WASHINGTON -- The White House said on Thursday that its top energy loans official was stepping down, as President Obama defended a clean energy loan program in the wake of the collapse of a solar panel company that got $535 million in federal support.
Jonathan Silver, a venture capitalist who had also worked for the Clinton administration, was leaving because the loan program has allocated all of its funding, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
Silver's departure, however, comes as Republicans in Congress probe the Obama administration's role in backing government loans given to Solyndra, a California solar panel maker, in 2009.
Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in August and is under investigation by the FBI.
Silver joined the department after the loan guarantee was awarded, but he was in charge in February when the government agreed to restructure the debt as the company ran out of cash.
In that restructuring, some $75 million in private investment was ranked ahead of the government in the event of bankruptcy. That private fund was backed by a prominent Obama fundraiser.
Meanwhile, the Energy Department never seriously considered providing a second loan guarantee for Solyndra, Chu said.
"It was not ever in serious contention," Chu said.
The Energy Department informed Solyndra that other applicants were being considered, said Chu, who attended the factory's groundbreaking ceremony in September 2009.
Obama defended the Energy Department's handling of loans to Solyndra, saying the government should not back down from its support for clean energy.
The program, created by Congress during the George W. Bush administration, was necessary to help the United States remain competitive in the clean energy sector that has become dominated by China and Europe, Obama said.
"If we are going to be able to compete in the 21st century, then we've got to dominate cutting-edge technologies. We've got to dominate cutting-edge manufacturing," Obama told a news conference.
The fall of one company should not discredit the entire program, the president said, noting decisions on the loan were made "on merit."
"We knew from the start it was going to entail some risks," he said.
