Department of Energy

The FY09 budget provides $27 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE), a nine percent increase over the FY08 enactment. The bill includes significant increases for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the Office of Science and the Office of Fossil Energy and reduced funding for nuclear energy programs through the Office of Nuclear Energy.

EERE received $1.9 billion in FY09, $206 million more than FY08. Much of that total is to support the commercialization of energy technologies targeted by the Advanced Energy Initiative, launched by former President Bush in 2006. EERE is responsible for research, development and deployment of energy efficiency and clean power technology and practices. Energy technologies targeted in this funding include:

• Biomass and Biorefinery Systems - $217 million for integrated R&D, with the stipulation that the department pursue development of biofuels from non-food sources, especially sources with the largest potential for carbon-dioxide sequestration that are also compatible with gasoline and diesel fuels;
• Solar Energy - $175 million to projects to make solar energy more affordable, including $30 million for concentration research;
• Hydrogen - $168 million including $3 million for fuel processor R&D and $5 million for manufacturing R&D;
• Wind Energy - $55 million for wind energy systems; and,
• Geothermal Technology - $44 million for geothermal and enhanced geothermal systems
• Water Power - $40 million for basic and applied research, with a request that the department use its marine science laboratory to expand marine and hydrokinetic programs.

Other areas of research funded through EERE include:

• Vehicle Technologies - $273 million for research, including $25 million for energy storage R&D and $25 million for the Clean Cities program;
• Building Technologies - $140 million, including $33 million for the Commercial Building Initiative and $25 million for solid state lighting R&D; and,
• Industrial Technologies - $90 million for the industrial technologies program, including no less than $25 million for distributed energy generation, combined-heat and power activities and the advanced reciprocating engines system program.

EERE's Weatherization Assistance, Training and Technical Assistance program received $200 million for grants, training and assistance. The State Energy program was appropriated $50 million, including $25 million for competitive energy projects. Remaining EERE funding supports program direction and support, facilities and infrastructure, federal emergency management programs, the International Renewable Energy Program, the Renewable Energy Production Incentive, tribal energy activities, and congressionally-directed projects.

The FY09 budget provides $4.7 billion for the department's Office of Science, a $755 million increase over FY08. The appropriations committee summary states that this funding supports 2,600 new research jobs within the office. Funding technology areas include:

• Basic Energy Sciences - $1.57 billion, including $17 million for the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR);
• High Energy Physics - $796 million, with $27.8 million for the NuMI Off-Axis Neutrino Appearance Detector;
• Biological and Environmental Research - $601.5 million to apply biology to address energy production and for research related to the Climate Change Research program;
• Nuclear Physics - $512 million, including $25 million for the Research Isotope Production and Applications program;
• Biological Research - $423 million, including $23 million for Radiochemistry and Instrumentation, $17.5 million for nuclear medicine medical application research and $10 million to be awarded competitively to universities, businesses or government laboratories.
• Fusion Energy Science - $402.5 million, including $64.4 million for alternative concept experimental research;
• Advanced Scientific Computing Research - $369 million to develop and deploy computational and networking tools that enable researchers in the scientific disciplines to analyze, model, simulate, and predict complex phenomena; and,
• Climate Change Research - $178 million, including $2.5 million for competitively-selected climate modeling research, $20 million for enhanced predictive modeling and $0.5 million for Climate Change mitigation.

DOE received $15 million to fund the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) in FY09. Though Congress authorized the agency in 2007, no funds were appropriated in FY08. The remaining Office of Science funding supports laboratory infrastructure, safeguards and security, workforce development, program direction and congressionally-directed projects.

The FY09 budget provides $876 million for the Office of Fossil Energy, $133 million more than in FY08. This funding includes:

• Fuels and Power Systems - $404 million with the stipulation that the office conduct a pre-feasibility analysis of the impact of advanced coal facilities;
• Clean Coal Power Initiative - $288 million to initiate demonstrations of advanced coal-based power generation technologies;
• FutureGen - no new funding and $59 million of the program's previous balance is directed to the third round of Clean Coal Power Initiative awards;
• Natural Gas Technologies - $20 million, including at least $15 million for methane gas hydrates R&D; and,
• Petroleum-Oil Technologies - $2 million, including $2 million for the Risk-Based Data Management System.

The remaining funding for the Office of Fossil Energy support program direction, plant and capital equipment, fossil energy environmental restoration, special recruitment programs, cooperative R&D and congressionally-directed projects.

Despite the overall increase in appropriations for DOE, support for nuclear energy activities through DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation program is lower than it was in FY08. Funding for nuclear energy totals $792 million, $170 million less than was enacted in the previous year.