Governor Romney's cronyism accusation was answered by the
Washington Post: “Romney said that Obama sent money to firms whose executives had donated to his campaign. That is true in the case of Solyndra, but while House Republicans have harshly criticized the administration for that, investigations have not revealed any direct link between the loans for Solyndra and campaign support for the president.”
DOE loan recipients John Woolard, CEO of
BrightSource Energy, and SolarReserve's Smith both denied to GTM any personal relationship with the White House that might have been associated with their funding.
GTM Research's Kann also told
National Public Radio's Marketplace that the $90 billion “includes a wide variety of programs ranging from renewables to energy efficiency to high-speed rail.” The programs, Kann added, “take a number of forms, from tax credits to R&D grants and everything in between.” They were “not all introduced by the Obama administration,” Kann said, and “were not all offered in just one year.”