A dispute that arose among Republicans over the party’s No More Solyndras Act has apparently been resolved.
The bill would effectively eliminate the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program,
Politico reports. Solyndra is a failed solar panel manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee under the program.
Three House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans said publicly last week that they had reservations about the bill. Texas Reps. Joe Barton, Michael Burgess, and Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey said the program should be reformed rather than jettisoned.
An editorial in The Wall Street Journal Thursday criticized the trio. “Republicans will be fiscal frauds if they renew the very money-losing energy programs they attacked Barack Obama for,” the editors wrote. “When the next Solyndra goes bankrupt, voters will have more than Mr. Obama to blame.”
Apparently the editorial had impact. Representatives for Burgess and Gingrey told Politico afterward that both congressmen will vote for the bill, though a Barton spokesman declined to comment.
The editorial sounded a warning for the congressmen who were “wandering” on the issue, GOP energy and environmental adviser Mike McKenna told Politico.
“There’s no doubt that it helped. Sometimes you need to see yourself like other people see it. That was one of those moments.”
Kentucky GOP Rep. Ed Whitfield, chairman of the Energy Committee’s Energy and Power Subcommittee, predicts the bill will pass the subcommittee in a vote slated for Wednesday.
“I feel pretty good about it, though I haven’t done a head count,” he told Politico.
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