Dina Cappiello and Matthew Daly
Associated Press
via ABC News
11/12/2011
Top officials at the White House circulated a plan calling for the ouster of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other top Energy Department officials as the administration braced for a political storm brewing over the failing solar energy company Solyndra.
An email from a clean-energy activist and former official in President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign said Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was a brilliant man but “not perfect” for other critical DOE missions, including creating jobs. The Feb. 25 email from Dan Carol, a former issues adviser in Obama’s campaign, was circulated by then-Chief of Staff Peter Rouse and seen by at least 18 White House officials, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and then-energy adviser Carol Browner.
The emails were released late Friday by the government in response to a subpoena by House Republicans, who are investigating a $528 million federal loan received by Solyndra Inc. of Fremont, Calif. The firm later went bankrupt and laid off its 1,100 workers.
A White House spokesman said Friday the plan to oust Chu was not taken very seriously…
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