U.S. won't likely recover "much" from Solyndra

Members of Congress spent more than five hours grilling President Barack Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Thursday about the government's lost investment in Solyndra, a solar power company.

They wanted to know why the solar panel manufacturer was given huge government loans and then filed for bankruptcy.

It was a long, grueling hearing about the failed business deal that cost taxpayers more than a half billion dollars, as CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported on "The Early Show."

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said at the hearing, "This is disgusting. I hope you'll go back to your agency and have some heads roll."

Republicans accused Chu -- a Nobel Prize-winning physicist -- of acting like a venture capitalist by investing in the now-bankrupt maker of solar panels.

Chu said, "Fundamentally, this company and several others got caught in a very, very bad tsunami if you will."

Much of the focus was on how taxpayers were put to the back of the line -- behind private investors -- in terms of ever getting paid back. Scalise told Chu that move may be illegal.

"I think you're wrong," Scalise said. "I think it's gonna come out you did violate the law."

Republicans pointed to an internal email from last February: A Treasury Department official advised the Energy Department that only the Justice Department could sign off on a deal to make taxpayers subordinate to private investors.

But Chu said he didn't need to consult the Justice Department because his legal experts signed off.

Chu said, "So we have a number of people saying that this is commensurate with the law."

Chu also got grilled over politics. Emails show a major Obama fundraiser, George Kaiser, who had invested $400 million in Solyndra sought to influence how the administration handled the company's financial problems.

And the Obama administration wanted to delay layoff announcements until after the 2010 mid-term elections.

Chu said it's important that the government invests in green technology -- which is sometimes risky -- and insisted politics never entered into his decisions.

Rep. Diana Degette, (D-Colo.) asked at the hearing, "Did any Obama campaign donor contact you and ask you to take any action relating to the Solyndra loan guarantee or to the restructuring of that loan guarantee?"

Chu replied, "No. No one did. No Obama campaign."

Degette said, "You're under oath."

Chu acknowledged that but stood by his original answer.

GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney weighed in from the campaign trail.

"It just doesn't smell right," Romney said. "People will get to the bottom of this. Eventually, these kinds of things like this have a way of coming out."

But Democrats said Republicans are politicizing the case.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, "My message to colleagues is not to dance on Solyndra's grave. They're trying to manufacture a scandal where there is none."

Attkisson added on "The Early Show," "In the end, taxpayers are on the hook for $528 million. And as for the prospect of getting any money back, Chu told Congress he doesn't expect taxpayers to recover 'much.'"