Susan Collins And Olympia Snowe's Big Idea For The Gulf? Pork For A Donor

Right-wing blogs, in their ongoing efforts to place blame for BP's oil spill on the Obama administration, have been hyperventilating over reports that a factory in Maine has produced containment boom and nobody will buy it from them. At Pajamas Media, Gregory Sullivan writes:

John Lapoint of Packgen in Auburn, Maine, says he's got plenty of floating oil containment boom and can make lots more on short notice. There's just one problem: no one will buy it from him.

He's already had a representative from BP visit his factory and inspect his product. The governor of Maine, John Baldacci, visited the facility and made a video plea to no one in particular to close the deal. Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins wrote a letter on May 21 to the secretary of the Interior, the administrator of NOAA, and the commandant of the Coast Guard to alert them to the existence of Packgen, their supply of boom, and their demonstrated capacity to make more. I have no idea if those are the correct persons and agencies to notify about the manufacturing capacity and the availability of boom.

Here are some facts about Packgen the right is failing to report (as documented by Media Matters For America):

• Packgen has never manufactured boom before and only started after the oil spill began.

• BP has ordered a "trial run" of the product.

• Packgen's boom is a different design than others in operation.

To sum up the situation: a company that has never produced oil containment boom develops a new design on the fly in the middle of the crisis in the gulf and puts it into production. BP purchases a small amount of the boom to test. Before anyone can confirm whether or not this new technology works, the state's two Senators put pressure on the federal government to purchase the product.

I'm not saying the boom won't work, and it very well might work better than the one currently in operation. Of course, considering Packgen has NEVER manufactured this product before, it's reasonable to think there is an equal chance it will be worse, or not work at all.  In addition, Packgen wants cash up front for the production of its product:

"Right now, we're still pitching (to buyers)," he said. "I've funded this up to this point and the bank account is empty. Now I've got to get at the state or federal level and they've got to come through, or the people who want booms from us, they've got to come through, and that's what we are working on right now."

Interest is high in the new product, but Lapoint said he was skeptical of shipping it off without a contract that pays Packgen at least a little cash up front.

So how does a company with no track record score two Senators as their spokespeople? It turns out the company's CEO, John Lapoint, has a big fan, his mother, who is also a board member and investor in Packgen.

Jana Lapoint contributed $1,000 to Olympia Snowe and $2,000 to Susan Collins, according to the Sunlight Foundation's Transparencydata.com:

It should also be noted that Jana Lapoint lobbied state officals, including Governor Baldacci, to support the company.  However, a search of public records shows no contributions from anyone with the last name Lapoint to the governor's campaign.