In enlisting Herbert M. Allison Jr., a former executive who helped the Bush and Obama administrations rescue the financial system, the White House indicated some concern that it needed to get out ahead of the Congressional investigation into the loan portfolio of the Department of Energy and, in particular, the half-billion-dollar loan to the California manufacturer, Solyndra.
But officials also indicated that the White House would oppose any subpoena of additional internal records related to Solyndra. The administration has given more than 70,000 documents to Republicans investigating what they characterize as the first scandal related to the economic-stimulus package early in the Obama administration.
The White House contends that those documents show that the decisions related to Solyndra and other loan recipients were based on merit and made by nonpolitical career staff members following proper procedures.
In a statement, the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, said Mr. Allison would analyze “the current state of the Department of Energy loan portfolio, focusing on future loan monitoring and management.” Mr. Allison is to issue a public evaluation and any recommendations in 60 days and can bring in outside experts to help him.
Mr. Daley said Mr. Allison was chosen not only for his résumé, but because “he is tough, always tells it like it is.”
Mr. Allison, a former president of Merrill Lynch and former chief executive of the insurance company TIAA-CREF, was tapped by the Bush administration in September 2008, with the financial sector near collapse, to lead the mortgage-finance giant Fannie Mae when it was forced into a government conservatorship. In 2009, he was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to be assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability and to oversee the bank bailout, the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He left in September 2010 when it had become evident that big banks would repay their loans, with interest.
Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Daley, in his statement, stressed that the president remained committed to government investments in clean energy, to create jobs and to compete with foreign rivals.
“And while we continue to take steps to make sure the United States remains competitive in the 21st century energy economy, we must also ensure that we are strong stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Mr. Daley said.
The Energy Department program comprises 40 projects worth $36 billion, including guarantees for large nuclear-power loans and for development of electric vehicles.
Scrutiny has focused on a portfolio with a total loan value of about $16 billion that relates to 28 renewable-energy projects at companies engaged in biofuels, wind farms, battery storage, solar energy generation and solar-panel manufacturing like Solyndra was trying before it declared bankruptcy in September. The company, which received $528 million, is also under investigation for possible fraud by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
On Friday the leaders of the Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee — Representatives Fred Upton of Michigan, the chairman, and Cliff Stearns of Florida, the chairman of the oversight subcommittee — announced that the committee would meet on Thursday to vote on whether to subpoena internal White House communications related to the Solyndra loan and its restructuring in 2010.
The Republican majority on the committee has been seeking evidence that the White House ordered the Energy Department to approve the loan guarantee to Solyndra, but so far it has mostly found expressions of intense interest from the White House over the timing of the approval.
Specifically, the committee is now seeking communications from the start of the administration involving some of Mr. Obama’s closest advisers. While the White House has not yet tried to exercise executive privilege to withhold material, any subpoenas could prompt a legal showdown with Republicans.
“Subpoenaing the White House is a serious step that, unfortunately, appears to be necessary in light of the Obama administration’s stonewall on Solyndra,” Mr. Upton and Mr. Stearns said in a joint statement.
The White House said it stood by an Oct. 14 letter to the two lawmakers from one of Mr. Obama’s lawyers, Kathryn H. Ruemmler. She wrote that the White House, the Energy and Treasury Departments and the budget office had taken part in nine briefings to Congressional staff, testified at hearings and produced more than 70,000 pages of documents with nothing to indicate “the White House intervened in the Solyndra loan guarantee to benefit a campaign contributor.”
Stopping short of an invocation of executive privilege, Ms. Ruemmler said the committee’s request for more material “implicates longstanding and significant institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests.”
John M. Broder contributed reporting.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0527343147df5cdd49907990b256cd06
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