1999 Congressional Pig Book Summary

V. ENERGY AND WATER

Turning money into water is a trick usually reserved for the craftiest magicians. But energy and water appropriators have learned to take tax dollars and turn them into wasteful and unnecessary water projects. Year after year, hundreds of unrequested Army Corps of Engineers projects are handed out by appropriators. The new trick in the FY 1999 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill is to take the initial Administration requests and inflate them by millions of dollars. This sleight of hand allows appropriators to claim a budget request, thereby hoping to silence their harshest critics. Well, it doesn’t work. If the appropriators had looked at CAGW’s fifth pork-barrel criteria, "greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding," they would realize that they were still going to be caught. Total energy and water pork for FY 1999 was $950 million, or more than double FY 1998’s total of $460 million.

$54,891,000 added by the House and in conference in the district of then House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Joseph McDade (R-Pa.): $40,441,000 over the budget request ($100,000) for Lackawanna River, Scranton; $6,750,000 over the budget request ($50,000) for Lackawanna River, Olyphant; $3,000,000 for Pike County; $2,700,000 for Lycoming County Water and Sewer Authority; and $2,000,000 for Central Bradford Progress Authority, Bradford County. (Most people receive a gold watch, not an overflowing pot of gold, when they retire.) 

 $16,348,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska): $11,748,000 for construction at Cook Inlet ($6,000,000), St. Paul Harbor ($5,000,000), and Chignik Harbor ($748,000); $1,100,000 for operation and maintenance of Wrangell Narrows ($600,000) and St. Paul Harbor ($500,000); $1,000,000 for the Power Creek hydroelectric project in Cordova; $1,000,000 for a diesel backup system at Sitka; $1,000,000 for the Pyramid Creek hydroelectric project; $200,000 for Brevig Mission; $100,000 for Naknek River watershed; $100,000 for Valdez Harbor expansion; and $100,000 for Anchorage Harbor deepening.

$6,375,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Harry Reid (D-Nev.): $2,300,000 for Las Vegas shallow aquifer desalination; $2,225,000 for the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power and Refueling Station; $500,000 for the University of Nevada Las Vegas to manage data from scientific studies of Yucca Mountain; $500,000 for Lake Tahoe regional wetlands development; $250,000 for the Walker River Basin; $250,000 for Sparks water reclamation and reuse; $250,000 to evaluate the best method of extracting methane gas from the Sunrise Mountain Landfill; and $100,000 for a Carson River Basin groundwater study.

$3,500,000 added in conference in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) to support the utilization of Positron Emission Tomography at the University of South Carolina Medical Center.

$2,350,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.): $850,000 for the operation and maintenance of the Upper Rio Grande water operations model; $450,000 for the Rio Grande Floodway; $350,000 for Galisteo Dam safety; $350,000 for the Acequias irrigation system rehabilitation project; $200,000 to confirm the quantity and quality of water available at the San Juan River Gallup, Mount Taylor Mine; and $150,000 for the San Juan Gallup-Navajo water supply study.

$2,210,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Conrad Burns (R-Mont.): $1,500,000 for the Fort Peck rural water system; $360,000 for an MR&I water system at Fort Peck Reservation; and $350,000 for the Montana Trade Port Authority in Billings for a study on construction of a solid waste hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing facility.

$1,500,000 for the Million Solar Roofs Initiative. This "budget request" was not originally a Department of Energy (DOE) project; rather it started out as an announcement by President Clinton during an address to the United Nations. The House Committee scoffed at the idea, as members believed the cost of the program would not be worth it. They were right. A DOE press release in 1998 announced an award of $5,000,000 to select business ventures to install 1,000 solar systems. Assuming DOE’s estimates are correct, at this rate, each roof system will cost $32,000 on average, $5,000 of which will be paid by taxpayers. The Committee was sufficiently concerned about the taking of taxpayer funds for this venture that it warned the Administration not to show off the program. The Committee urged DOE to "use lowercase letters when touting the goal of outfitting one million solar roofs." Despite the recommendation by the House, the program was awarded $1.5 million in conference, according to a Capitol Hill source, simply to see how the money would be spent.

$1,470,000 added by the Senate and in conference for projects in the state of Senate appropriator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii): $1,000,000 to begin planning for the marine mammal research and education center at the National Energy Laboratory; $170,000 for Maalaea Harbor, Maui; $100,000 to study whether there is a federal interest in modifying the Kahului Deep Draft Harbor to increase cargo transportation efficiency and to prepare a plan of study; $100,000 for a reconnaissance study of the efficiency of water systems serving sugarcane plantations and surrounding communities; and $100,000 for Hawaii water management.

$1,300,000 added in conference in the district of House appropriator David Skaggs (D-Colo.) for the National Wind Technology Center.

$1,000,000 added by the Senate in the state of Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) for a project to which he must be quite attached — the construction of the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam in West Virginia and Ohio.

$1,000,000 added by House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Vic Fazio (D-Calif.) for the Gridley rice straw project (which was designed to convert rice into ethanol). Conferees were reluctant to fund this project, in part because it had $3.2 million in unobligated funds from previous years and had experienced serious contract management problems since it began in 1995. CAGW sources indicated the conferees appropriated money anyway because Rep. Fazio was not running for another term and could not ask for future funding.

$1,000,000 added in conference in the district of House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) for the Cancer Institute of New Jersey’s Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Research Institute at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick.

$585,000 added in conference in the district of House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Sonny Callahan (R- Ala.) for channel extension work at Mobile Harbor.

$300,000 added by the Senate in the state of Senate appropriator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) for the Vermont methane energy production proposal. This project is designed to demonstrate the physical and economic feasibility of capturing and utilizing methane from agricultural waste products for heat and power production on farms. (Don’t play with matches near all that gas.)