I was inspired by the Sunlight Foundation's call to investigate all 539 members of Congress, using the recently disclosed 2005 financial disclosure statements and the power of the Internet:
http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/...
So I decided to do a little sniffing around and see what I could find on the guy who, in the Tom DeLay era, was always known as the SECOND most corrupt member of the Texas delegation, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Ennis).
There's no smoking gun here (as far as I can tell), or anything too earth-shattering. Just some interesting behind-the-scenes information that serves as yet-another example of the culture of corruption in Washington:
According to the 2005 House Financial Disclosure statement, on November 28-29, 2005, Rep. Barton was flown from Dallas to New York by Dominion Resources Services, Inc. Dominion is a Virginia-based energy company, and the number two contributor to politicians among nuclear energy companies (scroll down to graph):
http://www.opensecrets.org/...
Barton, of course, is the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the primary House author of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. And of course, he's received (as of 2002) $63,000 in contributions from the nuclear industry alone.
Dominion is currently seeking an Early Site Permit (ESP) for their North Anna (Mineral, VA.) nuclear plant. This application process began in 2003, and they wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on October 24, 2005, and again on November 22, 2005, to say that they were seeking changes to their original plan, "partly due to the concerns raised by state regulatory bodies." What they want, actually, is an increase in power in these plants from 4300 MWt to 4500 MWt. Of course, any increase would raise environmental and safety concerns, and require closer scrutiny (and a subsequent delay of a decision) by the NRC.
Barton was flown to New York by Dominion six days after Dominion sent a letter to the NRC informing them of their plans to make changes to their North Anna project. Six weeks later, on January 13, 2006, Dominion officially submitted the new application for an ESP at North Anna. And two weeks after that, on January 27, 2006, Rep. Barton wrote to the NRC and submitted a list of 21 questions he wanted answered. The questions are generally:
-how and by whom are your new license applications
reviewed?
-what is the average length of time for approval of
new ESP permits?
-a request by Barton of a complete list of
requirements for a construction and operating license
(COL).
-what laws govern the opportunity for public comment on Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), and what is your process for managing and responding to public comments?
The NRC responded to Barton's letter on February 20, 2006, answering his questions in detail, and they enclosed a letter (p.35) they sent to Dominion on February 10, 2006, in which they lay out why Dominion's application needed to be re-submitted: it was seriously flawed, described by the NRC as "vague" and incomplete, in that it, among other shortcomings, "failed to adequately describe the operation of the new cooling system, including its interaction with the environment."
The letter and attachments are 40 pages long, including Barton's original questions, and are the result of God-only-knows how many government manhours, all in order to satisfy the congressman from Ennis, Texas, who, I guess, is just really curious about the regulatory process:
http://216.239.51.104/...
Like I said, no smoking gun here; just an ordinary giant energy company, based in Virginia, using a friendly and helpful congressman, from Texas, to lean on the NRC, demand answers, and help expedite Dominion's flawed and sloppy application. I'm sure the little trip to New York City was just their way of saying "thank you", in advance, for his generous help.
And I'm sure Barton's constituents get the same kind of service, right?