Obama Rushed Solyndra Loan

The White House pressed the Office of Budget and Management to speed up its approval of a $535 million loan to now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra, so that Joe Biden could announce it at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s new factory, according to emails that Republican congressional investigators passed to the Washington Post. In the emails, the White House repeatedly asks when the review will be completed, while the OMB expresses concern about Solyndra’s finances.

“We have ended up with a situation of having to do rushed approvals on a couple of occasions (and we are worried about Solyndra at the end of the week),” an official complains in one email. In another, one complains that “There isn’t time to negotiate.” The White House acknowledges that it had a “quite active interest” in when the OMB could reach a decision, but stresses that it didn’t try to sway the decision itself. (More Solyndra stories.)