The Real Problem with Solyndra

The real problem with Solyndra is not which administration should be blamed, whether stimulus money was wasted, whether the company was mismanaged, whether Solyndra executives misled the government and the company’s investors, whether the loan guarantee should have been denied, whether the Obama administration pressured the DOE to approve the deal, whether the restructuring of Solyndra’s loan was done lawfully, whether Obama used the Solyndra loan guarantee to score political points, whether the DOE and the OMB should have exercised more oversight, or whether “green energy” is viable. The central government has been delegated no authority by the Constitution, nor is it the proper role of government, to regulate, encourage, discourage, license, subsidize, oversee, control, or otherwise have anything to do with energy production, energy conservation, energy efficiency, energy independence, renewable energy, or “green energy.” And neither is it the business of government to have an energy policy and “green” initiatives or to guarantee loans and act as a venture capitalist. Republicans and Democrats may disagree over the extent and scope of government intervention in the energy sector, but both parties are firmly committed to the statist idea that the government should have a role in shaping how Americans produce and use energy. Rather than focusing on how the Solyndra incident happened, the focus should instead be on why the United States has an Energy Policy Act, a Federal Financing Bank, an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and a Department of Energy...more

What I've given you above is the author's conclusions.  Read the entire article for an excellent background on the issue, starting with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which was supported by all 5 members of the NM Delegation (Bingaman, Domenici, Pearce, Udall & Wilson) and the further liberalizing of requirements and increased funding contained in The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.