November 2011: Porker of the Month - Energy Secretary Steven Chu

By CAGW President Tom Schatz: Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu Porker of the Month for his weak oversight of DOE’s loan guarantee program (LGP), which resulted in huge losses to taxpayers when solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, the recipient of a $535 million loan guarantee, filed for bankruptcy in September.

The LGP program, which received a massive increase in funding in the 2009 stimulus package, has been the subject of three Government Accountability Office reports since its inception, all detailing its management weaknesses, arbitrary selection process, and vulnerabilities to manipulation and politicization.

The collapse of Solyndra was quickly followed by the bankruptcies of three other LGP recipients – Massachusetts-based Beacon Power and Evergreen, Inc. and Oregon-based SpectraWatt. CAGW President Tom Schatz commented, “Sec. Chu and his colleagues dismissed numerous warning signs that the LGP was a ticking time bomb…If this is the Obama administration’s idea of how America can ‘invest’ in its economic recovery, taxpayers would much rather keep the money and do it themselves.”  For trying to pick winners and losers in a volatile sector, for acting as if winning a Nobel Prize in physics also magically confers the title of venture capitalist, and for frittering away taxpayers’ hard-earned money, Sec. Chu is CAGW’s November 2011 Porker of the Month. Read more about the Porker of the Month.
-------------
CAGW is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.


---

Tags: CAGW, November, 2011, Porker of the Month, Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, DOE, loan guarantee program, LGP, solar panel manufacturer, Solyndra, bankruptcy, Massachusetts, Beacon Power, Evergreen, Inc., Oregon, SpectraWatt To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!