Andrea Seastrand: “I support the Tiahrt amendment. This amendment would authorize appropriations of $22.95 million, which is consistent…”

“I support the Tiahrt amendment. This amendment would authorize appropriations of $22.95 million, which is consistent with the level contained in H.R. 1816, the Civilian Energy Research and Development Act of 1995, reported out of the Committee on Science on June 22. All of this was done with the thought of definitely giving dollars to research, and balancing the budget. However, I am amazed to see what has now come out of the Committee on Appropriations, which definitely increases appropriations to such areas such as coal, up $11.3 million above even what the Department of Energy requested, and up $76 million above what the Committee on Science authorization of $49.9 million was. Oil appropriations were up $20.5 million above the Committee on Science authorization of $63 million; gas appropriations, $113 million, up $53.9 million above the Committee on Science authorization of $59.8 million. I want to state that the Committee on Science, which I serve on, adequately funded basic research. In addition, we have dollars now that are funding institutes such as the Electric Power Research Institute and the Gas Research Institute, provided they do this research with surcharges on utility customers. This is being done. Appropriations are funding far beyond what the Committee on Science decided would be appropriate levels. Where are these dollars going? The corporate giants. Exxon in 1994 made sales of over $101 billion with profits of $5 billion.”