Ed Royce: “my amendment simply cuts funding appropriated above the administration's request for five fossil energy research and…”

“my amendment simply cuts funding appropriated above the administration's request for five fossil energy research and development programs, programs earmarked for coal, natural gas, and the oil industries, programs that have been discussed at some length tonight. Mr. Chairman, I believe none of these programs merit Federal funding. U.S. private industry does not need these programs, period, but my amendment at least saves the American taxpayer some $21 million, about 7 percent of the total spending, for the many fossil energy research programs contained in the appropriations bill. This savings is why this amendment is endorsed by Citizens Against Government Waste, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the National Taxpayers' Union, and Americans for Tax Reform, among several other organizations. Why do American corporations not need these programs? Let me refer to a report done by the Congressional Budget Office that looks at the Department of Energy's fossil fuel programs. It reports, and I quote from that report, ``The major new technologies for enhanced oil recovery have come from private industry, not the Department of Energy.'' The Energy Department says, ``This has little in the way of commercial applications to show for its investment.'' The fact that technological innovation and new commercial applications is found in the private sector, not the government, comes as no surprise.…”