Opinion
Coburn takes aim at Blago's $2 billion FutureGen earmark in economic stimulus
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
02/05/09 3:57 PM EST
More than 300 amendments have been offered so far on the Senate's $900 billion version of an economic stimulus bill, but only 20 have actually been debated and voted on, with 9 being approved. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, is today offering what what is likely the most interesting amendment presented on the bill.
Coburn's amendment would strike the largest single earmark ever - a $2 billion appropriation for the FutureGen Alliance Project of Illinois. Former Illinois Democrat Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been among the project's biggest supporters, even though the U.S. Department of Energy says it's a waste of resources.
Coburn's staff has compiled the following case against the FutureGen earmark:
- $2 Billion FutureGen Earmark Violates President Obama’s Demand for an "Earmark-Free” Stimulus Bill
- The $2 Billion Earmark for FutureGen Is the Most Expensive Congressional Pork Project in History
- Department of Energy Says “FutureGen a Waste of Tax Money”
- Independent Experts and Opinion Leaders Agree that FutureGen Is Not the Best Technology
- Funding for FutureGen in this bill is a Result of Successful Lobbying rather than Its Potential for Job Creation or Energy Production
- Energy Producers Who Are Enjoying Record Profits Do Not Need Government Subsidies, Especially at a Time When Other Struggling Industries Are Laying Off Employees
- Carbon Capture Technology Is Not “Shovel Ready,” which is the Stated Criteria for Stimulus Funding
- Earmarking Funding for Unproven Technology, for FutureGen or Any Other Company, Siphons Away Funding that Could be Better Directed to More Worthwhile Causes That Benefit Taxpayers
- $2 Billion Earmark for FutureGen Is the Most Expensive Pork Project in History
- It is 2,000 times more expensive than the $1 million Woodstock museum in New York that was rejected by the Senate.
- It is nine times costlier than the infamous Alaska “Bridge to Nowhere,” which was priced at $223 million in 2005.[3]
- The $1.5 billion earmarked by Congress to the Washington, D.C. Metro system last year had been the most expensive pork project, until now.
- President Obama asked Congress to pass an economic stimulus bill free of Congressional pet projects. Senate leaders claim there are no earmarks in the stimulus bill. Yet hidden in the text of a bill is very clever language intended to disguise its nature is the largest earmark in history-- $2 billion for FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a company based in Matoon, Illinois.
- The text of the bill reads “$2,000,000,000 is available for one or more near zero emission powerplant(s).” Yet, there is only one "near zero emissions" powerplant anywhere near development in the entire nation—the FutureGen power plant. In fact, FutureGen boasts being a “first-of-its-kind” power plant in development.[1] The truth is it could rightly be called an “only-of-its-kind” power plant under development.
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