Thomas Veil
Feb 7, 2006, 06:29 AM
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Oil drilling companies are upset that the Bush administration has proposed killing funding for oil and natural gas exploration research and development programs at the Department of Energy, an industry lobbyist said Monday.
The proposed cuts were included in the $2.77 trillion budget for the 2007 fiscal year that President Bush presented to Congress on Monday...
Additionally, the president has called for more funding toward developing alternative energy sources such as nuclear, solar and cleaner coal technology.
But Mike Linn, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, counters, "It doesn't make sense to have an Energy Department that doesn't have a portion of its mission directed to America's largest energy resources."
The IPAA, which represents companies that drill most of the oil and gas wells in the United States, said the Bush administration's focus on aiming research dollars toward alternative and cleaner fuels is misguided.
Moreover, Linn said most of the exploration and research money distributed by the department has gone to small, lean exploration companies, not the large integrated oil companies that have been reporting record profits.
(My bold.)
I'm amazed that for once I should find myself supporting Bush on this issue...but the irony of those last two paragraphs is hilarious.
At least it will be until they raise gas prices for what they say is a cut in government assistance.
And of course, it wouldn't be a Bush budget if it didn't have something reprehensible in it:
The 2007 budget, with a projected deficit of at least $354 billion, would increase spending for the military and homeland security, and hold back money for Medicare and other nondefense programs.
The budget proposal also calls for opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, which Congress has previously rejected. Link (http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/06/budget.oil/index.html)
The proposed cuts were included in the $2.77 trillion budget for the 2007 fiscal year that President Bush presented to Congress on Monday...
Additionally, the president has called for more funding toward developing alternative energy sources such as nuclear, solar and cleaner coal technology.
But Mike Linn, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, counters, "It doesn't make sense to have an Energy Department that doesn't have a portion of its mission directed to America's largest energy resources."
The IPAA, which represents companies that drill most of the oil and gas wells in the United States, said the Bush administration's focus on aiming research dollars toward alternative and cleaner fuels is misguided.
Moreover, Linn said most of the exploration and research money distributed by the department has gone to small, lean exploration companies, not the large integrated oil companies that have been reporting record profits.
(My bold.)
I'm amazed that for once I should find myself supporting Bush on this issue...but the irony of those last two paragraphs is hilarious.
At least it will be until they raise gas prices for what they say is a cut in government assistance.
And of course, it wouldn't be a Bush budget if it didn't have something reprehensible in it:
The 2007 budget, with a projected deficit of at least $354 billion, would increase spending for the military and homeland security, and hold back money for Medicare and other nondefense programs.
The budget proposal also calls for opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, which Congress has previously rejected. Link (http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/06/budget.oil/index.html)
