"A senior Republican appropriator confessed today that if the Obama administration applied inappropriate political pressure on the Department of Energy to approve the ill-fated Solyndra loan, then he and other members of Congress are guilty of the same sin."
"Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho spoke at an Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Loan Programs Office's 2013 budget request during questioning of the office's acting director, David Frantz.
Simpson admitted he routinely checked with Frantz's predecessor about a $2 billion loan guarantee for a front-end nuclear project that a company called AREVA planned for Idaho Falls. The project received a conditional commitment in May 2010.
Since DOE has to answer to Congress for its funding, Simpson said he could understand how some people might view his repeated meetings with DOE officials on the AREVA project as applying pressure."
John McArdle reports for E&E News PM March 28, 2012.
