WASHINGTON – A bankrupt Texas clean coal developer has been cited by the Department of Energy’s Inspector General for misspending $2.5 million in federal funds.

Summit Texas Clean Energy LLC announced plans in 2008 to develop a coal plant in West Texas that would capture 90 percent of the carbon from its emissions. after being awarded $350 million by the Energy Department under former president Barack Obama

The company, where former Dallas mayor Laura Miller worked as a project director until 2016, still has not built the plant and filed for bankruptcy in October.

According to a report last week by the inspector general, an audit of the company’s financial records showed expenditures that were “potentially unallowable, including over $1.2 million in potential lobbying costs and $1.3 million in questionable or prohibited travel-related expenses.

That included “$650,000 in consultant charges for items such as a spa service, alcohol, first-class travel, limousine services, receipts in foreign currency, and business meals that were prohibited or not fully substantiated,” the report read. [read more]