Little scrutiny, weak promise

Be sure to check out the editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

Robert Addington, a prominent figure in Kentucky's coal industry whose businesses have a history of serial bankruptcies, gave $35,000 to the campaign coffers of Sen. Jim Bunning and Rep. Geoff Davis in recent years.

One of Addington's companies, American Freedom Fuels, is working on a process known as HyMelt for producing liquid transportation fuels from coal. Bunning and Davis put a $3.92 million earmark for Addington's company in a defense appropriations bill signed into law last month.

...The proposal underwent none of the scrutiny or competition that honed the UK grant. It was graded by no standards other than the judgments of two politicians who had what almost anyone would say was a conflict of interest.