While today's new GOP report on Solyndra represents the culmination of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's nearly 18-month investigation of the failed solar energy company, top congressional Republicans this afternoon indicated they have no intention of taking the spotlight off the issue before Election Day.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) this afternoon blasted White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew for findings in the 154-page report that indicate he ignored warning signs about Solyndra that could have saved American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Lew reviewed the company's loan when he was head of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

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.

"Mr. Lew and the White House owe the American people an explanation about why they squandered hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars," Boehner said.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz denied the charges.

"Because Republicans have found nothing to support their previous politically-driven allegations, they are attempting to recycle a baseless issue around Jack Lew that was debunked nine months ago," he said. "House Republicans should instead be focused on creating jobs and growing the economy."

Meanwhile, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said he expects to call Lew before his panel, which has opened a separate investigation of the Department of Energy loan program that approved the $535 million loan to Solyndra.

"We've learned enough to know real reform is needed," Issa said. "Solyndra was a mistake that would have been much smaller if in fact career professionals had not been overruled."

While the Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill yesterday intended to wind down the controversial DOE program that funded Solyndra, Issa indicated his committee is hoping to use its hearings to develop a package of legislation to ensure political appointees can't ignore the advice and findings of career staffers.

"It wasn't a bad decision by the career professionals, it was a bad decision by the political appointees," Issa said of the Solyndra deal.

But Issa said the package of bills isn't likely to be ready until next year.

"At this point, much of what we're doing is long term," he said.

The continued attention can only help Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has used the Solyndra debacle as one of his favorite punching bags in portraying the Obama administration's stimulus as a failure and massive waste of taxpayer money. Earlier this summer, Romney made a surprise visit to Solyndra's shuttered California facility to decry the "crony capitalism" that led to the company receiving a loan.

But the White House this afternoon pushed back against the new report, blasting it for being heavy on politics and light on any conclusive proof of the claims of corruption that Republicans have lobbed since undertaking their investigation. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration stands by the decisions Lew made.

"What it points out is, yet again, proof positive that none of the accusations that the Republicans have made about this particular loan have turned out to be true -- that this was a merit-based decision," Carney said in a news briefing today during President Obama's trip to Orlando. "And the president firmly believes that it is the right decision to invest in clean energy technologies in this country."

Carney pointed out that even some Republicans in Congress have conceded in recent months that politics played a role in the Solyndra investigation (E&E Daily, March 21).

"Everything disclosed in the 215,000 pages of documents, the 14 committee staff briefings, the five congressional hearings, the 72,000 pages from Solyndra investors and committee interviews ... affirm what we have said since day one: that this was a merit-based decision," he said.