Obama

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Thursday the U.S. must not surrender development of clean energy to China and other countries, despite the spectacular failure of a solar-panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy after taking a half-billion dollar government loan.

Obama said the government should continue to give loan guarantees to help green energy companies compete with other countries that spend billions to subsidize solar panels and other renewable energy manufacturing. Solyndra, the California company that collapsed last month, blamed its demise partly on Chinese imports.

Fighting back against GOP criticism of a $528 million loan to Solyndra, Obama said he strongly disagreed with a Republican congressman who said the U.S. “can't compete with China” to make solar panels or wind turbines.

“Well, you know what? I don't buy that,” Obama said at a White House news conference. “I'm not going to surrender to other countries technological leads that could end up determining whether or not we're building a strong middle class in this country. And so ... we're going to have to keep on pushing hard to make sure that manufacturing's located here, new businesses are located here and new technologies are developed here.”

Hours after Obama's upbeat remarks, the head of the Energy Department's embattled clean energy loan program announced he is leaving in what officials called a planned departure.

Jonathan Silver, who has headed the loan program since November 2009, said he is leaving to join a nonpartisan think tank.