The U.S. Department of Energy is trying to keep the trade secrets of a Colorado solar company that went bust after receiving government-backed loans from President Barack Obama's administration.
Colorado Watchdog filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain documents from the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab dealing with Abound Solar, the Colorado company in which Pat Stryker, an Obama bundler, was an original investor. According to Watchdog, Stryker visited the White House three times around the time the DOE loan was approved.
Watchdog's intent was to find out about the quality of Abound's products, which some analysts have suggested may have been subpar, which would implicate the Obama administration even more in yet another crony capitalism scandal involving a green energy boondoggle. Solyndra has been the most infamous green energy failure to date.
The reply letter to Watchdog stated that while "Abound Solar has substantial commercial interest in protecting the release of the redacted confidential module test data within the responsive records, since the public release of this confidential information could be used by competitors to gain an undue advantage over Abound Solar."
“Competitors would be able to use this technical information to undercut Abound Solar in future DOE competitive grant application opportunities," the letter stated.
Except Abound filed for bankruptcy at the end of June, and Colorado Watchdog made the FOIA request in August.
Colorado Watchdog said it would appeal the decision next week.