The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power voted 14-6 Wednesday to send the “No More Solyndras Act” to the full committee. The bill aims to put an end to further taxpayer losses from the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program, but falls dramatically short of protecting taxpayers from more costly defaults.

Although Chairman Whitfield proclaimed, “It is time the federal government quits throwing money at failed programs,” the bill will allow DOE to move forward on more than $34 billion in additional loan guarantees from the program.

In fact, DOE would still have the ability to approve any loan guarantee application submitted prior to December 31st 2011. According to Chairman Whitfield, that makes about 50 applications still eligible to receive loan guarantees—even if the bill is passed into law. Of the remaining applications, the mark-up revealed that 19-21 are nuclear applications, 17 are solar, 6 are biofuel, 3 are geothermal, 3 are wind, and 3 are efficiency—and that doesn't include the pending fossil fuel loan guarantee applicants, which we unofficially tally at 4.

The grandfathered loan guarantees would put billions of dollars of new risk on the backs of taxpayers. These exempted applicants include very large guarantees such as an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to Georgia Power to build a pair of nuclear reactors. This guarantee, which is more than 15 times the size of Solyndra's, is slated for a company that has recently claimed they don't even need it. Also in the queue is a $2 billion loan guarantee for the nearly bankrupt United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC).

5 amendments were offered:

• Burgess (R-TX) Amendment – Passed by Voice Vote – To further enforce penalties for federal officials who subordinate taxpayer interests over the private industry.
• Waxman (D-CA) Amendment – Failed 14-11 – To remove the December 31st 2011 cutoff date for loan guarantee applications.
• Rush (D-NJ) Amendment – Failed 17-9 – To allow the Loan Programs Office to accept loan guarantee applications for ‘clean coal’ projects past the December 31st 2011 cutoff date.
• Green (D-TX) Amendment – Failed 14-12 – To delay the loan programs office (LPO) from finalizing any new loan guarantees until the Secretary of Energy completes an analysis including a cost-benefit analysis of continuing the loan guarantee program and a recommendation whether or not to continue the program. If no analysis is received by December 31st 2013, the loan guarantee program will be repealed on January 1st 2014.
• Markey (D-MA) Amendment (1) – Failed 15-8 – To block DOE from finalizing loan guarantees for companies who have received delisting warnings from the stock exchange.
• Markey (D-MA) Amendment (2) – Failed 15-8 – To block DOE from finalizing loan guarantees for companies who are projected to be over budget by more than $535 million or have experienced net losses of $535 million or more in the previous calendar year.

The bill will now go to the full Energy and Commerce committee for consideration. Consideration could be as early as next week.