Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), a vocal critic of President Obama's clean energy agenda who is leading the House investigation into the bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra, released a statement yesterday evening about a green energy project in his district that he previously praised.

Last March, Stearns welcomed to his district a battery manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Jacksonville that was built to make lithium-ion battery cells for military hybrid vehicles and solar and wind energy storage. Nearly half the cash for the new Saft America Inc. facility was provided through a cost-sharing arrangement funded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

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Solyndra, a solar manufacturer that was given a $535 million loan guarantee and touted by the White House as a model for the clean energy economy, has filed for bankruptcy. E&E examines how it got there and what it means. Click here to read the report.

But Stearns said that project was different in several ways from Solyndra, which shuttered its doors late last month after using up $527 million of a $535 million government Department of Energy renewable energy loan guarantee. Solyndra was subsequently raided by the FBI and Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General investigators earlier this month and Republicans are working hard to make the company the face of what they believe to be a failed stimulus effort.

"I support clean and renewable energy and the jobs they produce around the nation and in Florida as long as taxpayer dollars are not put at risk," Stearns said last night. "Saft was the beneficiary of a grant, not a taxpayer guaranteed loan. I had no role in Saft securing that grant; there is no indication that Saft, a French company, is financially troubled; and it has not been raided by the FBI."

Stearns, who, when asked about the Saft project last week, said he had no opinion on the company, said that he did not attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Saft last year. But he did contribute a statement to an announcement released by the company that day noting, "I recognize the contributions of these advanced rechargeable batteries in meeting our energy needs."

A year and a half after that groundbreaking, the new 235,000-square-foot Saft facility, which will employ 100 workers, celebrated its grand opening Friday.

Meanwhile, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said last night that while she had several concerns about the Solyndra case and some qualms about the DOE renewable loan program, she did not want to see it eliminated.

"Some have suggested that because of what has happened to Solyndra we need to get rid of the loan guarantee program," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters. "I happen to believe that these loan guarantee programs are important. I don't want to get rid of the program, but I want to make sure that we have a program that functions as we intended, and I don't want to ever see another situation the likes of what we're watching unfold with Solyndra."

Murkowski went on to say that while bankruptcies may occasionally be inevitable for companies getting government loans, the Solyndra case is especially troubling.

"I think this is more than a situation of a company going bankrupt," she said. "There were warning signs all along the way beginning with [former White House energy and climate adviser] Carol Browner, a year before Solyndra ever got that loan guarantee. So there were plenty of red flags to follow.

"But the thing that is causing me most angst right now is knowing that in this bankruptcy, we don't have any protection. We've been subrogated to the claims of the private investors. That's upsetting."

Murkowski said she is talking with Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) about how the committee ought to address the Solyndra situation.