House Roll Call 584 (9-14-12) H.R. 6213 No More Solyndras Act.

Passed in House: 245 – 161, 23 not voting. Dead in Senate.

Bill Summary:  Prohibits the Secretary of Energy (DOE) from issuing any new loan guarantee of an innovative energy project under title XVII (Incentives for Innovative Technologies) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 for any application submitted to DOE after December 31, 2011. Imposes new requirements for the approval of any applications submitted before that date.

Analysis:  Here was a responsible piece of legislation going nowhere. The GOP capitalized on the Solyndra financing scandal to embarrass the Obama administration and to expose the weakness in the administration’s efforts to pick winners and losers in “politically correct” technology.

Solyndra was a manufacture of innovative, high-tech solar panels located in Fremont, California that received loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorized the guarantees. At one point, President Obama and Vice President Obama touted Solyndra as a showpiece of successful government intervention in the marketplace to stimulate the economy. But then Solyndra went belly up, costing taxpayers more than $500 million.

Of course, there is no constitutional basis for increased government spending (and loan guarantees) to boost the economy out of a government-caused recession.

Supporting this legislation was easy for Republicans (we ignore the GOP votes). But we give credit to the 22 Democrats who elected to side with the GOP on this issue.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Ayes and (bad vote) to the Noes. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)