WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 The Bush administration on Monday committed $179 million in its fiscal year 2008 budget for research into producing ethanol from a variety of sources.The money is up 20 percent, or $149.7 million, from the FY 2007 budget and is meant to make cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive by 2012.The budget also requested $2.7 billion for the Advanced Energy Initiative, which promotes renewable energy technologies such as biomass. The sum is a 26 percent increase over last year's figure.The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy gets $1.24 billion, including a funding increase for biomass.Biomass also gets $113 million out of the $713 million requested for Science Programs.The total budget request for the Energy Department is $24.3 billion.The nation ... must go beyond a petroleum-based economy by powering automobiles with fuel efficient technologies and domestic, renewable alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuels, the Department of Energy said. Responding to the budget, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said: Some elements of DOE's new budget request, such as increases for biomass and biofuels R&D, are positive, and I am pleased to see them. Others appear to reflect the wrong priorities, if we are to build an effective energy future.Copyright 2007 by UPI
