In 2009, then-Vice President Joe Biden was stumping for what was known as the stimulus bill. To paint a picture of the administration’s successes, he was championing a half-a-billion-dollar clean energy innovation project supported by the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office (LPO).

That project was called Solyndra, and it promised a novel type of solar power generation. Solyndra failed—bigly—and, as a result, the project (along with the LPO) became the poster child for politicians steering taxpayer dollars to their misguided pet projects.

Read more from R Street Institute here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.