Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO compared the actual fiscal year (FY) 1998 obligations for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Fossil Energy Research and Development (R&D) Program and the Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program with the estimated obligations that were previously reported.

GAO noted that: (1) DOE's FY 1998 appropriations provided about $362 million for the Fossil Energy R&D Program and rescinded about $101 million of the related Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program; (2) last year, DOE estimated that its obligations for the two programs during FY 1998 would be $581.3 million; (3) during FY 1998, the Fossil Energy R&D Program obligated about 1 percent less money than had been estimated; (4) the Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program obligated the same amount of money that DOE had estimated would be obligated; and (5) within the Fossil Energy R&D Program, the increase or decrease in obligations varied by program as well as by phase of R&D.