Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) won a victory for the coal industry in the wee hours of the morning today when the House adopted a relatively cheap but highly symbolic amendment to the fiscal 2011 continuing resolution.
Whitfield's amendment, which was adopted by voice vote at about 1 a.m. this morning, stripped $1.5 million from the House's Greening the Capitol initiative, a program begun in 2007 under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to make Congress an example of energy efficiency in the workplace. Whitfield's amendment targeted a section of the CR that deals with legislative branch appropriations for the House, a portion of appropriations bills that the Senate does not consider in creating its version of the legislation.
Whitfield said today that he offered the amendment because he believes Pelosi's greening program was more a political stunt than a real effort to save taxpayers money. What upset Whitfield in particular was a key component of the Greening the Capitol plan that sought to phase out the use of coal at the Capitol Power Plant. Whitfield, who hails from the coal-rich Bluegrass State, said that in their effort to implement their greening program, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wrote a letter to the Architect of the Capitol directing him to stop buying coal for the Capitol Power Plant "even though the plant met all environmental requirements." Whitfield called it a unilateral decision that was made "with no notice about it, no discussion on it and no vote on it."
But the retrofitting process and extra expense that came with phasing out cheaper coal cost Congress an additional $7 million to $8 million a year, he said -- numbers a Pelosi spokesman today called "fictitious."
EDIT
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/02/17/17greenwire-rep-whitfield-scores-one-for-coal-stripping-15-30771.html?ref=earth
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