Paul Sakuma / AP Photo
The Solyndra mess was almost worse: The Energy Department was considering giving the solar-panel maker a second $469 million loan as late as spring 2010, when the company’s auditors were already warning about collapse. “Apparently the loan size for Phase II is $469 million,” one analyst at the Office of Management and Budget wrote in an email released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I’ve been told we should expect [to] see that project soon for conditional commitment.” According to The Washington Post, plans for a second loan weren’t dropped until October 2010, the same month Solyndra first alerted the government to its financial troubles. The Energy Department is disputing the story. "The Washington Post story is wrong," Energy Department press secretary Damien LaVera told The Huffington Post. "The Department was not poised to approve a second loan application. In fact, the career staff at the Department had only barely begun to do the due diligence that would have been required for a second loan.”