Remember Al Gore? From a 2001 Wall Street Journal Article:
Bush Cuts Gore's Energy Projects
As Focus Swings to Coal Research
By J OHN J. F IALKA
Staff Reporter of T HE W ALL S TREET J OURNAL
WASHINGTON -- Bush budget-cutters slashed pet projects of former Vice President Al Gore, including research funds for a superefficient car of the future and projects for renewable energy and conservation.
In contrast, coal was a big winner in the administration's budget. A new Energy Department program will devote $150 million to research on cleaner methods for burning coal.
The Energy Department's share of the multiagency "Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles" program was cut by 35%, or $50 million, to about $92 million. The program aims to develop a small passenger car that can get as many as 85 miles per gallon. Noting that Americans prefer bigger cars, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the program would be redesigned. "The target of research was really not in focus with where the industry is headed," he said.
Greg Martin, a spokesman for General Motors Corp., said the auto industry endorses the changes. "The next thing to do is to take these advanced technologies and put them in vehicles that are commercially viable," he said.
Mr. Gore, working with auto makers, created the program in the early 1990s as an alternative to tightening federal fuel-efficiency standards.
Funds for another Gore favorite, research on so-called renewable-energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass energy, were slashed more than 50% to $186 million from $376 million. "This is a big disappointment, but one that Congress is likely to fix," predicted Glenn Hamer, executive director of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group here.
The budget also promises that a potential $1.2 billion from the sale of leases for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be devoted to renewable-energy research -- an effort to tie the drilling, which hasn't yet gained a majority of votes in Congress, to an environmental benefit. But Mr. Hamer and other solar-power industry supporters were unenthusiastic about the connection.
While coal-fired power plants are a major source of air pollution, they provide 51% of the nation's electricity. Mr. Abraham, pointing out that the U.S. has enough recoverable coal in the ground to last 250 years, hinted that more coal-research money could be forthcoming after a White House task force reviews energy options.
The Energy Department's budget notes that the coal and utility industries will contribute to the new clean-coal research, one phase of which will be aimed at how to reduce or dispose of carbon dioxide. Many environmental scientists believe that the gas, by trapping heat in the atmosphere, is contributing to global warming.
