AEA President: “No More Solyndras” is a “Line in the Sand”

WASHINGTON D.C. — Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, released the following statement in advance of a vote this week of the energy and power subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is scheduled to consider the “No More Solyndras” Act of 2012.  The act would prohibit the Department of Energy from issuing any Section 1705 loan guarantee applications submitted after December 31, 2011, and greatly reduce taxpayer risk for loans submitted prior to that time. Last week, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board took three lawmakers to task for supporting a “politicized venture capital operation” and Solyndra-style loan guarantees at taxpayer expense.

“The ‘No More Solyndras’ Act is one of the most common sense pieces of legislation to come from the 112th Congress. It ends a system of crony capitalism, strips the Department of Energy of its authority to put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in loan guarantees, and steers the federal government back toward fiscal sanity,” noted Pyle.

“This is a line in the sand for Republicans and Democrats. Either you stand with Solyndra and other bankrupt experiments in politicized venture capital, or you stand with hardworking American taxpayers.  Either you want to protect rent-seeking cronies in the renewable industry, or you want to preserve the sacred trust of the men and women who sent you to Washington.

“After billions of dollars wasted — never to be recovered — and years of a failed energy program that spans both Republican and Democratic regimes, the time has come to end Solyndra-style loan guarantees once and for all. The Section 1705 program is rotten from the root, and no parliamentary maneuver or tweaked amendment can recover lost billions in taxpayer money or set the program aright. The only responsible course of action is to close this awful chapter of failed bureaucratic tinkering with our energy future.”

To read more about the Obama administration’s “Stimulosers” that have received taxpayer backing and still gone bust, click here.

To read about Amonix, the latest ‘Stimuloser” to go bankrupt, click here.

To view a video exposing the failed experiment that led to Solyndra, click below.