25 July 2012
The US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power has approved the "No More Solyndras" Act by a vote of 14-6. Rhone Resch, president and chief executive officer of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), issued the following statement on the discussion draft.
"Both Congress and the administration have identified ways to improve the US Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program. Unfortunately, the provisions approved by the subcommittee today simply 'throws the baby out with the bathwater' (i.e., discarding the good with the bad).
"The loan program has been utilised on a bipartisan basis to leverage private capital to promote transportation, health care, education, housing and energy infrastructure policies. The provision in the discussion draft that sunsets DOE's loan program would hinder our nation's ability to develop innovative energy infrastructure projects.
"The loan guarantee program has yielded notable successes. In solar alone, the program is providing crucial financing to support the construction of 11 utility-scale solar power plants in the Southwest that will produce 2700 megawatts of safe, clean power—enough to power 630,000 homes. These are financially sound projects with guaranteed revenue streams.
"Moving forward, the solar industry remains willing to work with Congress and the administration in a constructive manner to improve the DOE Loan Guarantee Program."
The US solar energy industry employs 100,000 Americans at more than 5600 companies—mostly small businesses—across the US in all 50 states.
