By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 13 -- The Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States has written two US senators to express its concerns about the elimination of oil and natural gas research funding from the White House's proposed fiscal 2008 budgets for the Departments of Energy and the Interior.
"We strongly urge that funding be restored for the important DOE oil and gas research and development program at a level of no less than $62.6 million, the amount appropriated for fiscal year 2006," IPAMS Executive Director Marc W. Smith said in a Mar. 12 letter to Sens. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND). Dorgan is chairman of the subcommittee on energy and water to the Appropriations Committee, while Domenici is the ranking member of that subcommittee.
Previously, Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Domenici, ranking minority member, cited proposals to double the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's size and eliminate funding for oil and gas, geothermal, and hydroelectric research and development in DOE's budget request (OGJ Online, Mar. 5, 2007).
IPAMS said independent producers drill 90% of US wells but lack the capital, critical mass, and expertise to administer their own R&D.
"Instead, they depend on technologies developed by the programs in question to continue supplying our country with the energy that it needs while preventing, managing, and mitigating environmental impacts," Smith said in his letter.
