A preliminary look a the Clinton Administration's 1998 budget released Feb. 6 reveals many of the environmentally destructive pork barrel programs targeted in the recently released Green Scissors '97 report. The report is by the Green Scissors Campaign, an alliance of environmentalists, taxpayer advocates and deficit hawks led by Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

While the Administration did target some Green Scissors cuts, including road construction subsidies in National Forests and wasteful Energy Department programs, plenty of fat laden pork remains.

Animas-LaPlata Project — The President requested $6 million for continued planning on the immense Animas-LaPlata Water Project in Southwestern Colorado. With more than $7.5 million in funds left over from previous years, this additional request is unjustified. Some Members may even try to shift these planning funds to construction.

Subsidized logging roads in National Forests — While the Administration did zero out 'purchaser road credits' which reimburse logging companies for road construction, it only cut the road construction budget by a mere five percent.

1872 Mining Law — Although the Administration took a positive step by proposing a five percent royalty, the fee is still less than the eight percent royalty already approved by the House in 1993.   It also proposes the repeal of the percentage depletion allowance for certain hard rock mining.

Petroleum R&D — The $52.2 million request increases by 13% Energy Department (DOE) funding for petroleum R&D for oil producers that can afford their own R&D.

Coal R&D — This $103 million program was only cut to $100 million despite the Congressional Budget Office's conclusion that it has been wasteful.

Clean Coal Technology Program — In a good move, the Administration requested a $153 million cut for this program which needlessly pays private companies to develop cleaner technologies they could afford to develop on their own.

National Ignition Facility — This $876 million request would more than quadruple funding for NIF. An end-run around the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the $4.7 billion project is meant to improve DOE's understanding of nuclear weapons, but the facility has experienced numerous problems and cost estimates are soaring.

Plutonium Pyroprocessing — Even though Congress has voted twice to kill this reprocessing program for spent nuclear fuels, the Administration proposes $50 million to continue the program.

Advanced Light Water Reactor — Upon first glance this $38 million nuclear program seems to have been zeroed out for FY98, but a suspicious sounding $39.8 Nuclear Energy Security account appears to continue this program under a new name.