Emails released Friday show Energy Secretary Steven Chu intervened in 2011 to help advance a government loan guarantee for a $1.4 billion project to put solar panels on roofs, the Wall Street Journal reports. The project was backed by Bank of America Corp.
The documents, cited in a letter to Mr. Chu from Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, show that Mr. Chu—in a move Republicans said was unusual—asked senior Department of Energy staff to hold a meeting to decide if the project should be approved.
The Department of Energy defended Mr. Chu's involvement in the loan guarantee. The secretary "strongly supported" the project "because it will be the largest rooftop project in U.S. history" and "represents a transformational new approach to financing and operating solar panels," department spokesman Damien LaVera said Friday. [...]
The rooftop plan, known as Project Amp, involves putting solar panels on the roofs of about 750 Prologis Inc. warehouses. Prologis had a development agreement with Solyndra for a small portion of the project before Solyndra's bankruptcy filing in September.