Congressional lawmakers have launched a formal investigation into whether solar-energy companies improperly received billions of dollars in tax incentives from the Obama administration.
The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday sent letters to seven foreign and domestic companies in the solar industry, expanding a more limited probe started earlier this year.
The recipients included three firms in the residential solar industry, SolarCity Corp., Sunrun Inc. and Sungevity Inc., and four solar utility companies—SunEdison Inc., Abengoa SA, NextEra Energy Inc. and NRG Energy Inc.
A spokesman for SolarCity said the “answers to the questions posed are fairly straightforward, and we will provide them as requested.”
Officials at SunEdison, Abengoa and NRG Energy declined to comment. NextEra, Sunrun and Sungevity didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Congressional investigators are examining the use of tax incentives for solar-power companies, third-party financing and how the companies determine the value of the credits.
The probe is being run by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), the head of the Ways and Means panel.
Earlier this year, Mr. Hatch began looking into the roughly $25 billion in cash grants that solar and other “green energy” firms have received during the Obama administration. He concluded that the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service—which are also examining the valuations—don’t have adequate controls over the program.
View Article