Scalise says Biden’s $2 trillion energy plan is ‘Solyndra on steroids’

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise on Tuesday blasted former Vice President Joe Biden's energy policy track record and called his new energy plan “Solyndra on steroids.”

As vice president, Biden announced a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra in 2009. The solar energy company later went bankrupt.

Scalise criticized Biden’s energy plan, which includes allocating $2 trillion in taxpayer subsidies for green energy. The Louisiana Republican spoke the same day Biden delivered a campaign speech in Wilmington, Delaware, that focused on energy policy.

“When I look at that, the only thing I can think of is that is Solyndra on steroids,” Scalise said during a conference call organized by the Trump campaign.

“If you go back, and I was on the House Energy and Commerce Committee when we did the investigation into the Obama Biden energy policy, when they were giving out massive taxpayer subsidies to promote green energy in the past, and so Joe Biden's been here before, you can actually see his track record, and it's a track record of failure,” he also said.

Scalise continued, “What we uncovered was that it was Vice President Biden, at the time, who actually put pressure on the Treasury Department to approve this Solyndra loan for over $500 million of taxpayer money, even when people in Treasury were warning that it was going to be a failure.”

Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

“Can you imagine if we now give Joe Biden $2 trillion of taxpayer money?" Scalise asked. "We'll see Solyndras all across the nation – failed energy policy, which will lead to higher energy costs and lost jobs.

“You can see with President Trump's energy policies we've actually become the dominant leader in energy production, not only able to supply all of our own needs and lower costs for families but creating millions of good jobs and now supplying energy to our friends around the world which actually takes leverage away from countries like Russia who use energy as a weapon to push their socialist agenda."

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who joined Scalise on the call, said Trump’s time in office has been “incredible” for his state.

“In the last few years since President Trump has been in office, 74,000 Pennsylvanians were lifted out of poverty and 120,000 don't have to use food stamps anymore to put a meal on the table. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” he said. “What does that do to a person, their mental health, their mental well being to know that I don't have to go and get food stamps to feed my wife, my kids, I don't have to do that anymore.”

Kelly contrasted Trump’s business experience with Biden’s career of government service.

“Half a century in government, in government, not half a century on the playing field, not half a century of getting up every morning or working that night shift; not half a century of living and dying with the markets as they go; but half a century of sitting in a public office,” he said.

“How somebody in that position amasses the wealth that guy has amassed is incredible to me. So I look at that and I say, ‘no, no, no, I want a guy like Donald Trump.' I want a guy who has gone to the front. I want a guy who has lost, has gone bankrupt and made his way back to the top again,” he added.

Kelly argued that Trump’s time as a businessman better prepared him for the presidency compared to Biden, who was elected a U.S. senator from Delaware at 29.

“Why would you want that type of a person leading you?," he asked. "Because he knows the game. He knows how it's played. He knows that you're gonna get your nose bloodied; he knows that you're gonna get knocked down but the key to success is not staying down but getting back up and that's the president we have right now.”