Californians for Renewable Energy’s lawsuit challenging the validity of U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees for renewable technology manufacturers and utility-scale renewable generation projects is in part motivated by Fremont-based Solyndra’s bankruptcy. Cory Briggs, the attorney pressing the case for Californians for Renewable Energy, says “the Solyndra and Beacon bankruptcies are ‘exhibit A’ for why DOE should have issued regulations before putting taxpayers on the hook.” The federal department granted the loan guarantees authorized under the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act based largely on regulations written for another loan guarantee program authorized under an earlier law. Briggs maintains those rules did not provide for properly vetting the projects guaranteed under the Recovery Act. The department provided Solyndra a $535 million loan guarantee under its Recovery Act authority. It granted a $43 million guarantee to Beacon Power for an energy storage project in New York using flywheel technology. After getting the guarantees, both companies went bankrupt, putting the federal government in jeopardy of having to pay out if private lenders could not fully recover their money. Rockland Capital purchased Beacon Feb. 7 for $30.5 million, plus an agreement to pay DOE $6.6 million. Solyndra’s bankruptcy is still pending. A federal judge ruled Feb. 22 that company executives can get $370,000 in bonuses if they can successfully auction off company assets on a timely basis.
