The announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy last week makes Maddox the second-ranking official in the Fossil Energy office.

Maddox will realize the US$2 billion, 10-year initiative to develop a new generation of environmentally-sound, clean-coal technologies and the $1 billion FutureGen project to develop a pollution-free plant to co-produce electricity and hydrogen.

Previously Maddox served as a senior policy adviser to U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and was responsible for advising on fossil energy and environmental management program issues and communications.