[ RadSafe ] " White House Urges Oil Appropriations Be Given To Nuclear, Coal "

[Franta, Jaroslav]

So much for the "oil president" monicker.....

Jaro 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

White House Urges Oil Appropriations Be Given To Nuclear, Coal
Energy Washington Week
Vol. 2, No. 22
1 June 2005

The Bush administration is criticizing the House-passed energy
appropriations bill for underfunding several high priority programs,
including a DOE program aimed at bringing new nuclear power plants online in
the next several years; carbon sequestration research; and the international
fusion reactor program. The White House is calling on appropriators to
divert funds from oil and gas programs to increase funding for these coal
and nuclear initiatives. 

The House May 24 passed the nearly $30-billion fiscal year 2006 energy and
water spending bill (H.R. 2419) with no major changes to the version passed
out of the Appropriations Committee. Just before the vote, the White House
released a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) criticizing the bill.
The Senate has yet to draft its appropriations bill, for which a markup is
expected in June. 

"The administration is concerned . . . that the bill fails to adequately
fund a number of initiatives crucial for advancing the Nation's interest,
and does not reduce or eliminate funds for programs that have outlived their
purpose or are lower priority," the SAP states. 

The administration is particularly upset that the House bill only provides
DOE's Nuclear Power 2010 program with $46 million, $10 million shy of the
budget request. President Bush is relying on new nuclear power as a key to
his energy plan and the Nuclear 2010 program is the primary administration
vehicle to subsidize nuclear utility efforts to navigate the new plant
licensing process at NRC. DOE already has agreed to help two separate
consortia with their combined construction and operating license application
and there are other proposals pending. The SAP urges the House to fully fund
the program by "redirecting funds from the oil-and-gas programs." 

The House bill reduces funding levels from last year's appropriations for
the oil technology and natural gas technology programs, but does not
terminate them, as the administration requested. The administration wants
research and development funding for oil and gas drilling technologies
phased out, seeking only $10 million for each program in FY-06 for costs
associated with shuttering them and closing out contracts. The House bill
funds the natural gas program at $33 million and does not call for its
termination. The oil program is funded at $29 million and also is not
terminated. 

The House bill cites concerns about "U.S. over-reliance on foreign oil
imports and the pressure to increase greatly imports of natural gas" as
validating the funding. The SAP asserts that the oil and gas programs are
often duplicative of private sector R&D efforts. "The oil and gas industry
has the financial incentives and resources to develop new ways to extract
oil and gas from the ground more cheaply and safely, without taxpayer
assistance," reads the SAP. 

The administration also disagrees with the bill's stance on carbon
sequestration funding. The bill appropriates DOE's carbon sequestration
program at $50 million, $17 million less than the administration requested.
"The Committee believes this level of funding is sufficient to accomplish
numerous pilot-scale capture tests. The program cannot absorb the scale of
resources proposed in the request, and these resources are better utilized
for other nearer-term technologies within the Fossil Energy R&D portfolio,"
the bill states. 

The administration wants the $17 million restored, arguing that carbon
sequestration will "improve energy security, by expanding the use of clean
coal technology." 

Lastly, the administration slams the bill for reducing by more than half the
U.S. contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
(ITER). Though the bill increases fusion research funding above the request,
it redirects funds from ITER to domestic fusion R&D. The administration
requested $50 million, but the House provided less than half. The bill warns
DOE in the future to get funding from other Office of Science research
funding, rather than trying to short-change domestic fusion research. 

"If the Department does not follow this guidance in its fiscal year 2007
budget submission, the Committee is prepared to eliminate all U.S. funding
for the ITER project in the future," the bill reads. 

The SAP responds: "Such a significant reduction could harm the standing of
the United States during the critical final phase of the international
negotiations this summer and would result in unnecessary schedule delays and
cost escalation." 

To the surprise of some observers, the administration remained silent on the
nuclear waste storage plan offered by Rep. David Hobson (R-OH), chairman of
the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. The bill meets the
administration's fiscal year 2006 request to fund Yucca Mountain at $651
million, but it adds an additional $10 million that would be used by DOE to
select one or more above ground interim storage sites and to begin moving
nuclear waste there by next year. The administration touched only briefly on
the topic of Yucca Mountain, noting it was pleased the House bill fully
funded the project. The SAP urges a compromise over the administration
budget proposal that would place the Nuclear Waste Fund off-budget.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVILEGED INFORMATION NOTICE

This e-mail, and any attachments, may contain information that
is confidential, subject to copyright, or exempt from disclosure.
Any unauthorized review, disclosure, retransmission, 
dissemination or other use of or reliance on this information 
may be unlawful and is strictly prohibited.  

AVIS D'INFORMATION CONFIDENTIELLE ET PRIVILÉGIÉE

Le présent courriel, et toute pièce jointe, peut contenir de 
l'information qui est confidentielle, régie par les droits 
d'auteur, ou interdite de divulgation. Tout examen, 
divulgation, retransmission, diffusion ou autres utilisations 
non autorisées de l'information ou dépendance non autorisée 
envers celle-ci peut être illégale et est strictement interdite.