Solyndra Hearing in DC Today

What did Solyndra's executive team know and when did they know it?

We won't find that out tomorrow morning at the House Energy & Commerce’s hearing because CEO Brian Harrison, and CFO W.G. Stover, Jr. aren't showing up.

Here's why, according to a statement from Solyndra company spokesman:

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 before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in Washington, D.C.  The Company is in direct communication with the committee staff and working with them on a future date for Mr. Harrison and Mr. Stover to voluntarily appear.  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.

It looks like Harrison and Stover will show up next week instead.

The subcommittee will get to hear from Jonathan Silver, Director of the Loans Programs Office for the DOE, and Jeffrey Zients, the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Here's a link to Silver's prepared remarks from the Mercury News.

Note this point:

Solyndra submitted its initial application in 2006 and much of the extensive due diligence on the transaction was conducted between 2006 and the end of 2008. By late 2008, Solyndra was considered by those involved in the DOE loan programs to be the most advanced in the due diligence process, and the likely recipient of the program's first loan guarantee. In fact, by the time Obama Administration took office in late January 2009, the loan programs' staff had already established a goal of, and timeline for, issuing the company a conditional loan guarantee commitment in March 2009.

That should clear up any specious arguments that this is Obama's Watergate.

Here's a good article at GigaOM that includes the transcript of an interview with DOE's Jonathan Silver.

And to clear up one more misconception, according to a Solyndra spokesperson, the "FBI went to Brian Harrison’s home and spoke to him. They did not search his home. They searched his office at the company as part of the overall search as well as many offices."

More details as they emerge from today's committee meeting. Here's a link to a live feed.