Dirty Deals: How Oregon let its clean energy program enrich rule breakers (Watchdog Report Part 1 of 2)

A Seattle-based energy consultant and the state employee he’s accused of bribing became the public faces of corruption charges at the Department of Energy after their arrests last summer.

But it wasn’t one rogue employee who enabled consultant Martin Shain to reap $12 million in green energy tax credits for solar projects that should have failed to qualify, according to thousands of records reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Four other Energy Department employees, including the director, helped Shain obtain the credits by circumventing program rules and ignoring deadlines lawmakers insisted on.

None of the four has been accused of wrongdoing. All four employees declined to answer questions about their particular roles in greenlighting the tax credits.

By TED SICKINGER and HILLARY BORRUD

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/11/watchdog_report_part_1_of_2_di.html#incart_river_index