Lessons from Solyndra

"In September 2011, solar energy giant Solyndra filed for bankruptcy and laid off all of its approximately 1,100 employees. The collapse was a major embarrassment for the Obama Administration because both President Obama and Vice President Biden had publicly singled out Solyndra—recipient of some half a billion dollars in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees—as a shining success of their approach to job creation and climate change. The embarrassment soon turned to scandal, however, as legislators discovered that the Administration had apparently ignored early warnings about extending such loans to Solyndra. As of this writing (four months after Solyndra's collapse), Republican legislators are still pressing the Administration to release more emails between key officials to determine when they learned the true situation."