The Department of Energy has released a plan to accelerate the development and reduce the cost of new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan would encourage the development of technologies to reduce, capture and avoid generation of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global climate change.

"This strategic plan is unprecedented in its scope and scale and breaks new ground with its visionary 100-year planning horizon, global perspective, multilateral research collaborations, and public-private parternships," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said when he unveiled the plan Sept. 20.

The Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan establishes goals and contains plans for spending about $3 billion in federal money for climate technology research, development, demonstration and deployment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while allowing increased economic growth, according to Energy Department officials.

"The technologies outlined in the plan -- hydrogen, biorefining, clean coal, carbon sequestration, nuclear fission and fusion, and others -- have the potential to transform our economy in fundamental ways and can address not just climate change but energy security, air pollution and other pressing needs," said Stephen Eule, who is overseeing the Energy Department´s CCTP plan.

However, critics of the Bush administration´s global warming policies said the plan was inadequate.

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