The political tug-o’-war over funding for the Department of Energy (DOE) has begun.
President Bush’s $25 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget request for the DOE is an increase of $1.073 billion over the FY 2008 appropriation and includes $1.4 billion to promote the expansion of nuclear power and $648 million for increased research in "clean" coal technology and demonstration of carbon capture and storage for coal-fired power plants.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said, "From transforming the weapons complex to maintain the utmost safety and reliability of our nuclear weapons stockpile, to issuing solicitations for loan guarantees to spur innovation in advanced energy technologies, this budget enables the Department to continue to lay the foundation for a clean, safe, secure and reliable energy future for all Americans."
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said in a statement that he welcomed increases in a number of DOE programs in the president’s budget request but questioned other omissions that "diminished the contribution of the new budget to overall U.S. energy and economic security."
"I am pleased to see overall growth in the DOE budget, particularly in the area of basic research as a result of our passage last year of the America COMPETES Act. A number of energy technology programs are also seeing strong growth, in response to the passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act last year, as well. But the decision to zero out the Department’s weatherization funding to the States is completely wrongheaded, and I will work vigorously to reverse this decision," Bingaman said.
Of the $25 billion total, requested by the president, $9.1 billion would be budgeted to the nuclear weapons missions of the Department, another $6.2 billion would be devoted to environmental cleanup and radioactive waste management, $4.7 billion would go to basic science, and $3.9 billion would go to energy supply and energy efficiency programs.
The $3.9 billion proposed for energy activities represents a nearly 25% increase in this category over the past two years, however, Senator Bingaman states that much of the increase was added by Congress last year, for priorities that differ in a number of important respects from those in the new budget proposal.
In addition to the zeroing out of funding that assists low-income families in weatherizing their homes, Bingaman also objected to funding cuts for solar energy research, hydropower and industrial energy efficiency.
"If American energy-intensive industries, and the jobs they provide, are to prosper in a future in which we impose a cost on carbon dioxide, we need to act aggressively now to position them as global leaders in energy efficiency of all kinds," Bingaman said. "It’s a bad time to be rolling back this societal investment in our future high-wage renewable energy jobs."
Congress will soon present its own budget proposal, that will undoubtedly represent a different set of priorities for the DOE.
Below is the administration’s DOE budget breakdown by programs and offices.
- Advancing the American Competitiveness Initiative–$4.7 billion
- Accelerating the Advanced Energy Initiative–$3.2 billion
- Office of Science–$4.7 billion
- National Nuclear Security Administration–$9.1 billion
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy–$1.25 billion
- Office of Nuclear Energy–$1.4 billion
- Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management–$494.7 million
- Office of Fossil Energy–$1.1 billion
- Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability–$134 million
- Office of Health, Safety and Security–$446.9 million
- Office of Environmental Management–$5.5 billion
- Office of Legacy Management–$186 million
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