The California solar company, Solyndra, heralded by the Obama administration as a prime example of how the Recovery Act created new jobs while promoting his vision of renewable energy, is closing their doors.  Just over a year ago, Obama himself spoke at the facility, praising it as “a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism.”  Once a beacon of solar light in the progressive green jobs agenda, Solyndra had received a $535 million federal loan with the help of newly minted energy secretary, Steven Chu, only to find themselves staring down bankruptcy and the release of more than 1,100 workers. 

Lying within that massive federal loan was a number of sub-awards to other vendors, 40 payments of which were greater than $25,000 each.  The largest sub-award went to another administration favorite, CH2M Hill, to the tune of $9.6 million for their construction engineering services.  The company is a $6.3 billion consulting, engineering, and construction firm, and shares some similarities to the failed Solyndra.  In fact, CH2M used the nearly $10 million sub-award to design Solyndra’s solar manufacturing plant in Fremont, California.  Besides that amount, CH2M is also a major beneficiary of the stimulus, having been awarded four of the top ten contracts from stimulus funding last summer - to the tune of $1.2 billion.  As of this April, the company boasts of $1.6 billion in contracts from the Recovery Act.