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Republicans are “picking oversight targets based on which administration approved the loan or loan guarantee or on whether [they] approve or disapprove of the type of energy produced,” the Democrats said.

“The Committee’s goal should be to protect the taxpayer, not to single out an industry you may disfavor for special scrutiny,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in a letter to Republicans Wednesday.

Committee Republicans have focused much of their attention on the $535 million loan guarantee to the failed California solar panel maker Solyndra. But Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the committee’s investigative panel, has expanded the investigation to include a number of other loans and loan guarantees to renewable energy projects.

The letter – which was also signed by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the top Democrat on the committee’s investigative panel, and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) – calls on Republicans to expand the investigation to include nuclear loan guarantees as well as a $267 million loan approved by the George W. Bush administration to a communications company that filed for bankruptcy this month.

“Oversight should be conducted with an even hand,” the letter said. “That requires giving a failed multi-million-dollar loan issued by the Bush Administration as much attention as failed multi-million-dollar loan guarantee issued by the Obama Administration.  And it requires giving DOE nuclear loan guarantees as much scrutiny as DOE renewable energy loan guarantees.”

Democrats want Republicans to examine the Energy Department’s decision last year to issue a conditional commitment for an $8.33 billion loan guarantee for construction of a Georgia nuclear plant. The Energy Department has also issued a conditional commitment for a $2 billion loan guarantee for an Idaho uranium enrichment project sponsored by Areva.

“From a taxpayer perspective, there is no reason to ignore the nuclear loan guarantees,” the letter says. “Nuclear power companies are slated to receive loans significantly larger than the loan received by Solyndra.”….

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/189931-house-dems-to-republicans-what-about-nuclear-loan-guarantees