The shoes just keep dropping in the ever-mushrooming Solyndra scandal — even as President Obama continues to defend the now-bankrupt solar company and his administration’s decision to grant it $528 million in loan guarantees, courtesy of the taxpayers.

Maybe it’s time for the White House to finally admit the folly of its “green jobs” program and attempts by government officials to dictate industrial policy.

Not to mention throwing billions in taxpayer money out the window on “green” companies it vowed would jump-start the economy and create 5 million jobs.

Consider:

* Newly released e-mails show that even as Solyndra was hovering on the brink of collapse, the Energy Department was pushing to give it another $469 million in taxpayer-backed loans.

Officials pushed for the added funds even after auditors sounded alarm after alarm that the company was in imminent danger of closing. Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s top aides simply dismissed the warnings as exaggerated.

Meanwhile, over at the Office of Management and Budget, which had raised red flags about Solyndra, one analyst jokingly scribbled: “Possible to close [the company] and default on one [loan] before closing on a second??? Could be a new record.”

* Another batch of e-mails shows that pressure to get the Solyndra loan approved came from the very top — meaning from President Obama and his then-chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Steven Spinner — who’d raised $500,000 for Obama’s campaign before being named to a top Energy post — pressed the agency to approve the loans, saying “I have the [office of the vice president] and [White House] breathing down my neck on this.”

(This, even though Spinner’s wife’s law firm represented Solyndra — a blatant conflict. )

* Even one of Solyndra’s own investors warned White House economic adviser Larry Summers not to give the company financial aid. “While that is good for us,” he wrote, “I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money.”

But all the warnings went for naught — the company went belly-up in August, costing 1,500 jobs and leaving taxpayers on the hook for all that cash.

A criminal probe is now under way.

And the head of Energy’s loan-guarantee program, Jonathan Silver, abruptly resigned last Thursday, though he was not personally involved with the Solyndra loan.

Think Solyndra is an isolated case — one company gone bad in an otherwise economically worthwhile emerging sector, as the White House claims?

Think again: Last week, the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Lab, which got $200 million in stimulus funds, said it is laying off 10 percent of its staff.

A “green” project in Seattle got $20 million funding — and produced all of 14 jobs.

Congress needs to get to the bottom of this outrage pronto.

And the Obama folks should finally admit that government bureaucrats will never predict what’s going to be economically viable better than the private sector.

Will that ever happen? Ha!