GOP Probes Now-Bankrupt Solar Company That Obama Once Touted

House Republicans are eager to find out at a congressional hearing Wednesday why President Obama and his administration continued to promote and refinance $528 million in stimulus loan guarantees to the now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra even after warning signs emerged.

“Many of us think he was trying to get the money out the door perhaps for political reasons, and in the end taxpayers lost over half a billion dollars,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, whose hearing is part of a seven-month investigation.

Asked if someone should be fired over this, Stearns told Fox News, "I do."

But the White House has defended the federal loan.

"This loan guarantee was pursued by both the Bush and Obama administrations," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. "The Department of Energy's overall portfolio of investments -- which includes dozens of other companies, continues to perform well and is on pace to create thousands of jobs."

In an SEC filing in March 2010, a year after the California-based Solyndra got the loan guarantees but before the refinancing, independent auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers said several negative financial factors “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”

Still, two months later, Obama went to Solyndra’s solar panel plant and touted green energy and the stimulus.

“The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra,” Obama said at the time.

But this summer, after CEO Brian Harrison told members of Congress that “Solyndra’s financial condition was improving," Energy Department officials let lawmakers know that the company was facing “decreased revenues.”

“Obviously there was duplicity here because (the Energy Department) was on the board of Solyndra monitoring what happens, and eventually they were concerned enough that they sent in their own inspector team and the FBI a couple of days ago because they suspect criminality,” Stearns said.

In addition to raiding the company's headquarters, the FBI also interviewed Solyndra executives at their home following the company's bankruptcy announcement. The FBI has not said what the investigation is focused on but it is widely believed to be linked to the bankruptcy.

"While we are disappointed by this particular outcome, we continue to believe the clean energy jobs race is one that American can, must and will win," White House spokesman Schultz said. "The question we, as a country, have to ask ourselves is: are the jobs of the future going to created here in the United States or elsewhere?"

Solyndra, whose technology relied on a tube that could soak up sunlight from many different angles, producing energy more efficiently and using less space, became the first company to get a loan guarantee through Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus program. The government later restructured the terms of the loan.

When the Energy Department rejected Solyndra’s request for a second refinancing to get additional financing from private investors, the company filed for bankruptcy.