Crossroads ads target loan

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

A Republican-leaning group will begin airing a major advertisement this week critical of the Obama administration’s investment into a now-defunct solar-energy company, The Associated Press has learned.

Crossroads GPS will spend $500,000 on three cable network ads that hit President Barack Obama for “crony” government spending in his administration’s half-billion-dollar loan guarantee to Solyndra.

The Fremont, Calif.-based solar-panel maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September and was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy.

The “nationwide ad by Crossroads GPS is aimed at exposing this ugly underbelly of Obama’s vision,” according to a memo from Crossroads president Steven Law. It calls the Solyndra case “a powerful cautionary tale about big-government hubris and the cronyism it invariably invites.”

The Crossroads ad is among the group’s first sharply pointed ads aimed at President Barack Obama’s record and in part highlights support for a company backed by a major Obama supporter. An AP review of government records this fall found the administration restructured the Solyndra loan so that private investors would be repaid before taxpayers in case of a default.

But the administration defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year the company would have faced immediate bankruptcy. Officials have also said that investment in renewable energy is critical for the nation’s future.