The aftershocks of yesterday's announcement that another solar panel manufacturer supported by a controversial federal loan guarantee program was headed into bankruptcy were felt on Capitol Hill and across a U.S. solar energy sector that has recently been divided by a high-profile trade dispute.

Colorado-based Abound Solar announced that it was shutting down its thin-film photovoltaic module manufacturing operation in large part because of "aggressive pricing actions" from Chinese solar panel companies that made it too difficult for the company to survive.

In its announcement, Abound expressed support for a recent Commerce Department effort to push back against those efforts by China, but the company noted that those efforts came too late for Abound.

Last fall, SolarWorld Industries America -- the largest solar manufacturer in the United States -- joined a half-dozen smaller companies to launch a countervailing duty and dumping complaint against China and its domestic manufacturers of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules.

Commerce issued preliminary rulings in favor of the U.S. companies on both accusations earlier this year, and tariffs have begun to be collected on Chinese imports as the case moves toward its final resolution this fall.

But those efforts have not been universally supported by others in the industry. A coalition of U.S. and Chinese manufacturers and U.S. installers has worked to rally opposition to SolarWorld's efforts.

That group argues that protective tariffs will launch a solar trade war with China that would boost solar prices around the world, kill future projects and cost jobs for the industry.

Yesterday, SolarWorld's lawyer in the trade case, Timothy Brightbill, said that the fate of Abound is another reason why the United States should be fighting China's efforts to undermine the U.S. solar manufacturing industry.

"It's extremely unfortunate for any U.S. solar manufacturer to go under, particularly while the case is pending," Brightbill said. "Unfortunately, this just shows that Chinese dumping and subsidies have damaged not only the crystalline silicon market but also the U.S. thin-film market and the entire solar manufacturing chain in the United States."

"I think this is exactly why we need to fight China's unfair trade actions wherever they occur," he said. "It's vitally important that we have solar manufacturing here in the United States, not only so we have good jobs, but also so we have innovation and we have the next generation of solar in this country."

More fodder for GOP

In Congress, Republicans quickly locked onto the failure of Abound as another example of the weaknesses of the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program in particular and President Obama's green energy agenda in general.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who has been leading the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation into DOE's $535 million loan to the failed Solyndra solar energy company, said he wasn't surprised by the demise of Abound. Stearns has been predicting the company's failure as far back as February.

"We warned them in February that this company might go bankrupt," Stearns said. "The larger question is, why is the administration pursuing a green energy policy in which companies are going bankrupt and wasting taxpayers' money?"

When it comes to that debate, Abound's failure has provided Republicans with a timely new cudgel just when the Solyndra controversy had started to wind down.

Earlier this month, Stearns acknowledged that his Solyndra investigation had faded from the public eye since a high-profile hearing last November featuring Energy Secretary Steven Chu (E&E Daily, June 6).

And while Solyndra still has the power to stir up emotions on both sides of the government-backed renewable energy funding debate -- as evidenced by the media frenzy that surrounded presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's surprise campaign stop outside the shuttered Solyndra headquarters in California in late May -- Stearns doesn't appear to have too many lines of inquiry left on Solyndra.

The congressman said yesterday that his probe could come to a conclusion only if investigators are finally able to question Obama's top energy adviser and other former top White House aides who Republicans believe played a key role in the issuance of the Solydra loan (E&E Daily, June 21). Stearns also said that before he shuts down his probe, he wants White House lawyers to certify that they have turned over all the Solyndra-related documents his committee has requested through subpoena.

But Stearns has now said he is considering asking his party leadership to give him the green light to open a new round of hearings to study why other stimulus-backed green energy companies besides Solyndra have gone bankrupt. He said that investigation could include Abound and Beacon Power -- which both received their funding through the same Section 1705 program that was created under the 2009 stimulus -- and Ener1, which received $118 million in the form of a stimulus-funded DOE grant.

"I think if we did this overall hearing on all these bankruptcies, I think Chu should come back and explain why all of these are occurring," Stearns said.

Abound CEO Craig Witsoe appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee just last month as part of that panel's separate investigation into the DOE loan program.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is leading that investigation, said yesterday that he is also considering holding a hearing on Abound in the wake of yesterday's bankruptcy announcement.

Administration response

In responding to the Abound news yesterday, administration officials were quick to point out that the company had plenty of Republican support when it applied for a DOE loan.

They pointed to an Oct. 30, 2009, letter in which Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and 10 Indiana lawmakers wrote to DOE to express support for the company's loan application.

Today Burton is a senior member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Asked about that letter yesterday, Burton said that in retrospect, he probably should have done more digging into the Abound project back in 2009.

The congressman said he pushed the project because the information he received at the time indicated that Abound was on a healthy financial footing and that its proposed expansion would create jobs at a facility in Indiana.

"In retrospect, because of the other failure that took place, it probably should not have been done, and that might have been a mistake in all of our judgments in saying, 'Go ahead with that project,'" Burton said. "It should have been vetted very thoroughly."

Burton said he would not have a problem if committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) were to open a separate Abound investigation.

DOE has maintained throughout the Solyndra probe that all its decisions on loan guarantee programs were made by career staff members working to provide the government the best return on its investment.

Witsoe said in his testimony that DOE's review of Abound's proposal lasted nearly two years and included external consultants and lawyers.

DOE spokesman Damien LaVera said yesterday that while the news about Abound is disappointing, the loan program was designed to absorb a few failures as the government invests in a wide range of cutting-edge renewable technologies.

"This outcome reflects the basic fact that investing in innovative companies -- as Congress intended the Department to do when it established the program -- carries some risk," he wrote in a blog post yesterday.

But LaVera said DOE needs to keep investing to make the United States competitive in a global clean energy race.

"Some in Washington believe that the United States cannot, or should not, compete with China when it comes to solar manufacturing -- and aren't willing to make any investments or take on any risks to win the global clean energy manufacturing race," LaVera said.

"We respectfully disagree with those who are willing to cede thousands of high paying jobs and the innovations to come over the next decade and beyond to our competitors in China and around the world. Americans invented solar technology and with the right support our companies can out-innovate and out-build any competitor, anywhere in the world."

Suspicious timing?

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) is one of many Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee who has criticized the administration for allowing politics to seep into the DOE loan program. He said yesterday that those politics could again be seen in the timing of Abound's bankruptcy announcement.

"They are pretty apt at finding the right timing for bad news," Terry said. "It's usually like 5:30 Friday afternoon."

Yesterday's bankruptcy announcement came in the middle of the day, just after the release of the highly anticipated Supreme Court decision on the health care law and just before a floor vote on whether to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress.

"If you want something buried, this is the day to do it," he said.