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Investigation: Throwback Thursday – Power Agency Spent $1.8M on Private Jet

By Adam Andrzejewski

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Investigation by Adam Andrzejewski originally published by RealClearInvestigations.com and RealClearWire.com

In 1985, the Western Area Power Association, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, spent $1.8 million — $5 million in 2023 dollars — buying a luxurious private jet for its executives.

Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, awarded the agency his Golden Fleece Award for this unnecessarily luxurious expenditure.

According to Proxmire, the power association alleged that it needed this seven-passenger executive jet because employees often traveled to remote locations and needed to quickly respond to emergencies, and it also claimed the jet would make travel more efficient.

Despite citing concerns about limited travel on commercial airlines to remote locations, once it got the jet, power association officials only visited these remote locations 25 times over 13 months, while over 60% of trips were to major passenger airline hubs like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City.

It made even fewer emergency trips, with 25 emergency power outages in the first six months of having the jet, but zero trips to travel to those emergencies.

The agency’s last concern was efficiency. It contended that making its employees wait in check in lines, wait for baggage, and deal with flight delays and layovers was cause to purchase the jet. These are realities of air travel that every commercial passenger has to deal with, and they don’t justify a multimillion dollar jet on the taxpayers dime.

In all likelihood, Proxmire muses, the jet was purchased because the fiscal year was coming to an end, and there was extra money available. Agencies always want to spend all of the money their given, lest they demonstrate to Congress they can run on a leaner budget, which might mean a smaller budget next year.
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By Adam Andrzejewski – The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations.com and made available via RealClearWire.com

Deneen Borelli

Deneen Borelli is the author of Blacklash: How Obama and the Left are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation. Deneen is a contributor with Newsmax Broadcasting. She is a former Fox News contributor and has appeared regularly on “Hannity,” “Fox & Friends,” “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” and “America’s Newsroom.” She has also appeared on Fox Business Network programs “Making Money with Charles Payne,” “The Evening Edit with Liz MacDonald,” and “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.” Previously, Deneen appeared on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC and C-SPAN. In addition to television, Deneen co-hosted radio programs on the SiriusXM Patriot channel with her husband Tom. Recently, Deneen co-hosted the Reigniting Liberty podcast with Tom. Deneen is a frequent speaker at political events, including the FreedomWorks 9.12.2009 March on D.C. which drew a crowd estimated at over 800,000 people. Deneen is also an Ambassador with CloutHub.com, a social media platform that promotes free speech, and with the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) which advances policies that put Americans first. Deneen testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources in May 2011 and before the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee in December 2011. Previously, Deneen was a BlazeTV.com host, Outreach Director with FreedomWorks.org overseeing its Empower.org outreach program, a Project 21 Senior Fellow, and Manager of Media Relations with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Prior to joining CORE, Deneen worked at Philip Morris USA for 20 years. During her corporate career at Philip Morris she worked in various positions, her last as Project Management Coordinator in the Information Management department where she was responsible for the department’s mandated quality processes, communications, sales information and database management. Deneen began her Philip Morris career as a secretary and advanced to positions of increasing responsibilities. Deneen worked full-time and attended classes at night for 11 years to earn her B.A. in Managerial Marketing from Pace University, New York City. Deneen served on the Board of Trustees with The Opportunity Charter School in Harlem, New York. She appeared in educational videos for children, worked as a runway fashion model, and auditioned for television commercials. Her interests include ancient history, pistol target shooting, photography, and volunteering at her church. Deneen currently resides in Connecticut with her husband Tom.

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