Energy Programs Among those Cited as Wasteful Govrenment Spending by Rep. Steve Russell

Nothing is sacred in Oklahoma U.S. Rep. Steve Russell’s Waste Watch No. 4 that was released this week, detailing some $75 billion in what he calls “waste, cost overruns, and other misspending,” including solar-powered beer or the sale of plastic bags filled with fresh air.

To put it into context, the Republican congressman said if the $75 billion had been prevented, the Defense Department would have used it to replace half the current aircraft carrier fleet with five advanced new Ford-class nuclear supercarriers, each with 18 brand-new F-35C Lightning II fighters.

Among the expenditures he called waste was the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for American Program which awarded a $35,164 grant in 2015 to install a solar array at Short’s Brewing Company in Elk Rapids, Michigan. The brewery said the solar panels supplied nearly 7 percent of the energy it uses in production of 300 ales, lagers, spice beers and others.

There was a State Department program that funded artists and their sale of bags of air and blank CDs in Mongolia. The $300,000 program in 2015 actually involved the sale of fresh air collected from the countryside and packaged in plastic bags and sold at inner-city markets. The artists also recorded the sound of silence on the CDs and sold them at the markets.

Oklahoma wasn’t left out of the so-called misspending. The congressman found a $100,000 payment from the U.S. Treasury to businessman Jim Brown who owns more than 100 7-Eleven stores in the state. The payment from the IRS tax credit program was for the one Compressed Natural Gas station at a 7-Eleven in Moore. Rep. Russell’s Waste Watch No. 4 said the credit is worth 50 cents per gasoline equivalent sold, enough to zero out the 18.3 cent federal excise tax on CNG and provide an income tax credit or direct payment for the remaining amount. The payment was for the CNG sold at the 7-Eleven location in 2015. Brown was surprised because the credit for CNG was not part of the tax code for most of 2015. It had expired at the end of 2014.

“Brown had therefore made his business plans with no expectation of receiving the credit. Congress, however, renewed the credit in December 2015, making it retroactive to tax year 2015. The IRS therefore sent Brown a payment for his station’s CNG sales as if the program had never expired. Brown notified the office of Congressman Russell of the payment, pointing out this financial incentive could not possibly have motivated him to sell more CNG, since he did not know he would be receiving it when the sales took place. Feeling the money should be returned to taxpayers, Brown directed the station to lower its price by 50 cents until the funds from the payment were expended,” stated Russell’s report.

Read the Congressman’s Waste Watch No. 4.

Waste Watch No.4