Well, not really.
An independent review of the Department of Energy's loan portfolio released by the White House yesterday has concluded that the department's portfolio will cost $2 billion less than previously estimated.
That’s the message from Herb Allison, former national finance chairman for John McCain, who led a team of accountants and auditors in conducting an independent analysis of the Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program. Allison and his team found that, despite the hysteria around Solyndra, this program will cost $2 billion less than initially expected.
Today, the White House released Allison’s review. It includes an analysis of every loan guarantee issued from DOE, as well as recommendations for managing this portfolio of guarantees going forward. This independent review was requested by the White House in late 2011, to make sure that the DOE loan guarantee portfolio was cost-effective for taxpayers.
The Allison review confirms what we already know, thanks to the Congressional Research Service and Bloomberg Government. Instead of looking at individual investments, CRS examined the entire DOE portfolio, and concluded that the overwhelming majority of the portfolio was in electrical generation projects, which DOE structured to have very low risk. Bloomberg Government took that a step forward, and concluded that the media’s incessant focus on Solyndra was “not proportional to its impact.”
The media's "incessant focus on Solyndra was not proportional to its impact." Ya' don't say?
2 percent of the DOE's loan guarantee program is a big deal if you're a villager!
It's hard to imagine how the Right Wing will spin this one given that it was overseen by John McCain's former finance chairman. Is he a secret liberal? A secret socialist?