Proposed cuts to research into clean-burning coal at the U.S. Department of Energy drew sharp criticism from Republicans today.
FuelFix.com reports that as the Obama administration increases funding to expand research into carbon-free forms of energy like wind power and modernizing the power grid, it also wants to reduce how much the government spends on technologies around fossil fuels.
“It is clear fossil energy is not the priority of the Obama administration,” Rep. Randy Weber, R-League City, said at a hearing in the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. “The budget for fossil energy is cut year after year.”
Under the proposed budget for 2017 released by the White House earlier this year, the Department of Energy’s budget for fossil fuel research would be reduced by 5% from this year to $600 million.
Within that budget, research into carbon capture and gasification—in which coal is converted to gas before being burned for electricity—would decrease 3% to $368 million.
Research into what the department terms unconventional fossil energy—currently pegged at $20 million—would be reduced to zero.
