WASHINGTON — Top officials at the White House circulated a plan calling for the ouster of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other top Energy Department officials as the administration braced for a political storm over the failing solar energy company Solyndra.
An e-mail from a clean-energy activist and former official in President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign said Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was a brilliant man but “not perfect” for other critical DOE missions, including creating jobs. The Feb. 25 e-mail from Dan Carol, a former issues adviser in Obama’s campaign, was circulated by then-Chief of Staff Peter Rouse and seen by at least 18 White House officials.
The e-mails were released late Friday by the government in response to a subpoena by House Republicans.
