quote:

Oil industry disputes proposed budget trim Plan would kill $50 million in federal R&D funding From Scott Spoerry CNN Monday, February 6, 2006; Posted: 5:58 p.m. EST (22:58 GMT) 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. The proposed 2007 budget would cut about $61 million from the Energy Department's budget. It proposes eliminating a $50 million-per-year research-and-development program that was authorized in the sweeping Energy Policy Act of 2005, which Bush signed in August. "Industry has the incentives and resources to do such R&D on its own," said a written statement from the White Office of Management and Budget. 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. Last week, Exxon Mobil Corp., the nation's largest oil company, reported U.S.-record profits for the quarter of $10.7 billion, as well as for the year ($36.1 billion). 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. (Full story) The budget proposal also calls for opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, which Congress has previously rejected. In his State of the Union address last week, Bush also proposed increased funding for research into ethanol fuels to power vehicles. Ethanol is a cleaner-burning fuel that can be derived from crops such as corn or sugarcane. "Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years," he said.

You've got to be kidding me? After the record profits they had this year, they are complaing because we want to cut SOME of their subsidies and R&D programs. They should cut them all because they're obviously self-sufficient enough and aren't cutting consumers break when it comes to prices. Why should taxpayers fund this???

___________________
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Here's American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it,
Watch these picturary retards bang their fuckin' skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom,
Here you go America you are free to do as we tell you
We want your soul
Your cash, your house, your phone, your cash, your house, your life" -Adam Freeland - We Want Your Soul

Last edited by Groundhog Boy on Feb-07-2006 at 21:01