Nov
10
A congressional watchdog group named Rep. Pete Visclosky the pioneer of “green pork” — federal money passed out to entities promising “environmental breakthroughs” — many developed by Northwest Indiana’s “green” industries and political campaign contributors.
Just think — with enough money — one day everyone in America can enjoy some “green living” cranked out by Northwest Indiana’s industries!
Pete Visclosky is so good at bringing home the pork roll he is on the top ten list. Visclosky’s $116.8 million in “earmarks” for 2008 puts him at number 6 on the list of the pols passing out the pork.
Reports the Northwest Indiana Times‘ Keith Benman:
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky finds himself at the center of the national firestorm over “pork” spending, those pet projects members of Congress fund with earmarks to major bills.
The Indiana Democrat has been identified as the sixth-biggest earmarker in the U.S. House, with $116.8 million set aside for special projects in fiscal 2008 budget bills, according to figures compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense.
In a CNBC interview, one Washington watchdog group accused Visclosky of pioneering “green pork,” which are earmarks masquerading as seed money for environmental breakthroughs. …
His earmarking efforts rank him right behind such congressional heavyweights as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. No other Indiana congressman comes close, with most securing less than one-tenth what Visclosky does.
The good news is that most of the pork barrel money comes home to the Northwest Indiana — only $24.5 million is squandered as wasteful government spending by sending it to other Congressional districts, according to the report. But, sometimes you have to spread some money around to get some money, so it’s all good as long as the pork comes back home to Northwest Indiana.
One example of Pete Visclosky’s pork power is the case of Jupiter Oxygen — a Visclosky campaign contributor.
Tucked away among the $3.2 billion in Congressional earmarks in the recently passed energy and water spending bill is a $4 million grant to a small company in suburban Chicago that is trying to solve the problem of capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions.
The company, Jupiter Oxygen, which is run out of an office park near O’Hare airport, holds potentially valuable patents for burning coal cleanly but has fewer than 10 employees and sparse revenue. As a speculative venture in an embryonic field, it has little access to capital markets, traditional bank loans or federal grants.
It does, however, have powerful friends in Congress, including Representatives Peter J. Visclosky, Democrat of Indiana, and Joe L. Barton, Republican of Texas, who sponsored the earmark and who together have received more than $41,000 in campaign donations from Jupiter Oxygen executives. In all, company officials and family members have given political donations of at least $150,000 in recent years.
The case of Jupiter Oxygen is an example of how companies in a variety of energy-related businesses, solar, biofuels and wind power, are lining up at the federal trough as the government shovels out billions of new dollars to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and combat global warming.
Could Pete Visclosky’s pork success be the reason why Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is so jealous of Northwest Indiana’s industries?
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