(Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) the December Porker of the Month for earmarking almost $36 million in the fiscal 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill for 17 energy-related projects in his home state.  As ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, Sen. Reid diverted about one-fifth of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s budget to projects in his home state. 

Sen. Reid’s actions weaken the effectiveness of basic energy research while giving the illusion of contributing to it.  The earmarks divert funds from peer-reviewed, agency-requested scientific research to his own pet projects.  For example, Sen. Reid’s earmarks include $3.5 million to create a new National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Nevada.  As a result, the Department of Energy (DOE) will cut funding for research already taking place at other labs.  The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado will lay off as many as 100 scientists, or 11 percent of its total staff, mostly as a consequence of congressional earmarking.  

The scientific community has grown increasingly concerned with earmarking as a method of allocating R&D resources.  The American Association for the Advancement of Science has calculated that earmarks will account for $269 million, or 21 percent, of the $1.3 billion the federal government will spend on energy R&D in fiscal 2006.  Earmarks in Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs total more than $163 million.  “Biomass” earmarks add up to more than $50 million - more than half of the total $90 million for the program.  Similarly, “hydrogen” earmarks account for $43 million out of a $157 million program. 

Regardless of the merits of the federal government’s renewable energy programs, earmarking is sure to make them less effective.  Earmarked projects bypass both the competitive process for federal grants and the peer-review process for scientific research.  As a result, money is dished out based on political influence and members’ desires to please constituents rather than an objective determination of the projects’ worth.  In many cases, as with Sen. Reid’s earmarks, projects funded under the guise of renewable energy are only distantly related to that purpose.        

For a generation, presidents and Congress have made “energy independence” the central goal of U.S. energy policy.  Yet despite the billions of federal tax dollars invested in renewable energy over the last thirty years, prices for petroleum and natural gas are at historic highs and the U.S. is more dependent on energy imports than ever.  Pork-barrel politics will only continue this policy failure.  For diverting tens of millions of dollars from higher priority corps scientific research to projects in his home state, CAGW names Sen. Harry Reid Porker of the Month for December 2005.  

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.