Bingaman Hearing Statement on DOE Budget
February 4, 2010
10:32 AM
“The purpose of today’s hearing is to receive testimony on the Fiscal Year 2011 Department of Energy budget.
“We want to thank Secretary Chu for testifying today on this, the Department’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget. I want to complement the Secretary and his staff for their timely and thorough budget; this has been a tradition of the Department.
“Given our stark fiscal climate, I appreciate the President’s commitment to the continued development of clean energy programs that will help the U.S. be globally competitive. The Department continues to support renewables and conservation as well as electricity delivery and transmission but as in past years I am concerned about the proposal to zero out research for oil and gas, especially in light of the recent natural gas discoveries here in the U.S. The nuclear energy research budget is headed in the right direction by integrating it as part of a portfolio of low carbon energy sources. There is an increase for the Energy Information Agency that has been long overdue. Finally, the Department has taken the lead on innovative energy R&D by funding $300 million for the Advanced Research Agency for Energy or ‘ARPA-E’ as well as creating centers or ‘hubs’ in energy storage, energy efficient buildings and nuclear reactor simulation similar to the Joint Bioenergy Institute I visited a year or so ago.
“Again, I thank you for appearing before the committee and I look forward to your testimony.”
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