A small port town in Bari, Italy holds key figures in al-Qaeda's European organisation
BIG BAD AMERICA can't handle any?
And guess what? NO WATER BOARDING necessary!
What a joke we are- it is no wonder America does not even rank in the top 25 for education worldwide!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Bari, Italy
Al-Qaeda suspects 'plotted attack on Britain' from behind bars
Italian police have arrested two alleged al-Qaeda terrorists suspected of planning attacks on Britain and France from inside prison.
During wiretapped conversations, the men discussed an attack on Charles De Gaulle airport outside Paris and spoke of the need to "strike at the British", Italian police said.
Bassam Ayachi, 62, a Syrian imam with French citizenship, and Raphael Frederic Gendron, 33, a Frenchman who converted to Islam, were allegedly part of an al-Qaeda cell operating in Europe.
They have been in prison in Bari, a port town in southern Italy, since November, ...
"We are extremely satisfied to have stopped the masterminds, the heads of the organisation, the people who educated would-be suicide attackers in the name of Jihad,"
Police said the pair had for years lived in Belgium, where Bassam was an imam at an extremist Islamic centre and one of al-Qaeda's "spiritual guides", while Gendron, a computer expert, was the "media propaganda point man, via the internet, for the French-speaking community."
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A warship intercepted a skiff carrying the nine Somali suspects
Spanish capture 'Somali pirates'
Spanish forces have arrested nine Somalis suspected of being the pirates who attacked an Italian cruise ship.
A warship intercepted a skiff carrying the nine Somali suspects, the Spanish defence ministry said.
The nine were captured near the Seychelles and handed over to authorities there, officials said.
The Italian cruise ship, the Melody, was attacked by a group of pirates in a speedboat in the area on Saturday. No-one was hurt in the incident.
The ship's crew and security men repulsed the attack by firing into the air and spraying the gunmen with water.
About 1,500 people were on the vessel.
Search launched
After the hijacking attempt, a search was launched for the pirates by the Spanish frigate Numancia, along with patrol planes from the Seychelles and France and an Indian navy ship.
Spanish officials said that during the search they found two small boats with nine suspects on board close to the scene of the attack.
The suspects abandoned one of the boats and were later caught in the skiff.
The Numancia "intercepted a skiff with nine occupants who could be connected to the hijacking attempt of the Italian cruise ship which was eventually repelled by the boat," the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by AFP news agency.
The nine are the latest suspected pirates to be arrested by international forces operating off the coast of Somalia.
France has charged three people with hijacking and false imprisonment after a rescue operation involving a yacht in the Indian Ocean on 10 April.
A Somali teenager is also facing trial in the US after being captured during the rescue of a ship's captain off the coast of Somalia earlier this month.
Spanish forces have arrested nine Somalis suspected of being the pirates who attacked an Italian cruise ship.
A warship intercepted a skiff carrying the nine Somali suspects, the Spanish defence ministry said.
The nine were captured near the Seychelles and handed over to authorities there, officials said.
The Italian cruise ship, the Melody, was attacked by a group of pirates in a speedboat in the area on Saturday. No-one was hurt in the incident.
The ship's crew and security men repulsed the attack by firing into the air and spraying the gunmen with water.
About 1,500 people were on the vessel.
Search launched
After the hijacking attempt, a search was launched for the pirates by the Spanish frigate Numancia, along with patrol planes from the Seychelles and France and an Indian navy ship.
Spanish officials said that during the search they found two small boats with nine suspects on board close to the scene of the attack.
The suspects abandoned one of the boats and were later caught in the skiff.
The Numancia "intercepted a skiff with nine occupants who could be connected to the hijacking attempt of the Italian cruise ship which was eventually repelled by the boat," the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by AFP news agency.
The nine are the latest suspected pirates to be arrested by international forces operating off the coast of Somalia.
France has charged three people with hijacking and false imprisonment after a rescue operation involving a yacht in the Indian Ocean on 10 April.
A Somali teenager is also facing trial in the US after being captured during the rescue of a ship's captain off the coast of Somalia earlier this month.
A Russian warship has seized a pirate vessel with 29 people on board off the Somali coast, Russian news reports say.
A Russian warship has seized a pirate vessel with 29 people on board off the Somali coast, Russian news reports say.
Guns and navigation equipment were found during a search of the pirate boat, officials were quoted as saying.
They said the suspected pirates were thought to have launched two unsuccessful attacks against a tanker with a Russian crew.
Russia is one of the countries that has deployed naval ships against pirates operating in the area.
See map of how piracy is affecting the region and countries around the world
Navies from Nato, the EU, Japan, China, India, Yemen, US Malaysia and Singapore have also been patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
However, the number of attacks has continued to rise.
Somali pirates have hijacked 25 vessels since the beginning of this year and are holding more than 260 crew around the stronghold of Eyl in northern Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
Naval patrols have captured pirates on a number of occasions.
Some have been put on trial in Kenya, while France has charged three suspected pirates and a Somali teenager is facing trial in the US.
Earlier on Tuesday, regional leaders in Somalia's northern Puntland region told the BBC they have put together a militia of fishermen to catch pirates.
Twelve armed pirates in two boats have been captured by the vigilante groups, they said.
Guns and navigation equipment were found during a search of the pirate boat, officials were quoted as saying.
They said the suspected pirates were thought to have launched two unsuccessful attacks against a tanker with a Russian crew.
Russia is one of the countries that has deployed naval ships against pirates operating in the area.
See map of how piracy is affecting the region and countries around the world
Navies from Nato, the EU, Japan, China, India, Yemen, US Malaysia and Singapore have also been patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
However, the number of attacks has continued to rise.
Somali pirates have hijacked 25 vessels since the beginning of this year and are holding more than 260 crew around the stronghold of Eyl in northern Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
Naval patrols have captured pirates on a number of occasions.
Some have been put on trial in Kenya, while France has charged three suspected pirates and a Somali teenager is facing trial in the US.
Earlier on Tuesday, regional leaders in Somalia's northern Puntland region told the BBC they have put together a militia of fishermen to catch pirates.
Twelve armed pirates in two boats have been captured by the vigilante groups, they said.
Somali pirates could face the death penalty under recent get-tough measures
Somali vigilantes capture pirates
Somali vigilantes have captured 12 armed pirates in two boats, as coastal communities begin to fight back against the sea raiders.
Regional leaders at Alula and Bargaal in Somalia's northern Puntland region told the BBC they have put together a militia of fishermen to catch pirates.
They decided to act as they were fed up with their fishing vessels being seized at gunpoint by the ocean-going bandits.
Meanwhile, the Seychelles said it had arrested nine suspected pirates.
The men were intercepted by a Spanish frigate near the Indian Ocean archipelago on Monday.
They are accused of firing on Saturday at the Italian cruise ship the Melody - which had more than 1,500 passengers - in an attack repelled by Israeli security guards.
"They are now in detention in a prison cell of the Seychelles police force and are expected to be charged and tried in the islands," Seychellois President James Michel's office said in a statement on Tuesday, reported AFP news agency.
See map of how piracy is affecting the region and countries around the world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8022820.stm
Somali pirates have hijacked 25 vessels since the beginning of this year and are holding more than 260 crew around the stronghold of Eyl in Puntland, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
They decided to confront... the problems of the sea piracy
Traditional leader Faarah Mohammed
Piracy symptom of bigger problem
Now frustrated regional leaders have taken the law into their own hands.
One of them, Faarah Mohammed, told the BBC: "There is a security committee set up by the communities who live in Bargaal and Alula.
"And they decided to confront whatever was creating problems in their areas and particularly, the problems of the sea piracy.
"And eventually their effort led to the capture of three boats and 12 men with their weapons. One boat got away."
The BBC's Somali Service says the militia will have to hand the pirates over to the local authorities.
Somali pirates could face the death penalty under recent get-tough measures announced by the internationally recognised but unsteady Somali government.
Navies from Nato, the EU, Russia, Japan, China, India, Yemen, US Malaysia and Singapore have been patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden in an effort to deter the gangs.
But some regional leaders say the foreign navies are protecting foreign fishing boats and allowing them to continue scooping up the fish-stocks that once provided Somalis with their livelihoods.
The lucrative lobster trade with Dubai is said to have collapsed after the foreign boats' giant trawler nets damaged the fragile coral that is the crustaceans' habitat.
As a result some fishermen decided to become pirates, but it appears that the local communities are now turning against these activities, says BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut.
Somali vigilantes have captured 12 armed pirates in two boats, as coastal communities begin to fight back against the sea raiders.
Regional leaders at Alula and Bargaal in Somalia's northern Puntland region told the BBC they have put together a militia of fishermen to catch pirates.
They decided to act as they were fed up with their fishing vessels being seized at gunpoint by the ocean-going bandits.
Meanwhile, the Seychelles said it had arrested nine suspected pirates.
The men were intercepted by a Spanish frigate near the Indian Ocean archipelago on Monday.
They are accused of firing on Saturday at the Italian cruise ship the Melody - which had more than 1,500 passengers - in an attack repelled by Israeli security guards.
"They are now in detention in a prison cell of the Seychelles police force and are expected to be charged and tried in the islands," Seychellois President James Michel's office said in a statement on Tuesday, reported AFP news agency.
See map of how piracy is affecting the region and countries around the world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8022820.stm
Somali pirates have hijacked 25 vessels since the beginning of this year and are holding more than 260 crew around the stronghold of Eyl in Puntland, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
They decided to confront... the problems of the sea piracy
Traditional leader Faarah Mohammed
Piracy symptom of bigger problem
Now frustrated regional leaders have taken the law into their own hands.
One of them, Faarah Mohammed, told the BBC: "There is a security committee set up by the communities who live in Bargaal and Alula.
"And they decided to confront whatever was creating problems in their areas and particularly, the problems of the sea piracy.
"And eventually their effort led to the capture of three boats and 12 men with their weapons. One boat got away."
The BBC's Somali Service says the militia will have to hand the pirates over to the local authorities.
Somali pirates could face the death penalty under recent get-tough measures announced by the internationally recognised but unsteady Somali government.
Navies from Nato, the EU, Russia, Japan, China, India, Yemen, US Malaysia and Singapore have been patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden in an effort to deter the gangs.
But some regional leaders say the foreign navies are protecting foreign fishing boats and allowing them to continue scooping up the fish-stocks that once provided Somalis with their livelihoods.
The lucrative lobster trade with Dubai is said to have collapsed after the foreign boats' giant trawler nets damaged the fragile coral that is the crustaceans' habitat.
As a result some fishermen decided to become pirates, but it appears that the local communities are now turning against these activities, says BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
EFCA, Employee free Choice Act.....
We were warned when Sec Poulsen proclaimed our only export was financial services here in America!
We don't make anything anymore.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/11/AR2009031103218.html
"Manufacturing has become too global to permit the United States to revert to the level of manufacturing it had in the good old days of Keynes and Ike, but it would be a positive development if we had a capitalism that once again focused on making things rather than deals. In Germany, manufacturing still dominates finance, which is why Germany has been the world's leader in exports. German capitalism didn't succumb to the financialization that swept the United States and Britain in the 1980s, in part because its companies raise their capital, as ours used to, from retained earnings and banks rather than the markets. Company managers set long-term policies while market pressures for short-term profits are held in check. The focus on long-term performance over short-term gain is reinforced by Germany's stakeholder, rather than shareholder, model of capitalism: Worker representatives sit on boards of directors, unionization remains high, income distribution is more equitable, social benefits are generous. Nonetheless, German companies are among the world's most competitive in their financial viability and the quality of their products. Yes, Germany's export-fueled economy is imperiled by the global collapse in consumption, but its form of capitalism has proved more sustainable than Wall Street's.
So does Germany offer a model for the United States? Yes -- up to a point. Certainly, U.S. ratios of production to consumption and wealth creation to debt creation have gotten dangerously out of whack. Certainly, the one driver and beneficiary of this epochal change -- our financial sector -- has to be scaled back and regulated (if not taken out and shot). Similarly, to create a business culture attuned more to investment than speculation, and with a preferential option for the United States, corporations should be made legally answerable not just to shareholders but also to stakeholders -- their employees and community. That would require, among other things, changing the laws governing the composition of corporate boards."
We don't make anything anymore.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/11/AR2009031103218.html
"Manufacturing has become too global to permit the United States to revert to the level of manufacturing it had in the good old days of Keynes and Ike, but it would be a positive development if we had a capitalism that once again focused on making things rather than deals. In Germany, manufacturing still dominates finance, which is why Germany has been the world's leader in exports. German capitalism didn't succumb to the financialization that swept the United States and Britain in the 1980s, in part because its companies raise their capital, as ours used to, from retained earnings and banks rather than the markets. Company managers set long-term policies while market pressures for short-term profits are held in check. The focus on long-term performance over short-term gain is reinforced by Germany's stakeholder, rather than shareholder, model of capitalism: Worker representatives sit on boards of directors, unionization remains high, income distribution is more equitable, social benefits are generous. Nonetheless, German companies are among the world's most competitive in their financial viability and the quality of their products. Yes, Germany's export-fueled economy is imperiled by the global collapse in consumption, but its form of capitalism has proved more sustainable than Wall Street's.
So does Germany offer a model for the United States? Yes -- up to a point. Certainly, U.S. ratios of production to consumption and wealth creation to debt creation have gotten dangerously out of whack. Certainly, the one driver and beneficiary of this epochal change -- our financial sector -- has to be scaled back and regulated (if not taken out and shot). Similarly, to create a business culture attuned more to investment than speculation, and with a preferential option for the United States, corporations should be made legally answerable not just to shareholders but also to stakeholders -- their employees and community. That would require, among other things, changing the laws governing the composition of corporate boards."
Earmarks...let's take a look
FY 2002 FY 2003 FY 2004 FY 2005 FY 2006 FY 2006 FY 2006 FY 2006
Earmarks Earmarks Earmarks Earmarks Earmarks R&D Earmarks^ R&D
Defense (military)
336 426 825 1,029 563 73,633
(Army)
120 152 318 322 272 10,821
(Navy)
68 111 178 247 112 18,485
(Air Force)
43 41 134 142 67 22,652
(Defense Agencies)
90 71 127 246 98 19,579
(Other)
13 52 69 72 14 2,097
National Aeron. & Space Admin.
233 190 194 217 50 11,542 50 11,464
Energy
171 138 284 274 167 8,576 318 8,882
(Science programs)
72 50 95 78 35 3,385 49 3,379
(Energy programs)
65 36 114 122 103 1,205 202 1,372
(Defense programs)
35 52 74 73 30 3,986 68 4,131
Health and Human Services
31 62 97 82 5 29,050 4 29,961
(National Institutes of Health)
0 0 0 0 0 27,922 0 28,804
National Science Foundation
50 50 0 0 0 4,163 0 4,124
(Major Research Equipment)
50 50 0 0 0 193 0 193
Agriculture
369 297 220 239 183 2,223 293 2,373
(Agricultural Res. Service)
257 166 86 76 60 1,141 146 1,289
(CSREES)
107 129 125 148 123 624 138 625
(Forest Service)
5 3 8 12 0 329 7 323
Interior
* 14 18 23 12 12 620 12 620
(U.S. Geological Survey)
* 14 11 20 10 10 555 10 555
Transportation
63 54 59 45 0 727 22 742
Environ. Protection Agency
* 62 53 56 51 33 579 33 579
Commerce
72 136 122 109 4 911 198 1,384
(NOAA)
31 107 97 109 4 501 198 693
(NIST)
42 29 26 0 0 379 0 648
Homeland Security
0 0 0 0 0 1,259 0 1,266
Education
0 1 0 3 0 261 0 262
Agency for Int'l Development
4 4 4 4 0 225 4 240
Department of Veterans Affairs
0 0 0 0 0 786 0 805
Housing and Urban Development
30 11 15 5 5 32 5 48
Department of Justice
29 3 0 0 0 82 0 93
All Other
5 2 5 11 0 339 11 357
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
Total 1,470 1,444 1,906 2,080 1,023 135,007 951 63,199
Earmarks Earmarks Earmarks Earmarks Earmarks R&D Earmarks^ R&D
Defense (military)
336 426 825 1,029 563 73,633
(Army)
120 152 318 322 272 10,821
(Navy)
68 111 178 247 112 18,485
(Air Force)
43 41 134 142 67 22,652
(Defense Agencies)
90 71 127 246 98 19,579
(Other)
13 52 69 72 14 2,097
National Aeron. & Space Admin.
233 190 194 217 50 11,542 50 11,464
Energy
171 138 284 274 167 8,576 318 8,882
(Science programs)
72 50 95 78 35 3,385 49 3,379
(Energy programs)
65 36 114 122 103 1,205 202 1,372
(Defense programs)
35 52 74 73 30 3,986 68 4,131
Health and Human Services
31 62 97 82 5 29,050 4 29,961
(National Institutes of Health)
0 0 0 0 0 27,922 0 28,804
National Science Foundation
50 50 0 0 0 4,163 0 4,124
(Major Research Equipment)
50 50 0 0 0 193 0 193
Agriculture
369 297 220 239 183 2,223 293 2,373
(Agricultural Res. Service)
257 166 86 76 60 1,141 146 1,289
(CSREES)
107 129 125 148 123 624 138 625
(Forest Service)
5 3 8 12 0 329 7 323
Interior
* 14 18 23 12 12 620 12 620
(U.S. Geological Survey)
* 14 11 20 10 10 555 10 555
Transportation
63 54 59 45 0 727 22 742
Environ. Protection Agency
* 62 53 56 51 33 579 33 579
Commerce
72 136 122 109 4 911 198 1,384
(NOAA)
31 107 97 109 4 501 198 693
(NIST)
42 29 26 0 0 379 0 648
Homeland Security
0 0 0 0 0 1,259 0 1,266
Education
0 1 0 3 0 261 0 262
Agency for Int'l Development
4 4 4 4 0 225 4 240
Department of Veterans Affairs
0 0 0 0 0 786 0 805
Housing and Urban Development
30 11 15 5 5 32 5 48
Department of Justice
29 3 0 0 0 82 0 93
All Other
5 2 5 11 0 339 11 357
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
Total 1,470 1,444 1,906 2,080 1,023 135,007 951 63,199
Friday, March 6, 2009
FutureGen --"clean coal" research project
"We all know what this is about. It's an earmark for a single plant," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
"After Bush rolled out FutureGen in 2003, ..."
...battle over FutureGen accelerated about a year ago when the Bush administration blocked the project hours after Mattoon was chosen over two towns in President George W. Bush's home state of Texas.
In December 2007, the alliance announced its choice of Mattoon, a community of 17,000 people, 190 miles south of Chicago, that had the strongest local support and a geological edge: Beneath the site is a natural sandstone formation that could serve as an ideal trap to keep carbon dioxide emissions stored underground.
But in the weeks after that announcement, the Bush administration began moving behind the scenes to stop the project, even while promoting it publicly.
The reasons behind the Bush administration's decision to kill the plant are the subject of two year-long probes -- one by the Government Accountability Office and another by a congressional committee -- that will be released this month.
THE STIMULUS
New Life for 'Clean Coal' Project
Illinois Plant Was Abandoned by Bush; Now Its Backers Are in Power
By Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 6, 2009; Page A01
Deep inside the economic stimulus package is a $1 billion prize that, in five short words, shows the benefits of being in power in Washington.
The funding, for "fossil energy research and development," is likely to go to a power plant in a small Illinois town, a project whose longtime backers include a group of powerful lawmakers from the state, among them President Obama.
They were unable to prevent the "clean coal" research project known as FutureGen from being abruptly killed last year by the Bush administration, which had created it and promoted it across the world as an environmentally sound way to produce power.
But now those same Illinois legislators -- including Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, and Ray LaHood, now transportation secretary -- control the White House and hold key leadership positions in Washington, and FutureGen is on the verge of resurrection.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said yesterday that he would support the plant with "some modifications."
"I have to say, there are many, many good things about it," Chu said after testifying before a Senate committee.
If FutureGen lived up to its promises, it would revolutionize the use of coal. On what is now 400 acres of cornfields in Mattoon, Ill., backers plan to build a commercial-size power plant that would produce 275 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 150,000 homes. Instead of releasing the resulting carbon dioxide emissions into the air as pollution, however, the plant would pump them into deep geologic formations thousands of feet below Earth's surface.
The project's goal is to test and develop affordable technology, on a commercial scale, that can remove 90 percent of emissions produced by coal plants. Chu said he thinks that the plant -- which would be built with a group of private coal and utility companies known as the FutureGen Alliance -- will move forward with some changes that have not yet been determined and will become a part of larger "portfolio" of research plants developed with other countries.
The FutureGen plant is expected to create jobs, and backers are currently pushing it as a stimulus project that could employ as many as 11,000 workers. The alliance must compete for the stimulus funds, but Chu's support adds significant momentum to the effort.
FutureGen's destiny is being decided as the debate over clean coal technology takes center stage in Washington, drawing big money in lobbying fees and campaign contributions. More than $20 million has been spent to hire lobbying firms that have petitioned members of Congress on FutureGen and other clean coal issues, according to a Washington Post analysis. And employees of the energy companies in the FutureGen Alliance have donated $3 million to congressional and presidential candidates.
The battle over FutureGen accelerated about a year ago when the Bush administration blocked the project hours after Mattoon was chosen over two towns in President George W. Bush's home state of Texas. The Illinois delegation responded with a bitter, bare-knuckle fight to save the plant. Without any assurance that their efforts would pay off, backers in Illinois spent tens of millions of dollars to buy land and have the project "shovel ready" -- before there was ever talk of a stimulus bill.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D), who led the Illinois delegation's efforts, worked the system, blocking some Bush administration appointments and holding hearings to publicly vilify the officials who stood in his way.
"This has been my longest, most difficult battle in Congress," Durbin said.
The fight got a lot easier after Obama was elected. Within weeks, his transition team met with FutureGen's industry partners. In January, when Obama announced his plans for an economic stimulus bill, Durbin and other members of the Illinois delegation quickly crafted a $2 billion line item to fund a "near zero-emissions power plant(s)," and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) placed it in the Senate version of the legislation.
Republicans in both chambers pointed out that only one shovel-ready project in the country met the criteria spelled out in the bill: the FutureGen plant in Mattoon.
"We all know what this is about. It's an earmark for a single plant," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who railed against the item, securing support to keep it out of the House bill. Coburn labeled it "pork," placing it at the top of his government-waste list, which is emblazoned with the image of a pig.
The $2 billion in the Senate bill was zeroed out by the joint House-Senate conference committee that met to resolve differences in the chambers' two bills. In a compromise that Durbin helped craft, the final version of the legislation cut the funding to $1 billion and specified that it go to "fossil energy research and development." The new language still described the project but deflected mounting criticism by opening the door to other proposals.
When the Bush administration moved to kill FutureGen, officials cited its cost, with estimates rising from $1 billion to $1.8 billion as it approached construction. They also objected to a cost-sharing arrangement with industry that required the government to pay for more than two-thirds of the project.
"The likelihood that it would fail, leaving the American people with hundreds of millions of dollars in sunk cost and none of the benefits, is not acceptable," then-Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said in a Feb. 6, 2008, letter to the editor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bodman declined to comment for this article.
After Bush rolled out FutureGen in 2003, coal mining unions and coal states immediately started leveraging to host the plant. Among the most aggressive was Illinois. Then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) formed the FutureGen for Illinois Task Force, which included the state's entire congressional delegation. He paid D.C. lobbying giant Cassidy and Associates more than $460,000 to help land the plant.
In July 2006, it was clear that the strategy was paying off when the FutureGen Alliance announced the four site finalists -- two in Illinois and two in Texas.
Over the coming months, Illinois further ginned up its self-promotion. The towns of Tuscola and Mattoon held a joint rally at a high school where a man dressed as Santa Claus passed out pieces of coal to cheering residents, politicians and schoolchildren.
In December 2007, the alliance announced its choice of Mattoon, a community of 17,000 people, 190 miles south of Chicago, that had the strongest local support and a geological edge: Beneath the site is a natural sandstone formation that could serve as an ideal trap to keep carbon dioxide emissions stored underground.
But in the weeks after that announcement, the Bush administration began moving behind the scenes to stop the project, even while promoting it publicly.
The reasons behind the Bush administration's decision to kill the plant are the subject of two year-long probes -- one by the Government Accountability Office and another by a congressional committee -- that will be released this month.
Internal department e-mails and memos show that Bodman directed his staff to develop an alternative plan, exploring whether to scrap the large plant and replace it with five or six smaller plants to test pieces of the same technology. The e-mails show that staff members were skeptical of the new plan, dubbed "FutureGen Plan B," which would call on the industry to pay a higher share of the cost.
"New money riding in to save the day seems unlikely," said one e-mail. Staff members described the new plan as unworkable and came up with their own name for it -- "the Frankenstein."
Incensed by what he viewed as duplicity on the part of the Bush administration, Durbin began making frequent calls to Bodman's office, records show, and quickly organized a campaign to keep the plant alive. He aligned 19 other members of Congress to join him in late December 2007, first by signing a protest letter to Bodman, then by gathering fellow lawmakers to confront the energy secretary.
The meeting in Durbin's office quickly became heated, as Bodman told lawmakers for the first time that the plant in Mattoon was dead.
"This is a meeting unlike any meeting I've been a part of. Members of Congress are literally screaming and waving their fists at the secretary," said someone in attendance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing debate over FutureGen.
"We won this competition fair and square," Durbin said. "I told Bodman point-blank, 'We are going to keep this alive for the next president.' "
The next day, Bodman went public with his decision to replace the FutureGen project with multiple smaller plants. Obama and the rest of the Illinois delegation wrote to Bush, charging that the secretary had "misled us and the people of Illinois, creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he had no intention of funding or supporting."
The group organized three congressional hearings in the spring, challenging Bodman to explain his decision. In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to protect $134 million in funding for FutureGen in Mattoon, prohibiting the Energy Department from spending it on anything else.
Still, Bodman moved forward with Plan B, hoping to set the new plan in motion before the next administration was in place. But just four sites submitted proposals; two did not qualify and two others were incomplete, according to lawmakers and former department staffers.
Last week, Durbin and the delegation persuaded Congress to lift a freeze on $73 million of the money set aside in July, directing Chu to use it for the project if it is revived. The same day, the delegation sent Chu a letter, arguing that the plant in Mattoon should get the stimulus money because it is "five years ahead of any comparable project. . . . We cannot further delay on this promising technology."
Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
"After Bush rolled out FutureGen in 2003, ..."
...battle over FutureGen accelerated about a year ago when the Bush administration blocked the project hours after Mattoon was chosen over two towns in President George W. Bush's home state of Texas.
In December 2007, the alliance announced its choice of Mattoon, a community of 17,000 people, 190 miles south of Chicago, that had the strongest local support and a geological edge: Beneath the site is a natural sandstone formation that could serve as an ideal trap to keep carbon dioxide emissions stored underground.
But in the weeks after that announcement, the Bush administration began moving behind the scenes to stop the project, even while promoting it publicly.
The reasons behind the Bush administration's decision to kill the plant are the subject of two year-long probes -- one by the Government Accountability Office and another by a congressional committee -- that will be released this month.
THE STIMULUS
New Life for 'Clean Coal' Project
Illinois Plant Was Abandoned by Bush; Now Its Backers Are in Power
By Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 6, 2009; Page A01
Deep inside the economic stimulus package is a $1 billion prize that, in five short words, shows the benefits of being in power in Washington.
The funding, for "fossil energy research and development," is likely to go to a power plant in a small Illinois town, a project whose longtime backers include a group of powerful lawmakers from the state, among them President Obama.
They were unable to prevent the "clean coal" research project known as FutureGen from being abruptly killed last year by the Bush administration, which had created it and promoted it across the world as an environmentally sound way to produce power.
But now those same Illinois legislators -- including Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, and Ray LaHood, now transportation secretary -- control the White House and hold key leadership positions in Washington, and FutureGen is on the verge of resurrection.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said yesterday that he would support the plant with "some modifications."
"I have to say, there are many, many good things about it," Chu said after testifying before a Senate committee.
If FutureGen lived up to its promises, it would revolutionize the use of coal. On what is now 400 acres of cornfields in Mattoon, Ill., backers plan to build a commercial-size power plant that would produce 275 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 150,000 homes. Instead of releasing the resulting carbon dioxide emissions into the air as pollution, however, the plant would pump them into deep geologic formations thousands of feet below Earth's surface.
The project's goal is to test and develop affordable technology, on a commercial scale, that can remove 90 percent of emissions produced by coal plants. Chu said he thinks that the plant -- which would be built with a group of private coal and utility companies known as the FutureGen Alliance -- will move forward with some changes that have not yet been determined and will become a part of larger "portfolio" of research plants developed with other countries.
The FutureGen plant is expected to create jobs, and backers are currently pushing it as a stimulus project that could employ as many as 11,000 workers. The alliance must compete for the stimulus funds, but Chu's support adds significant momentum to the effort.
FutureGen's destiny is being decided as the debate over clean coal technology takes center stage in Washington, drawing big money in lobbying fees and campaign contributions. More than $20 million has been spent to hire lobbying firms that have petitioned members of Congress on FutureGen and other clean coal issues, according to a Washington Post analysis. And employees of the energy companies in the FutureGen Alliance have donated $3 million to congressional and presidential candidates.
The battle over FutureGen accelerated about a year ago when the Bush administration blocked the project hours after Mattoon was chosen over two towns in President George W. Bush's home state of Texas. The Illinois delegation responded with a bitter, bare-knuckle fight to save the plant. Without any assurance that their efforts would pay off, backers in Illinois spent tens of millions of dollars to buy land and have the project "shovel ready" -- before there was ever talk of a stimulus bill.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D), who led the Illinois delegation's efforts, worked the system, blocking some Bush administration appointments and holding hearings to publicly vilify the officials who stood in his way.
"This has been my longest, most difficult battle in Congress," Durbin said.
The fight got a lot easier after Obama was elected. Within weeks, his transition team met with FutureGen's industry partners. In January, when Obama announced his plans for an economic stimulus bill, Durbin and other members of the Illinois delegation quickly crafted a $2 billion line item to fund a "near zero-emissions power plant(s)," and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) placed it in the Senate version of the legislation.
Republicans in both chambers pointed out that only one shovel-ready project in the country met the criteria spelled out in the bill: the FutureGen plant in Mattoon.
"We all know what this is about. It's an earmark for a single plant," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who railed against the item, securing support to keep it out of the House bill. Coburn labeled it "pork," placing it at the top of his government-waste list, which is emblazoned with the image of a pig.
The $2 billion in the Senate bill was zeroed out by the joint House-Senate conference committee that met to resolve differences in the chambers' two bills. In a compromise that Durbin helped craft, the final version of the legislation cut the funding to $1 billion and specified that it go to "fossil energy research and development." The new language still described the project but deflected mounting criticism by opening the door to other proposals.
When the Bush administration moved to kill FutureGen, officials cited its cost, with estimates rising from $1 billion to $1.8 billion as it approached construction. They also objected to a cost-sharing arrangement with industry that required the government to pay for more than two-thirds of the project.
"The likelihood that it would fail, leaving the American people with hundreds of millions of dollars in sunk cost and none of the benefits, is not acceptable," then-Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said in a Feb. 6, 2008, letter to the editor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bodman declined to comment for this article.
After Bush rolled out FutureGen in 2003, coal mining unions and coal states immediately started leveraging to host the plant. Among the most aggressive was Illinois. Then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) formed the FutureGen for Illinois Task Force, which included the state's entire congressional delegation. He paid D.C. lobbying giant Cassidy and Associates more than $460,000 to help land the plant.
In July 2006, it was clear that the strategy was paying off when the FutureGen Alliance announced the four site finalists -- two in Illinois and two in Texas.
Over the coming months, Illinois further ginned up its self-promotion. The towns of Tuscola and Mattoon held a joint rally at a high school where a man dressed as Santa Claus passed out pieces of coal to cheering residents, politicians and schoolchildren.
In December 2007, the alliance announced its choice of Mattoon, a community of 17,000 people, 190 miles south of Chicago, that had the strongest local support and a geological edge: Beneath the site is a natural sandstone formation that could serve as an ideal trap to keep carbon dioxide emissions stored underground.
But in the weeks after that announcement, the Bush administration began moving behind the scenes to stop the project, even while promoting it publicly.
The reasons behind the Bush administration's decision to kill the plant are the subject of two year-long probes -- one by the Government Accountability Office and another by a congressional committee -- that will be released this month.
Internal department e-mails and memos show that Bodman directed his staff to develop an alternative plan, exploring whether to scrap the large plant and replace it with five or six smaller plants to test pieces of the same technology. The e-mails show that staff members were skeptical of the new plan, dubbed "FutureGen Plan B," which would call on the industry to pay a higher share of the cost.
"New money riding in to save the day seems unlikely," said one e-mail. Staff members described the new plan as unworkable and came up with their own name for it -- "the Frankenstein."
Incensed by what he viewed as duplicity on the part of the Bush administration, Durbin began making frequent calls to Bodman's office, records show, and quickly organized a campaign to keep the plant alive. He aligned 19 other members of Congress to join him in late December 2007, first by signing a protest letter to Bodman, then by gathering fellow lawmakers to confront the energy secretary.
The meeting in Durbin's office quickly became heated, as Bodman told lawmakers for the first time that the plant in Mattoon was dead.
"This is a meeting unlike any meeting I've been a part of. Members of Congress are literally screaming and waving their fists at the secretary," said someone in attendance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing debate over FutureGen.
"We won this competition fair and square," Durbin said. "I told Bodman point-blank, 'We are going to keep this alive for the next president.' "
The next day, Bodman went public with his decision to replace the FutureGen project with multiple smaller plants. Obama and the rest of the Illinois delegation wrote to Bush, charging that the secretary had "misled us and the people of Illinois, creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he had no intention of funding or supporting."
The group organized three congressional hearings in the spring, challenging Bodman to explain his decision. In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to protect $134 million in funding for FutureGen in Mattoon, prohibiting the Energy Department from spending it on anything else.
Still, Bodman moved forward with Plan B, hoping to set the new plan in motion before the next administration was in place. But just four sites submitted proposals; two did not qualify and two others were incomplete, according to lawmakers and former department staffers.
Last week, Durbin and the delegation persuaded Congress to lift a freeze on $73 million of the money set aside in July, directing Chu to use it for the project if it is revived. The same day, the delegation sent Chu a letter, arguing that the plant in Mattoon should get the stimulus money because it is "five years ahead of any comparable project. . . . We cannot further delay on this promising technology."
Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
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