Minnesota Congressman Leads Effort to End Green Energy Stimulus Funding Behind Controversial Goodhue County Wind Farm

An initiative led by Congressman John Kline (MN-R) would do more than terminate the federal stimulus renewable energy program that funded the bankrupt $535 millionnotorious Solyndra solar power project. If successful, it would also knock the wind out of a key funding source for one of the nation’s most controversial wind projects –T. Boone Pickens’ proposed $180 million AWA Goodhue Wind farm in Kline’s congressional district.

Last week Kline circulated a letter urging his House colleagues to support the immediate elimination of Section 1603 renewable energy grants. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would allow the so-called green grants to expire. Since tax provisions such as Section 1603 must originate in the House, this effectively curtails the program.

“Given the economic challenges facing our country, we cannot in good conscience use taxpayer dollars to subsidize industries that have failed to demonstrate proven results to help our long-term energy strategy,” Kline said in a release.

Many wind and other renewable energy projects depend on the Section 1603 grants, which were previously slated for elimination after 2010. Yet Congress extended the green energy cash grants for another year at the cost of an additional $3 billion, bringing the total spent thus far to $9.2 billion.

AWA Goodhue Wind, the developer of the 78 megawatt wind farm in southeastern Minnesota, may be among those with the most to lose if the congressman’s effort is successful. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) both support the Goodhue Wind project.

“I think it’s a huge deal. I think the tides are turning,” said Kristi Rosenquist, anopponent of the wind project. “Congress is seeing we shouldn’t just keep pouring cash into an abyss for something that’s completely ineffective. I’m hopeful that Congress is recognizing this money does not create very many jobs and the jobs it does create are at a huge expense.”

The southeastern Minnesota wind project was cited during the debate as an example of another aspect of the stimulus program’s toxic impact on taxpayers.

“While the goal of the program is to increase the use of renewable energy, including wind, I have escalating concerns about the unintended consequences of the program. For example, in Minnesota, a wind developer is working to establish a farm with more than 50 wind turbines despite strong concerns vocalized by hundreds of residents the program is slated to serve,” Kline wrote in his recent letter.

The Goodhue County proposal is eligible for about $50 million under the grant. There’s just one catch. Construction must start before the end of 2011in order for the project to qualify for the $50 million in funding.

While the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has issued the project a permit, the developers must obtain local township permits and to submit an “avian and bat protection plan” for state approval. With less than three weeks to go, it appears increasingly unlikely that construction will get underway in time to qualify, should the stimulus program fails to be renewed.

Read more…

Texas Watchdog

What was to have been a Frankenstein-like lightning strike to the economy and to unemployment, the Weatherization Assistance Program today in Texas has spent more than $226,000 on each of 1,041 jobs the program is said to have created or saved.

The director of the state Department of Housing and Community Affairs overseeing the nearly $327 million stimulus program to fix up low-income homes has stepped down. At least three of the original 44 local organizations administering the program have been shut down for chronic mismanagement and concerns about fraud.

The state has taken funding from 13 of the programs and redistributed it to more efficient organizations, while the federal government says it will take back tens of millions from the state if it fails to spend the money quickly.

And in a review by Texas Watchdog of state monitoring reports over the past nine months, state inspectors have found administrative overspending, careless workmanship and millions of dollars in prohibited and questionable spending by contractors working for more than two dozen of the local groups.

Housing and Community Affairs officials asked that they be able to respond to questions about the inspection reports in writing. As of Wednesday afternoon, agency spokesman Gordon Anderson said, “Staff is working on responding to these questions right now, but these same employees have – and continue to be – pulled off of all other tasks throughout the day to assist in responding to inquiries from other governmental entities regarding the state’s response to the numerous wildfires still burning across Texas. This takes a priority over everything else at the moment.”

As President Obama prepares to address the nation with a request that taxpayers come up with another $300 billion for a federal jobs program, it is worth taking a hard look at one of the original jobs programs in the $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Read more…

By Paige Winfield Cunningham

Hundreds of colorful banners waved above a Tax Day rally held last month in Washington, D.C. by Tea Party activists protesting government spending.

Signs and buttons displayed punchy messages like “Capital Privy—Flush Congress” and “No-bama.” A yellow sign held by a middle-aged man read: “Hey Congress/Obama, my small business is not your personal ATM.” “Hey Obama! We refuse to trade our constitution for you Marxist agenda,” read another.

But the largest sign didn’t criticize President Barack Obama. It praised him.

Held firmly above the flags bearing anti-tax messages, two Obama supporters waved a white banner that read “the other 95 percent say thanks for our tax cuts, Obama.” Registered Democrat Charlie Fink said he and two friends brought the sign to the rally because they want Tea Partiers to realize that Obama, at least temporarily, cut taxes for most people.

All but the top two percent of workers in America benefitted from tax cuts enacted under the $787 billion federal stimulus bill passed in February 2009. That’s according to a study released last month by the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit that says it promotes tax fairness.

Read More

Idaho Freedom Foundation

More than $470,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus plan) funds have found their way to Idaho arts groups.  This money came from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and went either directly to groups like the Boise Contemporary Theater, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and the Log Cabin Literary Center, or was distributed to groups statewide through the Idaho Commission on the Arts.

All the State’s a Stage

According to records obtained by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, $254,200 was distributed to 44 Idaho arts groups by the Arts Commission.   The award description said the money was “To support arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.”  Director Michael Faison said the recipients reported back that the stimulus money has “created or saved” 14 full-time jobs, 18 part-time jobs, and 12 contract positions.  According to the website recovery.gov, that equates to 22.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

Read More

By Ed O’Keefe

Washington Post

The Obama administration‘s economic recovery program has triggered more than 1,700 fraud complaints since it launched last year, according to a new report.

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and federal inspectors general are investigating 147 of those allegations and federal prosecutors have opened investigations into 43 cases, the RAT Board said in its quarterly report released Monday.

Inspectors general are also conducting more than 400 audits and inspections of recipients of economic stimulus funding.

Read More

First, those projects for which a formal notice of fund allocation has been issued, meaning the money is encumbered and actually allocated on the state’s books and therefore ready to be spent:

1.  The Rail Runner:  $643,500. These funds will cover direct operating costs, excluding maintenance, for an approximate period of two weeks.   According to the NMORR, the funds will be completely expended after that time.

2.  New Mexico Office of Recovery and Reinvestment:  $1 million. This money opened and supports the office that serves as the clearing house for funding requests and reports.

3.  Solar Schools Initiative:  $10 million. These funds went to the NM Public Education Department to, according to the public notice issued by the Governor’s office, “purchase and install 100 kilowatt solar photovoltaic or solar electric systems in 15 to 20 public schools statewide.  The funds are intended to support clean eneergy education and demonstrate the benefits of commercial-scale photovoltaic systems.

Read More

Ridership on Track So Far, But Taxpayer Subsidies are Staggering

While the Northstar Commuter Rail line is meeting its start-up ridership goals so far, it may be an uphill climb to double monthly ridership by September as projected, even with passengers paying just a fraction of the heavily subsidized train’s true cost, according to a Freedom Foundation of Minnesota (FFM) analysis of the first 100 days of operation.

Passenger tallies obtained by FFM show total ridership of 167,922 from November 16, 2009 through February 25, 2010, closely in line with projections. Ridership counts are based on one-way trips, with round trip passengers being counted twice each day they use Northstar. The average number of one-way trips per day has ranged from 2,207 per day in November to 1,461 per day in January.

Metro Transit has set a goal of 897,000 riders in 2010. Monthly ridership goals begin at 45,000 in January, climbing to 71,600 in June and ramping up to 102,000 in November. In the first three full months of operation, ridership has averaged around 45,000.

Read More

On September 28, 2009, New Mexico Watchdog submitted a request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act to inspect and copy

all documents concerning or containing information about how funds received by the Lt. Governor under the 2003 Job Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act were spent.  To aid in your compliance with this request, according to reports by the Department of Finance and Administration, the Office of the Lt. Governor received $225,000 undeer the 2003 Job Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act for “various project.”

It was the “various projects” language that piqued our interest.  We had never seen an appropriation that let the recipient spend federal money however they chose.  We decided to look into it.

Wisconsin School District Justifies Unusual Stimulus Spending –

A $416,219.32 payment to WEA Trust for health insurance and $237,861.68 to utility companies from the New Holstein School District raises questions about how school districts across the country were allowed to spend federal stimulus money.

The MacIver Institute has been reviewing how stimulus funds  have been spent in Wisconsin. The disbursement of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to WEA Trust, the health insurance and financial services company operated by the state’s teachers’ union, piqued our interests and prompted us to do some further digging.

The only other school district to spend stimulus money for health insurance was Frederic, and that amount was $97,527.  Other districts, including Green Bay and Madison, told the MacIver Institute that stimulus money could not be spent on employee benefits or utility costs.

The general guidance districts followed was stimulus money should “supplement, not supplant”  funding for educational expenses.  In other words, it couldn’t be spent on anything previously paid with other funds.

Read More

Since 81,000 Virginians are on unemployment, that doesn’t seem to count for much in the whole scheme of things.

Most of the transportation funding used so far has gone to 40 highway and bridge projects. Where else has it gone?

-The Department of Rail and Public Transit has awarded contracts for $15.7 million of its $30.5 million in stimulus funds for transit.

-Virginia’s five large metro planning organizations received $117.8 million and contracted $6.8 million.

Read More