Rocketdyne Cleanup Contract
Well, corporate welfare is alive and kicking with no “reform” in sight. I am referring to the $148.5-million “contract” granted to Rocketdyne by the Department of Energy (DOE) to clean up the contaminated water, soil and buildings at the Rocketdyne Field Laboratory in the Santa Susana Mountains (“Rocketdyne Gets Funds to Clean Up Site,” Dec. 16). In essence this is paying Rocketdyne for cleaning up the toxic mess it created with taxpayers’ money.
Why is this? Just listen to the reason given by Dan Beck, Rocketdyne spokesman: Research at the site “was done under [Energy Department] contract, paid for by government dollars, for the public benefit.”
“It was research and development into reactors and nuclear energy used by the U.S. government, not for the commercial benefit of Rocketdyne. . . . The DOE is under contractual obligation to pay for the cleanup at that site. This is not a case of Rocketdyne making an environmental mess for profit and asking the taxpayers to pay for it”.
What hogwash. The next thing we’ll be told will be that Rocketdyne was losing money on the deal.
SOL LONDE, Northridge
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