Editor’s note

This week’s edition carries updates on two old pork barrel projects that keep collecting coffin nails but never seem to get buried. On page 9 read about the federal government’s confusing attempt to revive the Taylorville Energy Center power plant, which can’t seem to decide whether it will use coal or natural gas. In either case it can’t go forward without huge subsidies, money that would be better spent on renewable energy sources. Then on page 10 we report on a new city-funded engineering study that says gravel pits could supply more than enough backup water to meet Springfield’s drought needs, confirming yet again that a second lake is unnecessary. Despite the evidence, Mayor Mike Houston still wants to build Hunter Lake. Though we’d prefer that these boondoggles go away (so we could quit writing about them) the good news is they don’t seem to be going forward. –Fletcher Farrar, editor