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V.  ENERGY AND WATER

This year Energy and Water appropriators were very interested in requesting a deluge of special interest projects, such as indoor rainforests.  The result was a fiscal 2004 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that was filled to the brim with pork.  The number of pork projects increased by 27 percent, from 487 in fiscal 2003 to 617 in fiscal 2004.  While the projects increased, the total dollar amount decreased 58 percent, from $1.7 billion in  fiscal 2003 to $714 million in fiscal 2004. 

$50,000,000 added in conference for an indoor rainforest project in Coralville, Iowa by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).  The project, which originally was included in the Energy Policy Act of 2003 bill that failed to pass in December, 2003, became so indispensable that Sen. Grassley added it to the Omnibus Appropriations Bill in late January 2004.  When completed, Iowa will have the world’s largest enclosed rainforest, spanning five acres.  A local businessman, Ted Townsend (heir to the Townsend meat-packing fortune), came up with this idea while contemplating his legacy on a treadmill.  Since then, Townsend has worked to see that taxpayers will pay dearly for his dream to be realized.  The project, which is estimated to cost $225 million, includes a generous $5 million from Townsend.  This tropical boondoggle has some big name supporters, such as former Iowa Governor Bob Ray (R), who is the chairman of the institute Townsend founded to oversee the production of the rainforest.  Ray imagines that it will solve the state’s “demographic problems” by drawing more people to move to Iowa.  Ray also believes that mass quantities of retiring baby boomers will “crisscross the country” to visit the indoor rainforest.  Senator Grassley claims that it will somehow help the University of Iowa.  Ultimately, this project will do nothing for Iowa’s population, energy industry, or the environment, but it will soak the taxpayers. 

$16,004,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), including:  $4,000,000 for the Dillingham Emergency Bank; $1,000,000 for Sand Point; $300,000 for the McGrath Bank Stabilization Project; $300,000 for a regional port study; $200,000 for the Knik Bridge Crossing; and $100,000 for Skagway.

$15,025,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.):  $12,000,000 for the Backwater Pump; $2,000,000 for Gulfport Harbor; $1,000,000 for the Wolf and Jordan Rivers; and $25,000 for Main Stem.

$11,995,000 for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), including:  $5,000,000 for central New Mexico; $2,000,000 for a medical building at the University of New Mexico; $480,000 for the Rio Grande and tributaries in the Espanola Valley; $175,000 for the Eastern New Mexico water supply; and $130,000 for East Mesa in Las Crusas.

$7,650,000 added by the House for the Calumet region in the district of House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.). 

$5,825,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate appropriator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), including: $3,000,000 for the North Padre Island Pachery Channel; $1,800,000 for the Texas City Ship Channel; and $400,000 for the Corpus Christi Ship Channel.

$4,000,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Harry Reid (D-Nev.), including:  $2,000,000 for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Research Foundation ($1,000,000 each to conduct safety and risk analyses, and to assess earthquake hazards and seismic risk) and $2,000,000 for the University of the Nevada, Reno ($1,000,000 each to conduct nuclear waste repository research and to expand the earthquake engineering and simulation facility).

$2,500,000 added for Pinellas County in the district of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.).  The bill fails to specify the purpose of this money.

$2,500,000 added by the Senate for the Greenbriar River in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.).

$1,750,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), including $200,000 for Desert Hot Springs and $100,000 for Middle Creek.

$1,500,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Patty Murray (D-Wash.):  $1,000,000 for Shoalwater Bay shoreline erosion; $400,000 for the Elliot Bay Seawall in Seattle; and $100,000 for the Stillaguamish River Basin.

$1,225,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of Senate appropriator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), including:  $750,000 for Hawaii water management; $200,000 for the Wailupe Stream flood control study; and $175,000 for Iao Stream flood control.

$1,050,000 for projects in the district of House appropriator Anne Northup (R-Ky.):  $750,000 for the Louisville Waterfront Park for Phase 2 and 3 and $300,000 for the University of Louisville Ethanol Production for a biomass large-scale facility design project.

$1,000,000 for the University of Alabama-Huntsville Climate Action Project in the district of House Appropriator Robert Cramer (D-Ala.). 

$1,000,000 added by the House for Waco Lake in the district of House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Chet Edwards (D-Texas).