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“WESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY OFFICE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E258 on Feb. 13, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY OFFICE
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HON. DENNIS R. REHBERG
of montana
in the house of representatives
Thursday, February 13, 2003
Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call the attention of Members of the House to critical federal programs conducted at the Western Environmental Technology Office, or WETO, located in Butte, Montana. These programs involving the National Energy Technology Laboratory are funded under Energy and Water Development Appropriations.
First, I want to commend Chairman Hobson and Ranking Member Visclosky, and the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, for their action to restore over $11 million in funds that were eliminated from the FY 2003 budget for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and Technology, within the Environmental Management program. The Office of Science and Technology has a critical mission in providing cost effective technology to clean up contaminated federal property across the country, and it deserves the strong support of the Congress.
I continue to be very concerned, however, about the likely adverse effects of proposed Office of Science and Technology cutbacks on our nation's ability to perform cost effective and timely remediation of the DOE's contaminated sites around the country.
More specifically, I am concerned about the continuation of the important work of DOE's Western Environmental Technology Office. At the WETO facility, the National Energy Technology Laboratory provides critical support to DOE's Office of Science and Technology. Their activities help facilitate DOE's demonstration, evaluation and implementation of technologies that promise to provide much-needed solutions to the environmental cleanup challenges at various DOE sites.
DOE's Research and Development contract for the Western Environmental Technology Office, originally awarded in FY 1997, has been extended through the end of FY 2004.
That contract extension provided that DOE would fund WETO at the following levels: $6 million in FY 2002, $6 million in FY 2003, and $4 million in FY 2004. However, in FY 2002 WETO received only $5 million,
$1 million short of the DOE's contractual obligation.
It is critically important to preserve this commitment to WETO and continue funding on schedule at a rate that will account for last year's shortfall.
I would add that the operations and activities of WETO are very important to the economy in Montana. Many professionals have chosen western Montana as their home while they serve our nation's challenge to clean up contaminated DOE sites.
Mr. Speaker, I would submit to my colleagues that when the Department of Energy makes contracts for multi-year programs in such important areas as WETO, where the Department's Science and Technology Office is developing and implementing technologies to remediate contaminated federal sites, these agreements must be honored.
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