Representative Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, this afternoon joined the Subcommittee on Energy and Power in passing the “No More Solyndras Act.”  The draft legislation, which is co-authored by Upton and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL), is the product of the committee’s long-running investigation into the $535 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee to the California solar panel manufacturer that ultimately went bankrupt, costing thousands of jobs and leaving taxpayers on the hook for half a billion dollars.  The legislation is expected to be considered by the full committee in the near future.

“The ‘No More Solyndras Act’ will help protect taxpayers against risky bets like Solyndra and the other stimulus failures where the government ignored red flags and ended up losing hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Upton.  “With DOE's stimulus record sadly littered with failure, our bill combines new safeguards and a phase-out of the program to ensure that there will be No More Solyndras.”

As the committee’s investigation revealed, the Obama administration put Solyndra’s loan on the fast track despite repeated red flags and warnings from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and DOE officials. When the warnings came to fruition and Solyndra was out of cash in the autumn of 2010, the Obama administration doubled down on its bad bet, restructuring Solyndra’s loan in early 2011 and putting wealthy investors at the front of the line ahead of taxpayers. Upton coauthored this draft legislation to ensure taxpayers are never again stuck paying hundreds of millions of dollars because of the Obama administration’s risky bets.

The “No More Solyndras Act” will phase out DOE’s flawed loan guarantee program under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and provide taxpayers strong new protections for any pending participants in the program. The bill provides greater loan guarantee transparency by requiring DOE to report to Congress on the decision-making process and details of the loan. The bill also prohibits DOE from restructuring the terms of any guarantee and forbids the subordination of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars to any other investors.

For text of the draft Upton-Stearns “No More Solyndras Act,” click HERE.

For letters and statements of support for the “No More Solyndras Act,” click HERE.