White House Warned Off Solyndra

An administration analyst gets to say, "I told you so."

As the Obama administration moved last year to bail out Solyndra, the embattled flagship of the president's initiative to promote alternative energy, a White House budget analyst calculated that millions of taxpayer dollars might be saved by cutting the government's losses, shuttering the company immediately and selling its assets, according to a congressional investigation.

Even so, senior officials in the White House's Office of Management and Budget did not discourage the Energy Department from proceeding with its plan to restructure a federal loan to Solyndra — a move that put private investors ahead of taxpayers for repayment if the company closed, the investigation by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee found.