White House Addresses NETL, Energy Questions
Issues a statement, refers to speeches made by president
Morgantown Dominion Post
26 April 2012
By David Beard
The White House recently responded to seven specific questions
from The Dominion Post
regarding proposed funding cuts for the National Energy Technology
Laboratory (NETL) and the NASA Independent Verification and
Validation Program.
Five questions dealt with NETL and the president’s energy policy.
They included a request for his response to criticisms of the
Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed power plant pollution
standards, his plans for transition from fossil fuels to
alternative sources, and his so-called “war on coal.”
A senior White House official responded with a single paragraph
and referred The Dominion Post
to several recent speeches by President Obama.
The official’s quote: “The 2013 Budget makes difficult decisions
about reducing funding for programs that are laudable, but that in
this fiscal environment cannot be funded at desired levels. The
Administration made tough choices about where to invest taxpayer
dollars during this era of tight discretionary spending caps set
by the Budget Control Act of 2011. At the same time, the
Administration has had considerable success getting its proposed
spending cuts enacted into law, which has helped us reduce
discretionary spending and meet the tight spending caps. The 2013
budget builds on these savings with additional cuts,
consolidations, and savings, on both the discretionary and
mandatory side of the budget. Overall, when combined with the
legislation signed into law last year, the budget contains more
than $4 trillion in balanced deficit reduction to put the country
on a sustainable fiscal path.”
Here are excerpts from the speeches, given March 22:
“So as long as I’m president, America is going to be pursuing an
all-of-theabove energy strategy. Yes, we’ll develop as much oil
and gas as we can, in a safe way, but we’re also going to develop
wind power, and solar power, and advanced biofuels. We can build
the next-generation nuclear reactors that are smaller and safer
and cleaner and cheaper, but we’ve got to also look at renewable
energy as the key to our future. And we’ve got to build cars and
trucks that get more miles to the gallon. We’ve got to build homes
and businesses that waste less energy, and put consumers in
control of their energy bills.”
“And as long as I’m president, we are going to keep on making
those investments. I am not going to cede the wind and solar and
advanced battery industries to countries like China and Germany
that are making those investments. I want those technologies
developed and manufactured here in Ohio, here in the Midwest, here
in America. By American workers. That’s the future we want.”
“According to experts, we’ve now got more than 5,600 solar
companies nationwide, and many of them are small businesses. There
are solar companies in every single state in the Union. And today,
we’re producing enough solar energy to power 730,000 American
homes. And because of the investments we’ve made as a nation, the
use of renewable energies has actually doubled. So this is an
industry on the rise. It’s a source of energy that’s becoming
cheaper; we all know it’s cleaner. And more and more businesses
are starting to take notice.”