Harry Reid: “Senator, I agree that the administration needs to provide more adequate funding to the fossil energy research…”

“Senator, I agree that the administration needs to provide more adequate funding to the fossil energy research, development, and demonstration accounts. I also agree with you that there should be no assumption by the administration, Members of Congress, State governments, or any other parties that there is a guarantee that any funding, including the administration's future budget request for FutureGen will be provided by the Congress, given the austere budget environment that we are in. It is my understanding that $237 million is deferred and is available in fiscal year 2007 and beyond for a number of pressing fossil energy funding needs. The FutureGen program will only be given consideration for such deferred amounts if and only if all other critical fossil energy programs are fully funded, especially the Clean Coal Power Initiative.<bullet>”