Issa seeks more Solyndra e-mails

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is seeking more e-mails related to the failed loan guarantee to solar company Solyndra, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, plans to ask for personal e-mails from 10 current and former Energy Department employees who participated in the Obama administration's program that provided $528 million in loan guarantees to the failed solar panel manufacturer, a congressional aide told the Journal.

The Energy Department already has handed over more than 900,000 pages of documents to House Republicans, including personal e-mails "in the rare cases where the department has found that some officials may have used their personal e-mail accounts to discuss official business," department spokesman Damien LaVera said.

"The department has treated those e-mails as official records and voluntarily provided them when requested by congressional investigators," LaVera added.

But the oversight committee recently released additional e-mails that indicate other department officials had discussed official business through personal e-mail accounts. The committee's press for another round of e-mail messages could keep the story in the spotlight despite no proof so far that any loans were made to reward Obama political donors as Issa and others have charged, the Journal said.