From the moment Solyndra first solicited its application for a massive federal loan until its final days, the Obama administration ignored red flags about the company's financial conditions, according to a new House Republican report on the failed California solar energy company.

The 154-page document released this morning represents the culmination of a nearly 18-month investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee into the company that received more than half-a-billion dollars through a Department of Energy loan guarantee program funded by the administration's stimulus effort.

SPECIAL REPORT

Solar manufacturer Solyndra was given a $535 million loan guarantee and touted by the White House as a model for the clean energy economy -- but it all ended in bankruptcy. E&E examines how the company got there and what it means. Click here to read the report.

Today's report is unlikely to alter the positions that the administration and House Republicans have established over the past 18 months. DOE and White House officials maintain that every decision on Solyndra was made on the merits by career employees, while Republicans have come to the opposite conclusion.

The report places blame on nearly every high-level political appointee who came in contact with the Solyndra deal, from current White House chief of staff Jacob Lew to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and dozens of other current and former officials at DOE, the Office of Management and Budget and the White House.

Meanwhile, what praise there is in the report is reserved for the lower-level staffers who waved red flags about the deal but were ultimately overruled.

One such staffer was OMB analyst Kelly Colyar, who, according to the report, recommended that the government cut its losses on Solyndra rather than double down on a bad bet through an ill-advised restructuring process in early 2011. At the time Colyar estimated that washing the governments' hands of Solyndra would cost $141 million but restructuring the loan would likely end up costing as much as $385 million.

In the end, Solyndra burned through some $527 million in government funding before declaring bankruptcy.

"Solyndra is a prime example of the perils that come when the Federal government plays investor, tries to keep a company and industry afloat with subsidies and attempts to pick the winners and losers in a particular marketplace," the report says. "Policy and political pressures inevitably come into play to the detriment of taxpayers, as it did with Solyndra."

One vivid image that emerges from the new report is a framed photograph hanging in the West Wing showing President Obama visiting Solyndra's manufacturing facility in May 2010. It was during the visit captured in the picture that Obama declared that Solyndra represented the "true engine of economic growth."

According to the report, the photograph was noticed by a close confidant of George Kaiser, a top Obama donor and key investor in Solyndra, during a trip to the White House that June.

Ken Levit, the executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, emailed the picture to his boss and other officials at the Kaiser foundation, saying, "Gosh ... no pressure."

In response to the email, the chief investment officer of the Kaiser foundation chimed in, sensing an opportunity for Solyndra to pick up federal contracts from the likes of the Department of Defense.

"Helps us get them to straighten the DOD out and thus we can sell a mountain of [megawatts] to them."

Kaiser appeared to agree.

"I think the immediate issue is getting the DOD to see some urgency in buying product," he wrote, before adding that another loan guarantee like the one the company had already received from DOE "would also be lovely."

Solyndra never secured a DOD contract, but the connections between Kaiser and the Obama administration -- and his access to the White House -- have been a key focus for Republicans during their probe. The GOP has charged that those connections were a major reason why Solyndra was able to secure its loan guarantee in the first place.

Republicans have highlighted that the primary investment arm of Kaiser's foundation was Solyndra's largest investor. That group, Argonaut Ventures, ultimately put some $430 million into the company, amassing a 39 percent stake in Solyndra, today's report notes.

"From 2009 forward, documents show that Mr. Kaiser was continually informed of the status of both the first and second loan guarantee applications, the first and second set of restructuring negotiations, and the company's lobbying, public relations, and government procurement strategies in Washington, DC," the report says. "In addition to authorizing certain disbursements and restructuring proposals, Mr. Kaiser approved or disapproved of a variety of political tactics being proposed."

Kaiser has denied ever discussing the Solyndra loan with the government. His spokesman could not be reached this morning for a comment on the new report.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz denied the charges in the report.

"This is month 18 of this congressional investigation, and everything disclosed in the 215,000 pages of documents, 14 committee staff briefings, five congressional hearings, 72,000 pages from Solyndra investors and committee interview with George Kaiser affirms what we said on day one: This was a merit-based decision made by the Department of Energy," Schultz said. "As Republicans won't answer how much the investigation has cost taxpayers, we believe they should instead be focused on legislation to [create] jobs and grow the economy."

The new report comes one day after the committee voted to send to the House floor the controversial "No More Solyndras Act" aimed at winding down the DOE loan guarantee program. While two Republicans -- Rep. Brian Bilbray of California and Charlie Bass of New Hampshire -- crossed the aisle to oppose the bill, the measure was still approved by a vote of 29 to 19.

Click here to read the report.