and they said in a letter or e-mail to your folks at the department of energy, before you do this restructuring, i think you better get an opinion from the justice department. now, the department of energy ignored that and went ahead and got their own letter from in-house counsel and came up with some, in my opinion, bad idea and the law was broken. you have explained your feeling was well, if you didn't do it the taxpayer was very likely, almost immediately to see a bankruptcy of the company and total loss of the loan, the $535 million. and if you restructured or allowed them to come in with $75 million more private setting, that that might save the day. so, it was a tough decision and you approved and went ahead with this restructuring of the loan. clearly a break in the law. you have seen the slide earlier, the language is pretty clear. and the result of course was the same. not unlike what happened in atlanta this past sunday when coach smith made that fateful decision. my colleague from louisiana here says it was a good decision. but everybody said this decision you made was a bad decision

now, the department of energy gives our money away. tossel and i are going to get to the bottom of this and ♪ it's easy to see what subaru owners care about. that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and $250 gs to your choice of 5 charities. with your help, we can reach $20 million dollars by the end of this, our fourth year. >>> you think the debacle of solyndra is bad? that is just the tip of the iceberg. john stossel is the host of stossel on the fox business network. john, thanks for being with us this evening. >> judge. >> judge jeanine: i got a real issue. it is the department of energy. 171 billion as of two years ago. what do they have to show for it? do we even need this joint? >> john: well, we need part of it because they manage the nuclear weapons but we could tiv that to the defense department and get rid of all this boondoggle. and you are right, solyndra was big. a lot of none money. half a billion dollars. sin fuels under carter. it is bipartisan under president nixon there was the

>> at general department counsel of the department of energy. under the conditions of the road or origination of the loan -- >> susan richardson? >> no. bud harris. >> who is susan richardson? >> she is a counsel. >> i understand she is the chief counsel of the loan program? >> yes. >> it should consult with you? >> she consulted with the chief isnsel's office, and there discussion about the issue, and when it was brought to me, it was their opinion that this did not violate the terms of the law. >> when did mr. harris and bring that to you? >> >> suisse as we were discussing whether we should subordinate or not, and it had to do with the restructuring. before we could even think of restructuring, we had to make sure it was legal. >> what date was that? >> i do not remember. >> i do not want to cut you off, but the reason the date is important is the decision was made to subordinate before the memo accepting subordination was prepared. there was a decision and then after the decision was made, the decision was made to subordinate, but the action

now, the department of energy gives our money away. hn stossel and i are going to john stossel and i are going to get to the bottom of this and ( phone ringing ) okay... uhh. the bad news, it's probably totaled. the good news is, you don't have to pay your deducble. with vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance, you got $100 off for every year of safe driving, so now your deductible is zero. the other good news ? i held on to your coffee. wow. ♪ nationwide is on your side ( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day whenou consider. that's great. >>> you think the debacle of solyndra is bad? that is just the tip of the iceberg. john stossel is the host of stossel on the fox business network. john, thanks for being with us this evening. >> judge. >> judge jeanine: i got a real issue. it is the department of energy. 171 billion as of two years ago. what do they have to show for it? do we even need this joint? >> john: well, we need part of it because they manage the nuclear weapons but we could tiv that to the defense department and

now, the department of energy gives our money away. i are going to get to the bottom of this and we are going to rant.fastie that's next. try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. test how fast it works for you. love it, or get your money back. of how a shippingiant can befriend a forest may seem lie the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take aw the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're ft with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. >>> you think the debacle o

of the delay in the decision on the keystone xl pipeline is that they're considering alternate routes for it. the other major energy development over the last 24 hours is of course the energy department's good fortune that rick perry plum forgot his plan to kill them. that's coming up. >>> it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone. commerce, education, and the -- what's the third one there? let's see. >> you need five. >> oh, five. okay. so commerce, education, and -- the -- >> we have done everything that we could possibly do. we have -- did what was right for arizona. >> was it before he was before the social programs from the standpoint of he was for standing up for roe versus wade before he was against verse -- roe versus wade. he was for race to the top. he's for obama care, and now he's against it. >> under secretary of defense douglas fife seldom in my life have i met a dumber man. >> the coolest thing happens. i roll in here, and i get to meet a real live angel. in the form of christopher duffly. and then i get to meet a real-life hero in katherine adair. i mean, my life -- today has been awesome, girl. >> some people out there in our nation don't have th

and as this incident shows, even the department of energy doesn't always know what it's doing. have a wide variety of radioactive materials, of aging facilities that need to be managed in the most careful way possible to avoid contamination of the environment, exposure to the worker population, and potential contamination and expoeshz of the public. >> ed lyman, senior staff scientist from the union of concerned scientists, thanks for your time in helping us to understand this. i'm glad we could talk to you about it. >> thank you. >> right after this show on "the last word" tonight lawrence o'donne o'donnell's guest to break down last night's debate is a man named tim pawlenty. just as a sidebar if anyone could convince tim pawlenty to get back in the race it's lawrence o'donnell. i'm very much looking forward to that. and here still to come, spinal tap. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us to

that is possibly going to be an issue raised at the hearing with the department of energy secretary chujenna: he said the taxpayers will not be getting any of the money back from that loan. >> reporter: he did say the department of energy conducted due diligence on the loans. jenna: we'll continue to investigate. thank you so much for that. jon: police are tracking a thousand leads they say in the search for a missing two-year-old boy and wondering about some very strange behavior on the part of his mother. plus the super committee getting advice from the tea party telling them to go big, really big, $9 trillion worth and they say they have a blueprint for how to do it. we'll show it to you coming up. jenna: a look at some of the top stories we are following for you today on this thursday. the secret service is beefing up security after a suspect is arrested in a shooting at the white house. authorities say oscar ortega hernandez who was picked newspaper pennsylvania has a history of erratic behavior and may be responsible for shooting into a wednesday doe at the white house. a major dr

in the 2010 memorandum of understanding with the department of energy department said and i quote energy efficiency conserve rounds de force multiplier increasing the range and endurance of the forces in the field while reducing the number of the combat forces averted to protect energy supplies by reducing long-term energy costs. in addition we are developing the green jobs here at home. the institution estimates that in my home state for example the green jobs and place some 43,000 to wondered seven residents an average of 44 bills and $790 per year which is higher than the median salary in my state. at a time when the middle class state is shrinking, these figures are the news. finally, we are going to remain competitive in the global economy we must be willing to make investments going forward. according to the report by the charitable trust in march, china and the leading green energy investments and other countries like italy, mexico and argentina are rapidly increasing their investment. the united states and the river indus falling behind. if we are not willing to make long-term in

sullivan votes eye. . . >> well -- first of all, it's the department of energy. who also is involved the department of management and budget because they review the decision so our committee asks d.o.e. for information and we got 65,000 pages from them including correspondence that they had with the white house about this loan. some people at omb had a different opinion about solyndra. so we asked omb for their information. before they had a chance to get it to the congress, this committee moved to subpoena them, which i thought was premature and inappropriate. but it is a far different thing to subpoena the omb than to subpoena the president of the united states. i don't think they should be rushed into any circumstance if there's an opportunity to work things out. we didn't give an opportunity to omb to work things out. we slammed them with a subpoena which i opposed as premature. not because i didn't want to get the information. but let us review where we are now with the white house. the white house counsel met with mr. upton and mr. stearns and ms. degette wi

the department of energy has made these kinds of investments for years. solyndra is only 1. 3 percent of the total investment that the energy department has and by the way, only loan that appears to have gone wrong . 98 percent are performing well. >> victoria, that is not true. beacon power and enter one. and other examples and who knows how many more will be damaged down the line, victoria? >> yeah, steve mentioned term venture capital and a lot of folks in the pro solsell camp. it is a role for government to take some capital and turn it in risk. you don't have all googles and facebooks, you do have duds. it is taxpayer money and no venture capital firm here that will raise another fund in five years. instead they will take more taxpayer money and fund companies that awn have ties to folks in high places. there is a more efficient way to allocate capital. >> bill, that political influence acts the loans and the president's efforts, are they chipping around the edge of the problem. >> they are worthy efforts. maybe it is small. i.r.s. will not hand out c

the puc entered into an agreement with the department of energy for the delivery of clean low-cost federal power. this provides an allocation of electricity from two federal projects and it provides a clean power to treasure island. in the event that this is not sufficient from these projects come on the puc entered in 2005 into a full load service contract with western area power administration. that contract went through 2010 and it was amended in 2007 to extend it from 2010 until 2015. this would extend the contract from 2015 through october of 2020. >> does that complete your presentation? >> if you would like, i can go over the details in the budget analyst report. >> please. >> so, the time we are looking at is from 2015 through 2020. in order to do that, i looked at the existing electricity usage and treasurer of lynde which is much less than what was projected in 2015. this existing news goes to about 17,000-18,000 megawatt hours and that is because of the existing residential which is on the island which is about 2000 people and the facilities that are there today. we have taken i

have you included staff in any and all meetings with the department of energy and the white house? have you included minority staff in any and all meetings members of the department of energy, the office of management and budget, and the white house? yes or no. >> yes, sir. >> have you shared any and all details of your meetings with the minority? >> they have been involved in all of the meetings. >> yes. >> have you requested documents from solyndra? >> no, sir. >> have you requested documents from omb? >> no, sir. >> have you requested documents from the white house? >> yes, sir. >> have you received those documents? >> no. >> what were the dates the requests were made in each instance? will you provide that information? >> yes. >> did you share with minority staff all documents being requested at the initial designation of the document request as set forth in the resolution and the subpoena? yes or no? >> can you repeat that? >> that you shared with the minority the list of documents -- have you shared with the minority the list of documents subpoenaed in the resolution we have b

there are used in the department of energy. we welcome this hearing at the subcommittee on oversight investigation to examine the review and approval of the $535 million loan guarantee to solyndra. as well as the repeated efforts to keep this company atop president obama's green jobs pedestal. while our investigation continues, it is apparent that senior officials put politics before the stewardship they tied themselves so closely and why they were so desperate to repeatedly prop up this company. why did they make these bad decisions tax was committed to prevent a waste? many more questions have a marriage about the loan guarantee. it is the extent of the white house involvement. we're focused on the loss of $535 million a taxpayer money. when they were reviewing the application at the end of the bush administration, too many issues with the parent company tax flow remained unresolved. that led them to end discussions with solyndra. later that month, president obama was inaugurated and secretary chu took over. he implemented an

clearly saying do this at the department of energy. point in closing is this -- you have newly agreasive oversight hearings. amen for that. whether democrats or republicans in the white house or congress, oversight is the job of congress. bit when you have republicans release this and democrats release this saying foul, what is the hope for the taxpayer who mitd be on the hook for more than $4r 00 million that in the end they'll trust they had a fair and comprehensive and objective investigation? >> both sides have a lot of room to grow in terms of being forthright and just sticking with the central question. was our money wasted? and i would agree with the chairman on one point, which is -- it appears pretty obvious from what we reviewed that d.o.e., the department of energy, was pretty supportive of this company in a way that they hadn't been with other, and it's perhaps because it was their first baby. >> influence at play? we'll fig ture it out. they have room to grow pap nice way to -- the nicest thing said about congress in a lon

in last hearing, they accuse the department of energy of violating the law but refused to allow anybody from the department to testify to defend the agency. the republican majority resisted releasing information. today we're being asked to give chairman upton a blank check. this is no way to run an investigation that should be bipartisan. it is an unprecedented departure from the practices of this committee. we have heard that there is no other choice. i think there is another choice that reasonable people would take. to get the white house documents. we can always go to a subpoena if that is insufficient. instead, we want to go to a subpoena first. then we can see what request are out of balance. -- bounds. i think a subpoena should be sparingly and only as a last resort. this is not the case that we see today. we are entitled to advance our legitimate oversight needs. i think it is sad that we are seeing what is going on. >> the gentleman's time has expired. we recognize the full committee chairman. >>these are facts and documents. we should not argue over whether the american people

of years. but let's start our forum right away on smart energy with the man in charge of our nation's energy department. steven chu is the united states secretary of energy. his job description, implement president obama's agenda to invest in clean energy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, address the global climate crisis and create new jobs. how is that for a job subscription. steven chu came to washington as a distinguished scientist. he's well-known as the winner of the nobel price for physics, something actually few members of the cabinet, if any, have had. he's also served as the director of the department of energy's lawrence berkeley national lab where he led the pursuit of alternative and renewable energy technology. please welcome steven chu. [applause] >> all right. thank you, mary, for that nice introduction. the focus of this conference is on the future of energy but i want to start with some lessons of america's past. i'll take you back to a windy day of kitty hawk, december 17th, 1903 where the wright brothers launched the first airplane, that achieved human flight. with it a whole h

. >> governor perry, you abdicate the elimination of the department of energy. if you eliminate the department of energy -- >> you remembered it. >> i've had some time to think about it, sir. >> me too. >> pretty good comeback there. let's bring back our senior political analyst ron brownstein in new york. ron, you know, we have heard a lot of joking about perry's memory lapse, how painful it is to see over and over again. his camp came out with a written statement right away, calling it a human moment. he was on the morning shows saying he stepped in it. is it all behind him, after "snl," of course. >> short answer, no. he's done as well as he could to minimize it or laugh about it, but i think he'll prove again the most dangerous thing in politics is to confirm a pre-existing story line. if mitt romney had forgotten something, he may have been tired. because rick perry was already facing doubts about the command of his brief, whether he was really someone who knew all the facts of what he was -- his agenda and was capable of carrying the fight to president obam

shifted to a nuclear warhead development two point zero with new facilities linked to the department of energy popping up all over the country and some of these plants come with a price tag of four point five billion dollars meanwhile only one per cent of all the money within the nuclear complex currently goes to dismantling and destroying all those warheads all of the nuclear complex continues to grow a national nuclear security administration has just been awarded an additional eighty five billion dollars over the next ten years and the government accountability office has issued for parts highlighting the wasteful spending by the n.s.a. but since it's an untouchable branch of the government officials conveniently turn a blind eye to such alerts so one can only hope of the start treaty is going to help bring to a close some of the wasteful spending on a nuclear warhead complex as the u.s. is forced to focus more on destroying rather than creating new nuclear weapons the money should shift towards dismantling projects bringing down america's arsenal and hopefully an incredibly bloated budget.

. >> governor perry, you advocate the elimination of the department of energy. if you eliminate the department of energy -- >> you remembered it. [ laughter ] i've had some time to think about it, sir. >> me too. >> reporter: following wednesday's brain freeze heard around the world rick perry went into comic crisis control. if you step in it, joke about it. >> number four -- >> i had a five-hour energy drink six hours before the debate. >> oh, no. >> reporter: perry's gaff may be gingrich's gain. the former speaker's numbers are up. up enough to suggest he may be anybody but romney candidate, and if gingrich falls short of the goal, what about silver? this caught our ear. >> based on this campaign and what happens practice you have heard tonight, do you care to evaluate governor romney's ability to think outside of the box or foreign policy perspectives? >> no. >> you said so last night. >> every single one of us is better than barack obama, and that's the type -- >> so newt had the opportunity to take a swing at mitt and passed. vice president gingrich, anyone?

been exposed to harmful radiation to those workers of radioactive material and their lungs department of energy officials and private contractors are monitoring the two workers at the lab in eastern idaho now so far none of those potentially exposed are exhibiting any outward symptoms of radiological exposure and the lab director says that stainless steel cladding that surrounds plutonium fuel was damaged which began a slow but steady process of releasing the plutonium that led to the exposure of plutonium fuel dates back to the one nine hundred seventy s. so something says that maybe this lab needs an update and let you know if there are any further developments. now despite silvio berlusconi announcing yesterday that he would step down as prime minister once an austerity package is agreed upon it doesn't look like he's calmed anyone's nerves italy's public debt has reached an estimated two point six trillion dollars fears that italy could default on its debt grow but yields on the country's ten year bonds above seven percent stock markets tanked today as the dow closed down three hundred eigh

political interference by the white house. >> i'm aware of no communication from white house to department of energying to make the loan or restructure. >> after intensive internal debate among his aides, president obama toured solyndra last year and touted it as a model of green energy innovation, aided by $535 million in stimulus funds used to guarantee the company loans. but this summer they declared bankruptcy. they pressed chu on the red flags raised about the shaky finances and e-mail sent by officials at the doe and white house office of management and budget. >> were you aware that your own staff that worked for you was predicting bankruptcy in 2011, prophetically two years? >> i was not aware. >> reporter: chu said the department general counsel saw no legal problem with chu's move last december to restructure solyndra loan, amid increasing concerns about the cash flow an viability. that decision placed taxpayers behind private investor in the line to recover funds in the event that solyndra went bankrupt, which it did. g.o.p. lawmakers call it a violation of law. >> we had two choices. you

department of energy steven chiu will testify tomorrow before the house energy and commerce committee and no doubt that will be one of the very first questions they ask him. >>> a congressional committee has voted to cut funding for so-called space taxis in half to $400 million. president obama wanted to spend twice that on companies like space ex to take our astronauts to the space station in private rockets. it's run by the same fellow who brought us the tesla electric car. we'll keep our eye on it. the idea goes to the full house this morning. i'm not sure how you get there. but if you want to be at the space station, nasa is taking applications for astronauts. you have to have a college degree, be a u.s. citizen, have 1,000 hours in command of a jet, that's preferred and you have to be taller than 5'1", but no taller than 6'2". as far as this guy and these guys of maroon 5, you'll be able to hear them on a new service from google. we don't know much about it, other than google is going to announce some kind of music service later this afternoon. of course, we'll have much more abo

, department of energy intoectly legitimate story. it raises all kinds of questions, not i think about whether or not the government should be offering incentives for energy competitive alternatives to oil, that i think many, many people would support, but whether or not there was political favoritism involved, and that's what the media is investigating, and appropriately so. >> well, that's the question that some outlets ought to be asking. i mean, there must be other solar panel-makers in this country. why does solyndra get half a million dollars worth of taxpayer money when other companies don't? >> i mean, do we know that for a fact, that there was -- i mean, i think that they -- this is part of their program, the idea of encouraging clean energy, the doe program was started under the bush administration, so it's not as controversial as people try to make it out to be. yes, the media should look into see -- if there's a major donor, somebody gets money, that should be investigated, there's no question, but d

performing, but it is functional buildings like this that i want to really express my thanks to the department of energy and dr. kelly is here today as the acting assistant secretary to verify, if you will, our city's appropriate use of this money. and, of course, supervisor campos is here today. he and i have been on many walks throughout our community. not only for public safety issues but also, i think, for both of us, it is just the pure enjoyment of being in our neighborhoods. we love to see our buildings updated as they are. there is an update on the boilers, the furnace, the air economizers, as they say. we do not really have air- conditioning in our great city. we have air economizes to freshen the air. to the lighting fixtures where if the rams are not being used, why are we wasting energy in that respect? our health centers, our community centers, 10 of them, and the smart thing cpuc did with this energy efficiency team, they did the auditing, so they knew what the base line was and how we would measure the improvement, and i want to talk about them. they have been doing this not just from wen

of energy they refused to give the money to solyndra. the first thing secretary chew did is have a ceremony. then the departot to do the layoffs before the election. political nature. >> eric: that is a point we were going to bring up. how can this man, department of energy, ask solyndra to hold off until midterm elections before announcing the layoffs? they had to know it would create outrage. there is no defense. >> bob: it happens all the time. >> dana: that does not happen all the time. >> bob: bad news is something you don't announce before an election. the other thing i say to you. i know i'm backed up on solyndra again. we never talk about the companies that are successful and make it. dana is the first to point out solar industry is beginning to come to its own. if it were up to you, there would not be alternative energy -- wait a second. not be alternative energy program. you'd rely on dinosaur dung. if you would keep in mind we need a tern tiff energy and thing goes wrong at the beginning of any industrial change like this. >> greg: you're right. i hate the sun, bob. >> andrea: and the wind. the s

. >> you advocate the elimination of the department of energy. ou eliminate the department of energy -- >> you remembered it. >> i had time to think about it, sir. >> me too. >> tonight if i need a lifeline, i'm going to look to you. >> i will fill in the blanks. >> all right. >> still with us, msnbc analyst and joan walsh is the editor at large. joan, comparing realistically, can he stay in this long enough to win the nomination after a dire series of debate performances? >> no, i don't think so. i even wondered if he would be the 1 person who dropped out. the rest have nothing to lose and most of them don't have jobs. they are selling books and all this is good for book sales. he's the person trying to run a state. he never lost an earthquakes lection and the only who really is risking something by staying in the race. look, he is funny, but funny is not the point. we saw him at that new hampshire speech. he was hilarious and we started laughing and wondering, is he serious? is something else going on? what is he laughing at? continuing with thi