The Department of Energy is trying to buck oversight regulations recommended by a government watchdog agency to safeguard billions in taxpayer loans to green energy companies.
The Government Accountability Office issued a report documenting the DOE’s failure to monitor properly its $15 billion loan program.
The report found that the department failed to actively oversee the companies, skipped standard review protocol, and applied department rules in an inconsistent manner. GAO worried that the department’s conduct "reduces the (department’s) assurance that it has treated applicants…equitably."
The department is resisting GAO’s call to implement a new application tracking system that would allow observers to ensure that all applicants for the lucrative loan program are subjected to the same standards. The department has agreed to maintain more documentation of its program.
The GAO review comes in the wake of large-scale bankruptcies at solar company Solyndra and green tech firm Beacon Power Corp, which received nearly $580 million from the 2009 stimulus bill.