In light of the "scandal" involving the Solyndra solar energy company, which received more than a half-billion dollars in federal backing before going bankrupt last month, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) called on President Obama to shut down the Department of Energy loan guarantee program that provided the cash.

"The question is, how many Solyndras are out there?" said Stearns, who will chair a much-anticipated hearing tomorrow on the Solyndra loan before House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subpanel.

That hearing is still expected to provide plenty of fireworks despite an announcement late this afternoon that Solyndra's CEO and chief financial officer won't testify as originally expected. The two company officials have agreed to testify before the committee next week.

"Given the timing for the hearing, legal complexities arising from last week's activities and the urgency of the Bankruptcy proceedings, Brian Harrison and Bill Stover will not be able to appear at tomorrow’s hearing," a spokesman for Solyndra said in an email statement. "Given that it is in the best interest of all creditors, including the U.S. government, to attempt to gain maximum value for the Solyndra assets, either via sale of the whole company or in parts, including its intellectual property, it is in the best interest of all interested parties for them to remain in California to engage with potential purchasers."

Although Stearns has spent six months investigating whether the Solyndra loan was properly vetted before its approval, interest in the deal took off two weeks ago when the company suddenly filed for bankruptcy and then was mysteriously raided last week by FBI investigators working with the DOE inspector general.

Stearns said his subcommittee has begun to expand its investigation to some of the other loan guarantees issued by DOE and suggested that, given the limited resources of his committee, the Department of Justice might be the best agency for conducting a full investigation of the more than 40 loan guarantees that have been awarded.

"I'm convinced based upon what I see in this kind of industry ... that there's more that are going to go bankrupt, and I think the president is unwise to continue this idea of funding, through taxpayers' money, industries like solar panels that are not viable."

Created through the 2005 energy bill and modified by the 2009 stimulus bill, the DOE loan program backs private-sector loans for renewable energy projects that might not otherwise find funding. Solyndra was the first company to win approval for a loan, and the $535 million in federal backing in 2009 was widely touted by the Obama White House. Since then, DOE has issued some $40 billion in guarantees, including three new loans in the two weeks since Solyndra went under.

One of those loans, announced this afternoon, was a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to Mojave Solar LLC for the development of the Mojave Solar Project (MSP). DOE said in a release today that the 250-megawatt project will create 900 construction and permanent operations jobs and, when complete, will increase the nation's installed concentrating solar power capacity by approximately 50 percent.

But after Solyndra's downfall, Stearns said DOE should be restricted from touching the upward of $10 billion that remains in the loan guarantee account.

"I have called upon the president not to award any more money to this type of venture capital and to return the money to the Treasury rather than put it out the door," said Stearns, who made his comments this afternoon at a lunchtime briefing at the Heritage Foundation.

While Republicans once criticized the Obama administration for not moving fast enough to approve projects under the program, Stearns said today that Solyndra proved that the loan guarantees were approved too quickly and have proved that job creation through clean energy is a pipe dream.

"I think this whole idea that the president is going to create jobs in America from this green technology is suspect," Stearns said. "We are a country that has huge amounts of resources, both in coal, both in gas, both in oil. ... I think the president should realize that green energy is not going to be the solution and we've got to take the energy sources we have and become exporters. ... And not spend all this money for a technology which is not viable."

Supporters of green jobs have dismissed Republican efforts to use Solyndra as a reason to end all government support for clean energy efforts.

"Bad things happen when you're trying to find new technologies and new ways," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) yesterday. "You could say the same thing about the first Apollo mission. ... But we didn't stop on Apollo. You don't stop because you have a problem. You work through it. This is the chance to get off of oil and be energy independent."