Energy Secretary Steven Chu will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Nov. 17 in what may be the dénouement of an eight-month-long congressional investigation into the failed solar tube manufacturing company Solyndra.

Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) hinted this week in an appearance on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" that Chu's appearance may be the final testimony he will seek in an inquiry that, after being dismissed by the White House earlier this spring, has blossomed into a full-blown scandal.

SPECIAL REPORT

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.

"When you're doing an investigation and you have this amount of detail, I think you should move systematically and carefully on this and progress in a way that you understand all the people, how they made their decisions, and bring the top guy in last," Stearns said on C-SPAN.

For their part, Energy Department officials say Chu is eager to finally get a chance to explain what he knew about the company that received a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009 and went bankrupt two years later.

"Secretary Chu looks forward to the opportunity to appear before the committee and highlight the steps we are taking to ensure American workers and innovators can compete in the global clean energy market," DOE spokesman Damien LaVera said last night.

While House Republicans have accused the Obama administration of stonewalling their investigation since it began, DOE officials have stressed that they are cooperating fully with congressional investigators. To date, the agency has provided more than 65,000 pages of documents to the committee and made a half dozen DOE officials available for briefings with committee staff.

Chu had offered to testify before the committee as early as next week, but Stearns declined to take him up on that offer. The chairman has indicated his desire to hear from Susan Richardson, chief counsel for the DOE Loan Programs Office (Greenwire, Oct. 25).

It was Richardson who wrote the legal brief that DOE used to justify the subordination of the Solyndra loan earlier this year in an effort to keep the company afloat.

Republicans believe that the subordination was more than a bad financial decision and in fact a blatant violation of the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

"We hope he will finally provide answers about why DOE consciously ignored the direct warnings from their own experts that Solyndra was doomed to fail, and granted the loan to Solyndra," Stearns said in a statement last night. "We are also interested in why Secretary Chu and the Energy Department, at a time when Solyndra was fresh out of cash, still went ahead and restructured Solyndra's loan in violation of the plain letter of the law."

"Dr. Chu's testimony is an important piece of the overall Solyndra puzzle as we seek answers on why taxpayers are now on the hook for a half-billion dollars," he added.