Sec. Abraham defends cutbacks in oil and gas research
Maureen Lorenzetti
OGJ Online
WASHINGTON, DC, May 3 -- US Energy Sec. of Energy Spencer Abraham Thursday defended the Bush administration's budget proposal, which dramatically cuts government-funded oil and gas research, during testimony before the House Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations.
Under the Department of Energy's budget plan unveiled earlier this month, research for oil and gas falls by 50% from $112 million in 2001 to $51.5 million in fiscal year 2002. Only about 8% of the department's total budget, or $1.6 billion, falls under the jurisdiction of the subcommittee.
The department, however, acknowledged the budget proposal could change pending the outcome of energy policy recommendations from the vice-president's interagency task force, expected in mid-May (OGJ Online, Apr. 9, 2001).
Abraham testified that industry should be able to help fill in the funding gaps. However, other DOE staff have suggested that Congress may appropriate money to cover the shortfall (OGJ Online, Apr. 23, 2001).
Still, congressional budget targets leave little room for increases in domestic spending not already supported by the White House.
Abraham said that all else being equal, this is what he envisions for oil and gas research in the 2002 fiscal year:
-- A concentrated effort to transfer improved technologies and "best practices" to the nation's smaller independent firms in the very near-term (the next 1-5 years) and to lower the cost of environmental protection through a combination of risk assessments, technology development, regulatory streamlining, impact analysis, and improved federal-state-local coordination;
-- Much longer term research (10-15 years into the future) to develop technologies that could locate and produce oil and gas that are beyond the reach of current technologies or those that industry is developing.
-- Efforts to enhance the reliability and deliverability of the nation's natural gas pipelines and gas storage facilities.
Contact Maureen Lorenzetti at [email protected]