obama personally for the money, saying:

"The leadership and actions of President Barack Obama, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and the U.S. Congress were instrumental in concluding this offer for a loan guarantee.”

After touting how fiscally sound the loan was, and how Solyndra would be very successful, Dr. Gronet added:

"This expansion is really about creating new jobs while meaningfully impacting global warming."

Later in the article, Kelly Truman, Solyndra’s Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Business Development, touted the great financial position Solyndra was in:

“DOE, in consultation with independent consultants, performed a thorough investigation and analysis of our project’s financial, technical and legal strengths. We are proud to be the first company to pass this comprehensive review, and we would like to acknowledge the exceptional efforts of the staff of the DOE Loan Guarantee Program Office.”

Of course, this was later found out to be a complete lie.  Solyndra has gone belly-up, as most analysts predicted it would.  President Obama claims that he did not play favorites, yet Solyndra's CEO and founder personally thanked him for getting him the loan.

Almost as bad is the article's claim that approximately 4,000 jobs would be created with the 535 million dollar loan.  That's $134,000 per job.  But guess what: that all fell through.  So now it went from bad ($134,000 per job) to atrocious ($535,000,000 for no jobs).

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