About > Victories & Progress

Working together, taxpayers and environmentalists can beat special interests and pork barrel politics-as-usual. Since its inception, the Green Scissors Campaign has helped save taxpayers more than $26 billion.

The following are the Green Scissors Campaign's victories from the 2000-2002.

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
Making Progress
In 2001, the House of Representatives voted to cut MIGA by $11 million. MIGA is an arm of the World Bank and was established in 1988 to provide political risk insurance to private corporations and banks investing in developing countries. MIGA s risk insurance underwrites Fortune 500 corporations and principally encourages investments that harm the global environment.

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV)
$1.1 Billion Saved
The administration eliminated PNGV from the fiscal year 2003 budget. The program, created under the Clinton administration, was a cooperative research undertaking between the Department of Energy and the Big Three automakers to produce an 80 mile per gallon diesel supercar. Without clearly defined benchmarks, the program became corporate welfare and impeded other efforts such as increasing the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard. PNGV was featured as a Choice Cut in the Green Scissors 2001 report. We note that the administration has introduced the new Freedom CAR research program, and we are concerned that current information on the program includes no clear goals or deadlines for bringing advances in this technology to the consumer.

Route 710 Freeway, South Pasadena, California
Making Progress
In June 2001, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) offered an amendment to the fiscal year 2002 Transportation Appropriations bill that prohibits the use of any federal funds for the Route 710 project. For the third year in a row, the House of Representatives approved the amendment, which had been offered previously by Rep. Schiff s predecessor, Rep. James Rogan (R-Calif.). In fiscal year 2001, Rep. Rogan secured an appropriation of $46 million for Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno for use in 710 corridor traffic improvements.

Fast Flux Test Facility Restart
The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) is a nuclear breeder type-reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. The plant was shut down in 1983 but has been on "hot standby status" since 1996 at a cost of between $30 million and $40 million. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the Nuclear Infrastructure Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (NI PEIS) largely to consider what roles FFTF could play in isotope production, Plutonium-238 production to support future space exploration, and other research initiatives. On December 8, 2000, the DOE released the NI PEIS, which stated that "[t]he preferred alternative [of the NI PEIS] anticipates the permanent deactivation of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF)…" This declaration is a victory for taxpayers, but FFTF proponents are now mounting a full scale campaign to restart FFTF.

Film Industry Use of National Parks
In 2000, Congress enacted H.R. 154, which requires the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to charge the film industry market-based fees while filming on federal lands. H.R. 154, sponsored by Representatives Joel Hefley (R-CO) and Mark Udall (D-CO), creates a system that requires the film industry to pay fees based on the number of days the filming takes place, the number of crew members involved in the film production, and the type of equipment used. The bill allows federal land managers to deny a filming permit if the filming activity will harm natural resources. Proceeds from the film fees will be available for use by federal land managers. \

"Low Level" Radioactive Waste Dump Promotion and Support Service
In 2000, Congress cut the National "Low-Level" Radioactive Waste Management Program from the U.S. Department of Energy's budget. Since the inception of the program, the federal government has spent approximately $70 million to promote new radioactive waste dumps primarily for the commercial nuclear power industry. Using remaining federal funds, an independently funded, incorporated entity has formed to continue promoting nuclear waste sites, but there is no known federal funding in the DOE's fiscal year 2001 budget. Taxpayers should watch their state budgets for subsidies on the state and local levels.

Oil Royalties
In the fall of 1999, taxpayers and environmentalists scored a significant victory when the Department of the Interior (DOI) released new oil royalty reform rules. These rules state that major oil companies must use market prices to estimate the value of the royalties they are required to pay the federal government for the drilling they do on public lands. In 1997, the DOI's Minerals Management Service estimated that major oil companies were cheating taxpayers out of approximately $68 million annually. After a nearly four-year battle with legislators from oil-producing states, the fiscal year 2000 Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 2466) allowed the new rules to go forward on March 15, 2000. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) was instrumental in getting the new rules implemented.