Download: Joint Letter - Stop Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program - June 2012
Reps. Kucinich (D-OH) and McClintock (R-CA) have offered an amendment to stop new loan guarantees from the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program. The amendment to the FY2013 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill currently being debated in the House of Representatives will be voted on today.
Created in Title 17 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program has received increased scrutiny with the recent default of a loan guarantee to the solar start-up company, Solyndra. Taxpayers stand to lose $500 million on this failed solar project and billions more could be lost if the program continues to issue new loan guarantees.
While the program was intended for emerging energy technologies, mature industries like coal and nuclear are eligible as well. With $34 billion in loan guarantee authority currently available and $170 million in direct appropriations, taxpayers have a considerable stake in the successes or defaults of DOE’s Title 17 program. Much larger loan guarantees to liquid coal plants, uranium enrichment facilities, and nuclear reactors on the line. Defaults from these significantly larger loans could cost taxpayers up to 15 times more than Solyndra.
In a letter to Congress, Taxpayers for Common Sense joined together with the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity, Friends of the Earth, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Freedom Action, and Physicians for Social Responsibility to urge House Representatives to support efforts to halt the loan guarantee program and stop taxpayers from taking on billions more in risky loan guarantees.
With hundreds of billions in bailouts already on the shoulders of U.S. taxpayers, taxpayers should not be asked to provide any additional dollars to this program which is fiscally reckless, poorly managed, and prone to serious failure.
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