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Saturday, October 8, 2011

A New Name in the Solyndra Mess: Steve Spinner

PHOTO: Steve Spinner, loan programs advisor at the Department of Energy, talks about green energy grants and loans in this YouTube video of the Bryan Cave Clean Tech Roundtable in Santa Monica, California on June 2, 2010.
Steve Spinner

A new name has surfaced in the Solyndra scandal. Meet Steve Spinner, Dept. of  Energy loans advisor, Obama fundraiser, and husband of a woman representing Solyndra. He is one the insiders who was pushing that loan to Solyndra while the responsible DOE officials were balking at the appoval. The below report is from ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/obama-fundraiser-pushed-solyndra-deal-inside/story?id=14691618

"How hard is this? What is he waiting for?" wrote Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate before being appointed to a key job helping oversee the energy loan guarantee program. "I have OVP [the Office of the Vice President] and WH [the White House] breathing down my neck on this."

Let's sum up; Spinner was a fundraiser for Obama who was given a job as an energy advisor (Green energy, no less). His wife represented Solyndra. He was pushing energy officials for a quick approval because the White House and the VP's office were "breathing down his neck".

Nothing to see here, folks. Move on.

7 comments:

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Which is it Gary?

Was he following direction from his superiors, who obviously made a bad call?

Or was HE taking initiative to do his wife's clients a favor, which could well be a criminal violation on HIS part?

You can't have it both ways.

Gary Fouse said...

Either way, it was bad. Take your choice.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Either way, no crime by the president or his immediate staff. Bad judgement, quite possibly. Clarity, rather limited.

Decisive for voters? You and Miggie already made up your minds. You don't need any more motivation.

Gary Fouse said...

Siarlys has moved on.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

You wish. It is my solemn duty as a citizen to speak truth to idiocy here at Fousesquawk.

Anonymous said...

Steve's wife does not and never did work for Solyndra. The law firm made sure that there was a Chinese Wall between it's dealings with Solyndra and the work his wife did in order to ensure there was no conflict of interest. The tie between the two in this article is misleading.

Gary Fouse said...

Dear Anonymous,

If Steve's wife was employed by the law firm that did business with Solyndra, then there is a conflict of interest. The fact that she may or may not have worked on the Solyndra account does not completely wash that away.