Romney's energy past reviewed

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Democrats trying to counter Mitt Romney's attacks on the Obama administration's failed investment in Solyndra say Romney also handed out energy subsidies.

The scale, however, is vastly different, Politico said Monday. The Obama administration spent at least $535 million on the failed California solar panel company, while the energy loans and other financial help Romney, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, distributed as governor of Massachusetts add up to just a fraction of that amount.

The state's investment in Evergreen Solar backfired when the company filed last year for Chapter 11. Some of the other companies that benefited from the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund also have stumbled. Fuel cell company CTP Hydrogen Inc., shut down in 2008, and fuel cell developer Protonex Technology Corp. has laid off a third of its employees and closed a Colorado plant, Politico said.

William Osborn, a clean energy investment expert hired to manage the Green Energy Fund, said "the jury is still out" on the overall success of the fund, which expires in 2014.

Osborn and others connected to the Green Energy Fund told Politico the venture capital plan wasn't Romney's idea. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi-public agency, set up the program with money from the state's Renewable Energy Trust Fund, which predated Romney's time as governor.

The Romney campaign said the initial $9 million in grants that he handed out as governor were predetermined before he came into office. The campaign also said Romney redirected $17 million from the trust to close the state's budget deficit.