The Obama administration wants to increase funding for the Department of Energy for fiscal year 2012, including $8 billion to support research for clean energy technology.
The White House released its full budget proposal Monday, which calls for a 4.2% increase in the DOE budget over the proposed 2011 budget, and 12% above the budget that was approved by Congress for 2010.
The total figure for the DOE would be $29.5 billion. (Budget details below)
The White House also renewed the request it made last year for an additional $36 billion in loan guarantees to support the development of nuclear power plants.
The budget also call for the creation of three more energy innovation hubs to address critical issues such as energy storage, smart grid development an rare earth elements.
To help pay for the increase in DOE funding, the administration wants to cut $3.6 billion in fossil fuel subsidies–an amount that would add up to $46.2 billion over the next decade, according to Reuters.
President Obama also reduced spending for the EPA in his 2012 budget–cutting the agency’s funds by about 13%, or $1.3 billion.
House Republicans want to cut the EPA’s budget even deeper–by $3 billion. And they also want to cut more than $3 billion in the DOE’s budget for several renewable energy programs.
Highlights of the Administration’s FY 2012 DOE budget
- $3.2 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs
- Promoting renewable energy and energy efficient projects with $300 million in credit subsidies to support approximately $3-4 billion in projects
- $5.4 billion for the Office of Science to expand investment in basic energy sciences, advanced scientific computing and biological and environmental sciences
- $550 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)
- $100 million to continue supporting 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers started in 2009.
- $2.5 billion for the NNSA Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation program. (This is part of a five-year, $14.2 billion commitment for the program.)
The administration’s DOE budget also proposes cuts and terminations for several programs. These include:
- In the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, DOE reduced funding for the hydrogen technology program by more than 40%, or nearly $70 million. (Administration said it wants to focus on technologies "deployable at large scale in the near term."
- DOE has reduced the budget for the Fossil Energy Office by 45%, or $418 million. This includes zeroing out the Fuels Program, the Fuel Cells Program, the Oil and Gas Research and Development Program, and the Unconventional Fossil Technology Program.
- The Department is reducing administrative expenses across all programs in the FY 2012 budget from FY 2010 levels.
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