Silver’s resignation “does not solve the problem,” Stearns and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton said in a statement, vowing to continue their investigation.
POLITICAL, FINANCIAL OPERATIVE
Silver has served as an advisor to commerce, interior and treasury secretaries in previous administrations.
Before his stint with the Obama administration, he founded Core Capital Partners, a venture capital fund that invested in alternative energy technology. He had also worked for the hedge fund Tiger Management.
When he joined the Energy Department, the loans office had only 35 employees, and he was charged with speeding up the process for evaluating applications and delivering loan guarantees to spur clean energy jobs — a key part of the Obama administration’s energy policy.
After Solyndra, the department approved 27 other loan guarantees for a total value of $16 billion. Nearly a dozen of those were approved in the last two weeks of September, right before funding for the program expired.
“Because of my absolute confidence in Jonathan and the outstanding work he has done, I would welcome his continued service at the department, but I completely understand the decision he has made,” Chu said in a statement.
Moderate think-tank Third Way said Silver will join their organization to work on energy policy issues.
OBAMA DEFENDS LOAN PROGRAM
Obama on Thursday said the program, which was created by Congress during the George W. Bush administration, was necessary to help the United States remain competitive in the clean energy sector that has become dominated by China and Europe.
“If we are going to be able to compete in the 21st century, then we’ve got to dominate cutting-edge technologies, we’ve got to dominate cutting-edge manufacturing,” Obama said.
The fall of one company should not discredit the entire program, Obama said, noting decisions on the loan were made “on merit.”
“We knew from from the start, it was going to entail some risks,” he said. “There were going to be some companies that did not work out. Solyndra was one of them.”
Obama said the United States cannot afford to back down from supporting clean energy, when China and other countries are strongly backing alternative energy.
“I’m not going to cave to the competition when they are heavily subsidizing all these industries,” Obama said.