During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Presdient Bush proposed to increase clean energy research at the Department of Energy by 22 percent to research, among other things, "cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol." The President certainly has a long way to go to reverse current trends. The New York Times reports today that: 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. NY Times: Bush's Goals on Energy Quickly Find Obstacles