Another government-backed U.S. solar power company is in bankruptcy. More trouble for the Obama administration and fodder for the Romney campaign? Actually, it might be the other way around.

Konarka Technologies filed for bankruptcy last week, about the same time presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney stood in front of the shuttered Solyndra plant in California, denouncing the Obama administration for its support for the failed solar manufacturer.

image via Romney for President

The irony, according to the Boston Herald, is that Konarka itself had received public assistance from Massachusetts during Mitt Romney’s tenure as governor.

“The demise of Konarka could become a hot topic on the campaign trail because Romney personally doled out a $1.5 million renewable energy subsidy to the Lowell startup in 2003, shortly after taking office on Beacon Hill,” the Herald reported.

The funding in question was actually in motion before Romney took office, according to the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust. But indeed, it was Romney himself who delivered a check from the state to Konarka in January 2003. And, remarkably, Konarka wasn’t the only doomed solar company to benefit from the largesse of the commonwealth that day: according to Politico, Evergreen Solar also “won $2.5 million for a major expansion and to cover operating losses as it tried to become profitable.”

Evergreen would go on to file for bankruptcy in August 2011, just a few weeks before the end came for Solyndra, whose half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee and subsequent bankruptcy quickly became a cornerstone of Republican attacks against President Barack Obama’s economic and energy policies.

The GOP has been saying the government’s role in developing new technologies should be limited to supporting basic research and calling the administration’s backing of individual companies a misguided attempt at “picking winners.” It’s an argument that could run into trouble given Romney’s approach as governor, which apparently extended beyond Konarka and Evergreen.

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