Tesla was part of that program and without that loan they would not be around today. Also, the loans are expected to profitable [1], although I read somewhere that when accounting for administration costs, the program overall would end up slightly in the red[2]. Regardless, the program created/saved thousands of jobs and provided badly needed financing to companies during one of the worst recessions in decades, which in my book means it was very successful.

[1] http://energy.gov/lpo/portfolio [2] The bill that created the program required that the loans be given out 'at cost'. Had the DOE been allowed to charge even modestly more, or had they asked for stock options as part of their deals, the program could have been wildly profitable.