The top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee continued her quest today for a committee probe of the Energy Department's troubled loan guarantee program.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) repeated her request for an oversight hearing on the loan program. She is also requesting that Energy Secretary Steven Chu testify at the meeting.

"I've long been a proponent of the loan guarantee program, but if it's not run right, we need to know that, we need to understand that and we need to address it," Murkowski told reporters today. "This is a program within our jurisdiction. I think we have a responsibility to the taxpayers to make sure they are working as we intended."

Her comments came after The Washington Post reported today that DOE awarded $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers (Greenwire, Feb. 15). They also came in the wake of a scandal over a $535 million DOE loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra.

"As we take a closer look at the Energy Department's loan guarantees under President Obama's stimulus program and the outstanding risk to taxpayers, we thought today's article in the Washington Post on who received some of those investments was interesting," an email from her office said.

Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said the panel is planning a hearing for the week of Feb. 27 on a White House-commissioned review of the loan program. The review found that while improvements to the program are necessary, it is not as risky as some would say (E&ENews PM, Feb. 10).

A committee aide said witnesses are still under discussion for the hearing on that report, which came out late last week.

Bingaman has said he is hesitant to launch a full-scale investigation into the loans' effectiveness, but he has not ruled out making legislative changes to the program.

"I don't want to just provide another forum for political attacks," Bingaman said last week during an interview for C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program. "To the extent that there are recommendations coming out of this report that are useful and that we should be considering legislation on, then it is appropriate for our committee to do something" (E&ENews PM, Feb. 10).

Still, Republicans will have a chance to question Chu about the program during tomorrow's hearing on the agency's fiscal 2013 budget request.

"We have Secretary Chu testifying tomorrow on the budget. I am sure there will be questions posed to him about the loan guarantee program by some members," Bingaman told reporters in the Capitol today. "We also, I believe, have a hearing scheduled the week after next on this new report ... so that will be a hearing on the loan guarantee program."

Reporters Hannah Northey, Jeremy Jacobs and John McArdle contributed.