(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste issued a statement on the underlying cause of the scandal surrounding solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, which laid off 1,100 workers and filed for bankruptcy in early September despite receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy as part of the stimulus package.  The underlying catalyst for the boondoggle is the Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program (LGP) itself. 

The Government Accountability Program (GAO) has written no fewer than four reports limning the contours of a mismanaged, capricious, unaccountable loan program, awash in stimulus money, which grew aggressively both in dollar authority and in policy scope since 2005.  The GAO was sounding alarm bells almost from the LGP’s inception.  It had all the characteristics of a rogue program that would sooner or later lead inexorably to a Solyndra-like implosion. 

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.