The Facts About Green Energy Loans and Lobbying

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Beware of those attempting to make Solyndra appear as a lone bad actor in a squeaky clean green energy industry.

Solyndra's executives did their Congressional "perp walk" on Friday morning, invoking the Fifth Amendment as they refused to answer questions from the House Energy investigative subcommittee about the bankruptcy of the White House-backed solar company.

At the same time, The New York Times has published a lengthy piece looking into the by-now old information about Solyndra's lobbying efforts, even quoting the head of another solar firm to receive a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, SoloPower, as saying it never dreamed of lobbying and was told, in fact, that any lobbying in Washington D.C. would be viewed negatively. Well, if SoloPower never dreamed of lobbying the government, that would be as "isolated" an event as many in green energy circles would like you to believe Solyndra's implosion is.

President Obama in the now-infamous photo-op shot at Solyndra

The fact is, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, many of the green energy companies and projects that have received loan guarantees from the Department of Energy also contributed money to political campaigns in 2010.

As we've argued before, lobbying is the rule on Capitol Hill, and Solyndra did its part. And while it's fair to say the extent of Solyndra's lobbying portrays a hubristic company carried away with its sudden access to power, its specific ties to the White House should be considered a separate matter.

When running through the list of projects to receive a loan guarantee from Department of Energy, or conditional commitment which would need to be closed by Sept. 30, the lobbying dollars are extensive. And while in many cases the amounts are equal or less than Solyndra's pork payments, the numbers in other cases are larger.

Of the 32 projects that received a Department of Energy loan guarantee and/or a conditional committment within the same "1705" program as Solyndra, more than half, 17 exactly, are affiliated with companies that spent money on lobbying in 2010.

Here are the projects and or companies (in alphabetical order) who have received Department of Energy loan guarantees, or are currently in the conditional commitment phase -- that lobbied the government in 2010:

1. Abengoa Bioenergy

Loan guarantee:

$133.9 million -- conditional commitment

Lobbying in 2010:

$150,000

2. Abengoa Solar

Loan guarantee:

$1.2 billion loan guarantee

Lobbying in 2010:

$120,000

3. AES Corp.

Loan guarantee:

$17.1 million loan guarantee

Lobbying in 2010:

$80,000

4. Agua Caliente (project developer First Solar)

Loan guarantee:

$967 million loan guarantee

Lobbying in 2010:

$720,000 (First Solar)

5. BrightSource Energy

Loan guarantee:

$1.6 billion loan guarantee

Lobbying in 2010:

$290,000

6. Caithness Energy

Loan guarantee:

partial loan guarantee on $1.3 billion loan

Lobbying in 2010:

$60,000

7. Cogentrix of Alamosa

Loan guarantee:

$90.6 million loan guarantee

Lobbying in 2010:

$60,000 (Congentrix Energy)

8. First Solar (Antelope project)

Loan guarantee:

$680 million loan guarantee -- conditional commitment

Lobbying in 2010:

$720,000

9. First Solar (Desert Sunlight project)

Loan guarantee:

partial guarantee on $1.88 billion loan -- conditional commitment

Lobbying in 2010:

$720,000

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