White House Brushed Off Solyndra Worries, Emails Show

From The Wall Street Journal

By Deborah Solomon
October 3, 2011
White House officials dismissed concerns about Solyndra LLC ahead of President Barack Obama's May 2010 visit to the failed solar-panel maker, despite acknowledging that the company and other clean-energy ventures could go "belly-up" by the 2012 election…

"I am increasingly worried that this visit could prove embarrassing to the Administration in the not too distant future, given 1) what we just heard today from DOE that Solyndra is delaying their IPO at least until the end of the year, and 2) what the auditors said about Solyndra making it through the year absent new financing," warned an email from one OMB staffer to another.

An OMB staffer also wrote: "Hope doesn't default before" Mr. Obama's May 26 visit.

Two days before Mr. Obama's tour of Solyndra, Steve Westly, a California venture capitalist, emailed Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, saying the company was risky for Mr. Obama and visiting it could "haunt him in the next 18 months if Solyndra hits the wall, files for bankruptcy, etc."

Ms. Jarrett emailed Ron Klain, then chief of staff to Vice President Joseph Biden, who acknowledged "some risk factors here—but that's true of any innovative company that POTUS [president of the United States] would visit. It looks like it is OK to me, but if you feel otherwise, let me know." Mr. Klain then told Ms. Jarrett: "The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012—but that to me is the reality of saying that we want to help promote cutting edge, new economy industries."…

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