Future of NIPER improves. (National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research)

A move to preserve the Energy Dept.'s oil and natural gas exploration and production laboratory at Bartlesville, Okla., even if the DOE itself is dissolved, got a leg up last week.

The phased dissolution of DOE, contained in a recently introduced House Republican budget-cutting plan, includes formation of an independent panel to study all DOE labs and recommend what should be done with them. However, budget cut protection was extended in the plan to the Bartlesville lab, called the National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research (NIPER).

However, thanks to a 18-17 defeat of an amendment offered last week by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, in the House Ways and …