'McConnell's Solyndra': Tea Party Attacks Mitch For Clean Energy Loan Bid
SAHIL KAPUR – FEBRUARY 28, 2014, 11:46 AM EST
A conservative group pushing to oust Mitch McConnell is bashing the Senate Republican leader over his past support for federally-backed clean energy loans in Kentucky.
"Mitch McConnell's Solyndra Double-Standard," blared the latest attack from FreedomWorks, which is supporting McConnell's conservative challenger, Matt Bevin, in the GOP primary.
The tea party group dug up a 2011 article in the New York Times which reported that McConnell sought to steer clean-energy projects to Kentucky, making two personal appeals to the Obama administration in 2009 seeking up to $235 million in government loans for a Kentucky plant to build electric vehicles.
"I hope you will realize the importance of such job creation to Kentucky," McConnell reportedly wrote to erstwhile Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a July 2009 memo, on behalf of an application from Zap Motor Manufacturing in Franklin, Ky. The Times also reported that McConnell backed the project after the company hired a Kentucky lobbyist who was a contributor to the Republican leader's campaigns.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/mcconnells-solyndra-freedomworks
