Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy, won a Nobel Prize for his work in physics. For his work administering his department on behalf of the people, he deserves a pink slip.

Chu presided over the department as it authorized a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, the now famously bankrupt solar panel maker. In testimony before a U.S. House committee on Thursday, he pulled the standard Washington line: Mistakes were made, but I did nothing wrong. That’s to be expected. But deliberately misleading Congress and the American people? That’s going too far.

Chu defended the Solyndra loan guarantee and the crony-capitalism program from which it came by making statements he simply had to know were nowhere near true. The Washington Post followed up the next day with a devastating fact check showing that Chu was wrong and that the facts were well-reported before his testimony.

The secretary claimed that the department’s clean-energy loan programs “are expected to employ more than 60,000 Americans.” Not so. The Post reported on its front page two months ago that the program had dispersed half of its money and created only 3,545 jobs. Chu claims that a single loan to Ford created 33,000 jobs. But Ford itself says it was going forward with the projects funded by that loan anyway. The 60,000 figure is a complete fabrication.

Chu also claimed that Solyndra’s collapse, based on changes in the solar panel markets, “was totally unexpected” by the department and by financial analysts. Also untrue. Before it approved Solyndra’s guarantees, the department possessed analyses from the Office of Management and Budget warning that Solyndra was at serious financial risk and asking for an independent review of its finances. The department never did the review.

Chu mishandled half-a-billion dollars of taxpayer money then misled Congress about it. If he doesn’t resign, the President should fire him.