Earmarks for Energy and Water Projects Double in House Legislation

Jul 23, 2008 | 3 min read | Print Article

The FY 2009 House Energy and Water Appropriations bill contains 1,465 congressional earmarks for a total cost of more than $3.1 billion (download the database). That is more than double the 719 projects that were in the legislation last year. Similarly the cost of earmarks jumped 150% from $1.2 billion in 2008. The lion’s share of the increase is a shift from regional, general funding (which the President supports) to project-by-project funding for Corps of Engineers (Congress supports) Operation and Maintenance (O&M). In this year’s bill, out of the $2.3 billion recommended to pay for operations and maintenance, 704 projects worth $2.1 billion were specifically listed. Last year the House only earmarked a fraction of the O&M projects.

Here are some of the highlights of the bill:

Chairman of the Energy and Water Subcommittee, Rep. Visclosky (D-IN) got 13 earmarks worth $24.4 million, including $1 million each for the Purdue Calumet Inland Water Institute, Purdue Hydrogen Technologies Program, and the Munster Waste-to-Energy co-generation project.
Ranking member of the Subcommittee, Rep. David Hobson (R-OH) amasses 17 earmarks worth $27.6 million. These include six earmarks worth $5.6 million for the heavily criticized undefined environmental infrastructure slush funds for communities in his district. Rep. Hobson also got $4 million for a Green Building at Springfield Hospital.
The subcommittee kept the funding for the Denali Commission at the President’s request of $1,500,000, leaving Sen. Stevens (R-AK), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to do the heavy lifting. In FY08 he parlayed a $1,800,000 request into $21,451,000.
Rep. Pastor (D-AZ), a member of the subcommittee, got 10 earmarks by himself or with other lawmakers worth $23.4 million. These included a $1,000,000 earmark in the Office of the Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Achieving College Education program at Maricopa Community Colleges.
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) was able to snag $1,000,000 for Alaska Geothermal Energy and $750,000 for the Anchorage regional landfill. Senior member of the Appropriations Committee Rep. Kaptur (D-OH) partnered with recently elected Rep. Latta (R-OH) to get $500,000 for Coastal Wind in Ohio, while Rep. Kilpatrick (D-MI), another member of the committee, got $1,000,000 for energy efficient street lighting in downtown Detroit. In his victory lap on the committee, retiring Rep. Regula (R-OH) got Rolls Royce $1,350,000 for solid oxide full cell systems development.
Overall, total funding for projects in the President’s budget only increased $13 million in aggregate, but that masked large shifts. For example: Speaker Pelosi (along with Rep. Woolsey (D-CA)) was able to boost funding for Hamilton Airfield Wetlands Restoration from just $5 million to $14 million. Also, Subcommittee Chairman Visclosky was able to boost construction funding for Little Calumet River from $8 million to $14 million. In contrast, a bi-partisan group of six Illinois lawmakers were not enough to stop funding for construction at McCook and Thornton Reservoirs to be cut from $34 million down to $30 million.