President Bush's FY2008 budget seeks a 33 percent increase for the Office of Fossil Energy over last year's request to support improved energy security and rapid development of climate-oriented technology. It totals $863 million and completes a promise to invest $2 billion in coal technologies three years early.

One of the President's largest Fossil Energy budgets, the new proposal emphasizes early initiation of an expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; accelerating the development of technologies to manage and virtually eliminate emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industrial activity; and moving forward with the design and early work on the FutureGen project to combine in one plant the production of electric power and hydrogen fuel from coal with near-zero atmospheric emissions.

Fossil Energy's programs support the President's top initiatives for energy security, clean air, climate change and coal research. Fossil Energy also supports the Department of Energy's strategic goal of protecting our national and economic security by promoting a diverse supply and delivery of reliable, affordable, and environmentally-sound energy. Specifically, FY 2008 Fossil Energy programs:

• Manage and perform energy-related research that reduces market barriers to the reliable, efficient, and environmentally sound use of fossil fuels for power generation and conversion to other fuels such as hydrogen; • Partner with industry and others to advance clean and efficient fossil energy technologies toward commercialization, and; • Double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1.5 billion barrels by 2027 - an insurance policy in the event of a severe supply disruption.