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Show increase planned vor oil shale R&D federal funds Hv H'l-nf ('. MonlxTg Washington (Spooial) The govorn-ent govorn-ent thru the Department of Energy )OE) ami the Interior Department X)I) plans to increase its spending for shale research and development xuit 20 percent in the li81 fiscal year er the current fiscal year. That is the word from the budget of-jes of-jes of both departments. The 1980 pro-"ams pro-"ams for oil shale in both departments tal $39,218,000. The 1980 fiscal year ills on Sept. 30. The 1981 programs for 1 shale in DOE and DOI are projected total $47,803,000. The 1981 fiscal year gins on Oct. 1, 1980. The increase in funding thru DOE is research and field investigations and jdies carried on thru the office of its distant Secretary for Fossil Energy, from $35 million to $42 million from 80-1981. The major increase in In-rior In-rior Department agencies is in the S. Geological Survey investigations, Vrticularly the USGS hydrologic udies. USGS oil shale investigations id studies are budgeted for $4,282,000 1981, as compared to $2,703,000 in 80, according to William Bettenberg, terior's top budget officer. In addition, Bettenberg stated, 21,000 is being budgeted in 1981 by the ureau of Land Mangement to monitor e two oil shale tracts under develop ment in Western Colorado, and $1 million being budgeted by the Bureau of Mines in 1981 for environmental research into oil shale. The overall Interior In-terior total will increase from $4,218,000 in 1980 to $5,803,000 in 1981 for oil shale research and investigation work, he said. These figures do NOT include $2.2 million voted by Congress in the 1980 Department of Energy appropriation to require DOE to provide incentives to industry in-dustry to do demonstration work on alternative fuels, "Companies interested in oil shale development can submit bids under this program, but it is not directed at oil shale as such; it is directed as a whole range of alternative fuels," a DOE spokesman told this correspondent. cor-respondent. In addition a $20 billion synthetic fuels authorization is now in conference between the Senate and House. The DOE spokesman also pointed out it is possible that both the alternative fuels incentive program and the syn-fuels syn-fuels program may end up being administered ad-ministered by another agency rather than by DOE. that has not been decided at this point, he pointed out. Here is now the 1980 and 1981 oil shale programs stand in DOI and DOE at the present time. Department 19110 Actual l'JHl of Energy Funding Budget 1) Research & field investigations investiga-tions $28 million $36 million 2) Resource Applications $7 million $6 million Total-Doe programs $35 million $42 million Department of Interior 1) Bureau of Land Management Manage-ment (BLM) $515,000 $521,000 2) U.S. Geological Survey (USGS $2,703,000 $4,282,000 3) Bureau of Mines (BM) $1,000,000 $1,000,000 Total-DOI program pro-gram $4,218,000 $5,803,000 OVERALL TOTAL-DOE . & DOI $39,218,000 $47,803,000 These figures include only programs directly targeted at oil shale research and development. Bettenberg pointed out that the framework programs being developed by BLM in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming undoubtedly include consideration con-sideration of possible oil shale development develop-ment in the Green River Formation in those states, for example. |