The Energy Department tapped a cadre of venture capitalists to advise the administration's $80 billion stimulus-backed clean energy investment program, placing people who had recently held financial stakes in companies that were up for government funds in prime positions to influence those decisions.

Take Sanjay Wagle, for example. In 2008 he was a venture capitalist working for Vantage Point Venture Partners and a fundraiser for Barack Obama, rallying support through a group he lead called Clean Tech for Obama. Shortly after Obama's election, Wagle joined DOE. During the next three years, the department provided $2.4 billion in funding to clean energy companies that Wagle's former firm had invested in.

Overall, a Washington Post analysis found DOE awarded $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing to 21 companies backed by firms that have connections to five staffers and advisers in the Obama administration.

The revelation comes as conservatives are running ads and speeches criticizing the Obama administration's clean energy investments, especially the $535 million loan guarantee awarded to the now-shuttered solar firm Solyndra LLC.

White House officials say staffers and advisers with venture capital ties did not make funding decisions related to the firms. But emails released as part of a congressional probe of the DOE program show that in some instances, staffers and advisers were linked to the companies informally advocated.

David Gold, a venture capitalist who has criticized Obama's investments in clean technology, said that even without being directly involved in decisionmaking, staff had the kind of access that would allow subtle influence to be exerted.

"To believe those quiet conversations don't happen in the hallways -- about a project being in a certain congressman's district or being associated with a significant presidential donor -- is naive," Gold said. "When you're putting this kind of pressure on an organization to make decisions on very big dollars, there's increased likelihood that political connections will influence things."

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said awards were made based on merit, not political connections, and noted that none of the staffers and advisory board members had a personal financial stake in the companies. He said they had no role in funding decisions (Leonnig/Stephens, Washington Post, Feb. 14). -- AS