Last summer, the Energy Department was pushing to give Solyndra LLC a second multimillion-dollar taxpayer-backed loan even as the solar panel manufacturer's financial situation soured.

The agency was poised to grant the company a $469 million loan -- in addition to an initial $535 million guarantee -- in April and May 2010 as Solyndra auditors warned that the company, facing mounting debts and expenses, was in danger of closing its doors, according to emails released by a House committee investigating the original loan.

Solyndra completed the application for its second loan days after receiving the first, and DOE put the second request on a fast-tracked priority list, two sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

At the time, industry analysts questioned how Solyndra -- the first clean-energy startup to receive a stimulus-funded loan -- could have run through its initial loan as well as $933 million in private capital.

An analyst with the Office of Management and Budget wrote in an email, "Possible to close and default on one before closing on a second??? Could be a new record."

The Obama administration did not ax the second loan proposal until October 2010, the same month Solyndra alerted DOE that it might be forced to liquidate without emergency funds.

When Solyndra closed Aug. 31, leaving taxpayers on the hook to pay for its $535 million loan guarantee, politicians on both sides of the aisle were puzzled as to why the Obama administration supported the startup. Many suspected the president's involvement stemmed from his relationship with George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign bundler tied to investment funds that provided most of Solyndra's backing.

Prior to Obama's May 2010 visit to Solyndra, a venture capitalist and donor told the president not to go, citing auditors' warnings that the firm was likely to fail.

Meanwhile, DOE and White House advisers said the auditors had exaggerated the risk of failure. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's chief of staff, Rod O'Connor, continued to push for more government funding for the panel maker.

"Bottom line is that we believe the company is okay in the medium term, but will need some help of one kind or another down the road," O'Connor wrote on May 24, 2010.

That same day, Matt Rogers, Chu's chief adviser on the stimulus, assured the White House that Solyndra's stumbles were typical for startups.

During a press conference the next day, Obama called the firm an "engine of economic growth" (Carol Leonnig, Washington Post, Oct. 5). -- PK