Bush Even Cuts "Clean Coal" Funding - Western Senators Pissed

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas questioned Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Thursday over funding cuts to "clean" coal technologies in President Bush's proposed 2007 budget. Other Western lawmakers also criticized the cuts and vowed to restore funding.

At a Senate Energy Committee hearing on the department's budget, Thomas pressed Bodman about the proposed reductions in Bush's budget for coal-to-gas conversion, clean coal technologies and research and development funds.

Thomas, R-Wyo., said the budget focuses on long-term projects he supports but does not address short-term energy issues facing the country. He told Bodman that private interests in Wyoming have real opportunities to implement coal-to-gas conversion technologies, but that they need some federal assistance.

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Thomas also questioned Bodman on clean coal technologies. "We talk constantly about the need for coal, we talk constantly about global warming and so on, and here's one of the things we need to do, and I notice in the energy bill that it's zeroed out," Thomas said. Bodman said money put into the program in past years has not been spent. "The various winners of these projects have not been able to spend the money effectively," he said. "That is what caused the reduction, that we would pause a year and work on getting the backlog worked out and get either progress made or make a determination that some of these things weren't going to work and get the money back."

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http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/02/10/news/wyoming/370a975b5b463150872571110005a4ab.txt