The Obama administration is furiously trying to play down links between House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi and a giant new $737 million loan guarantee for a green energy project in Nevada.
Department of Energy spokesman Damien LaVera called the suggestion of
cronyism “absurd” according to an article in the
San Francisco Chronicle.
"Many months of rigorous technical, financial and legal due diligence was done by nonpolitical career employees to scrutinize every aspect of this transaction – over a period of years,” said LaVera.
"It was approved because it meets all the requirements of the program – helping America win the clean energy race and create entire new industries for American workers.
Pelosi’s brother-in-law, Ronald Pelosi, is second-in-command at Pacific Corporate Group, one of the main investors in the solar-thermal Crescent Dunes project now under construction in the Nevada desert.
The well-connected 76-year-old only joined the company in the spring, three years after it invested in SolarReserve, the parent company behind the Crescent Dunes plan, said the Chronicle.
Nancy Pelosi said she was unfamiliar with the project and she said the she was sorry that her husband’s brother had been dragged into controversy.
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