Dept. of Energy Budget Request for 2004

May 22, 2003 Thursday

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE INTERIOR SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
 
SUBJECT: DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY BUDGET REQUEST FOR FISCAL YEAR 2004
 
SEN. BYRON DORGAN (D-ND): Senator Burns, thank you very much, and thank you for holding this hearing.

SEN. BURNS: Didn't bring no more weeds today?

SEN. DORGAN: No. No, I didn't, no. No, this is not a hearing for weeds. With the Energy Department I should have brought a gallon of gas, perhaps. (Laughter.) But the chairman is referring to a noxious weed that I brought to the last hearing, but I'm not going to do that in the future actually. I know that --

SEN. BURNS: Why?

SEN. DORGAN: Well --

SEN. BURNS: I thought it was a great idea.

SEN. DORGAN: I didn't know it was very effective. (Laughs.) But let me thank the secretary for being here. The secretary and I had a chance to visit yesterday and I know that you are under—there really isn't any way that you could tell us or the audience, or for that matter the press, what you really think of the Office of Management and Budget. So -- (laughter) -- so I will not ask you about that.

But let me raise a couple of the same issues that Senator Burns raised. You know, I'm concerned about the decrease for energy conservation research. I talked to you about that yesterday. I think cutting energy conservation research is moving in exactly the wrong direction. I appreciate that the funding for the larger energy efficiency and renewable office, funded in the energy and water bill and Interiors, up slightly—it's up slightly less than 1 percent.

But renewable energy research, while important in its own right, is not a substitute for efforts focused on conserving the amount of energy we use. We use a prodigious amount of energy in this country. Conserving is also producing. It's exactly the same calculation, and we consume 25 percent of the world's energy. We really should be increasing research and development efforts aimed at reducing the amount of energy consumption, and so I'm concerned about that.

My colleague Senator Burns said that the budget severely undercuts fossil energy R&D. That's the third year in a row. Coal, gas, oil account for 85 percent of the energy consumed in the U.S. Coal-fired power plants produce over half of our electricity, while oil and natural gas account for almost 100 percent of our transportation needs. So research into environmentally sound approaches of extracting and using fossil energy is essential to our national energy security.

Now, we need money for new initiatives. But money for new initiatives should not come at the expense of other initiatives that are also very important. You know, we talk about hydrogen economy and fuel cells, and I am very appreciative of the president putting his administration on line, saying this is the direction we ought to have. I don't think you can overstate the importance of that. It is very important. I have said and I know—I hear Mr. Garman grit his teeth when I do—I've said that the initiative is timid with respect to its funding, because I—my own sense is it ought to be an Apollo type program that is bold and aggressive and I've suggested around $6.5 billion over a period of years.

But having said all that, I'm very impressed that the administration put itself on record, saying let's move in this direction. So the question isn't direction so much as it is velocity. And I hope very much that we can wrap this up into a very significant Apollo type program. But we should not be believing that even as we move in that direction we are somehow going to diminish the fossil fuels with respect to their importance. We're not. We're going to use coal, oil and natural gas long into the future and the ability to do that in a -- (telephone rings) -- thoughtful way requires that we have adequate research. And so, did you arrange to have someone call right at that critical point?

(Laughter.)

SEN. BURNS: If that call is for me you'll know it, I guess.

SEN. DORGAN: At any rate, I thank you very much for being here. As Senator Burns knows, we have a Commerce Committee hearing ongoing at the moment and I have another Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee which is—I believe Senator Burns is on both of those as well. So I'm not going to be able to stay for questions, Mr. Secretary. But you and I covered most of our concerns yesterday in the meeting in my office. And, again, I was pleased to serve with you in the Congress here in the Senate and I'm really pleased that you're where you are, and I look forward to continuing to work with you.