Bush investing more in Alternative fuels? Quite the opposite.

From the NY Times article, "Bush's Goals on Energy Quickly Find Obstacles":

The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget.

A veteran researcher said the staff had been told that the cuts would be concentrated among researchers in wind and biomass, which includes ethanol. Those are two of the technologies that Mr. Bush cited on Tuesday night as holding the promise to replace part of the nation's oil imports.

The budget for the laboratory, which is just west of Denver, was cut by nearly 15 percent, to $174 million from $202 million, requiring the layoff of about 40 staff members out of a total of 930, said a spokesman, George Douglas. The cut is for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.

Edit 1:41am :

I also heard this on the radio this evening about Coal Gassification, a technique whereby coal is chemmically converted to gas for use in power plants. It's supposedly cleaner. However, according to this story, the EPA sent a letter to an energy consulting firm saying not to bother switching to this cleaner technology since it's not required by law. Intereseting.

If the link isn't working for some reason, go here.