Billions of dollars in stimulus funds from the Obama administration, designed to promote clean energy and create jobs, have been doled out to some of the nation’s biggest polluters while exempting them from basic environmental oversight, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity.
More than 179,000 “categorical exclusions” were provided for stimulus projects funded by federal agencies, freeing the projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The law requires companies to assess possible threats to air and water quality, wildlife and human health before proceeding with major development projects. Industry groups and their allies on Capitol Hill have long complained that the environmental assessment process can delay projects by months and even years, costing millions of dollars.
Administration officials said creating jobs quickly was a priority of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act passed in 2009, so it was essential to accelerate the funding and approval process, leaving no time to review companies’ pollution records in deciding whether to grant the waivers. Instead, the administration used a review process that relies on voluntary disclosures by companies to determine whether stimulus projects pose environmental harm.
The situation has inflamed the Obama administration’s usual allies in the environmental movement. “Why bring somebody who was a known bad actor and give them government money and a categorical exclusion for their project?” asked David Pettit, a Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer who has litigated cases under NEPA.
Some companies reported their projects might cause “unknown environmental risks” or could “adversely affect” sensitive resources, according to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. Others acknowledged they would produce hazardous air pollutants, but nearly all got exemptions from full environmental analyses.
Officials also said that past environmental violations should not disqualify a company from pursuing federal contracts for unrelated projects. In some cases, that has meant NEPA waivers were granted for entire stimulus programs, such as those to upgrade electrical grids.
As a result, about three dozen big polluters received NEPA exemptions for stimulus grants totaling $2 billion from the Energy Department, which amounts to about 6 percent of the money awarded by the department so far.
Examples include such companies as Westar Energy, the largest coal-burning utility in Kansas, which settled a major air pollution case by paying a half billion dollars in penalties and remediation costs, and was awarded an NEPA waiver and $19 million in stimulus funds for an electrical-grid update project it is leading.
Duke Energy, mired in a decade-long defense against two of the largest air pollution cases in history involving coal-burning power plants, was awarded a combined $226 million in stimulus grants and an NEPA waiver for two projects: a wind farm in Texas, and an electrical grid upgrade in five other states.
Chemical giant Dupont, a frequent target of environmentalist anger that paid a multimillion-dollar settlement in 2005 for allegedly hiding the dangers of C8, a toxic chemical, received $8.9 million in stimulus funds to lead a project to create clean-burning biofuels from seaweed.
