Folks; Yeah this is a run of the mill dead low-priority project. It happens in private industry, capitalism, communism, the roman empire, etc. Only because government is out in the open, it is easy to see.

I don't have proof, but this stinks of 'Failed project used as a place-holder for schedule slop'. I see is so so so many places.

Somebody, or a lot of somebodies knows this [Refactor AIP / Electric Charge Lot] is not a good idea. Instead of saying 'It's dead' it gets used as a buffer in the project plan. Oh it's there, and if things are every slow enough, it will happen. But even a mouse sneeze will move it out a year, to make budget [time, or $$$ ] for something useful.

Once a year the [ boss / newspaper] will ask "Oh what about, [refactor / Parking Lot]' and somewhere points to the start and end date on the chart. But it's not a priority, and is a placeholder job that gets bumped and shifted for priority work.

It is all over the place, since time began. WWII had it. The Revolutionary War had it. Ford has it. Roman Empire had it. Lockheed Martin has it. Hell, your own house projects have it.

This is just 'A dead project is a placeholder since the org is bad at planning.' It is everywhere.