Pelosi and the dims.

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Is this really what we pay them for?

CAPITOL HILL GETS A GREEN MAKEOVER

Nancy Pelosi has been on this tear since she took office to "Green the Capitol." Now the Congress is forced to eat expensive organic food, the House is purchasing carbon offsets for its greenhouse-gas emissions, and the list of absurdities goes on and on. Her latest project is to install energy efficient lighting around the Capitol exterior. Nancy's spokesman Drew Hammill says that this project is not about the money ... since when are they ever concerned about money? But the new lights bring our "beacon of democracy" in line with other landmarks and will be "a beacon to all reminding us of the need to address the global climate crisis."

Gag. Maybe she should just introduce a resolution telling the sun to stop churning out so much solar radiation right now. Perhaps that would help.

So this is as far as Congress will go to adhere to Nancy's quest to combat global warming. The contract to design the lighting system was directed by Representative Robert Brady, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and chairman of the House Administration Committee. Well guess who happens to win the bid for the design project ... the Lighting Practice of Philadelphia, which also happens to be in Brady's district. Convenient? You might say so, considering that two lower bids were rejected before settling on this company's price of $671,900. That's right. All of that tax payer money just to make the Capitol lighting "eco-friendly."

Now are you ready for the real kicker ... the current annual electric bill for lighting the exterior of the Capitol eight hours every night is $15,000. So even if the new lights miraculously reduced energy consumption to zero, it would take the tax payers more than 45 years just to recoup the money it cost to build the new system, if we compare the cost to the current electric bill.

That, my friends, is the definition of a government project.