Bingaman on DOE Budget

The $3.8 trillion budget blueprint that President Obama submitted to Congress today finds numerous ways to implement the president’s resolve to reduce deficit spending by cutting discretionary, nonsecurity spending. But it wisely maintains a focus on advancing important national priorities in energy, technological competitiveness and nuclear weapons security.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) strongly supports the increases proposed for Department of Energy (DOE) programs in the President’s Budget Request for FY 2011 today, which are being proposed against a backdrop of overall budgetary stringency for Federal programs. Bingaman is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which has principal responsibility for the DOE.

Bingaman will call the Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, to testify on DOE’s budget before the Committee this Thursday, Feb. 4, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. This will be the DOE’s first budget hearing before Congress this year.

“This Budget Request is a powerful statement of the priority that President Obama is giving to energy, technological competitiveness and nuclear weapons security imperatives, despite the tough fiscal environment we find ourselves in,” Bingaman said. “On most major programs in the department, the President’s budget request basically gets it right. I hope that this request attracts vigorous support from everyone who cares deeply about securing our nation’s energy future, boosting our economic growth and combating nuclear nonproliferation.”

The President’s budget request would increase total DOE spending by 6.8 percent over the level in the current fiscal year, to a total of $28.4 billion. Of this total, $11.2 billion would be budgeted to the nuclear weapons and nonproliferation missions of the Department, another $6.2 billion would be devoted to environmental cleanup and radioactive waste management, $5.4 billion would go to basic science and the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), and $4.2 billion would go to energy supply and energy efficiency programs.

“There are a lot of highlights in this Budget Request for the Department of Energy,” Bingaman noted. Some of the key ones are:

Ø A near-$200 million increase in funding for basic energy science research. This funding will increase the number of Energy Innovation Hubs, allow for the creation of new Energy Frontier Research Centers, and provide significant increases to help understand the basic physical phenomena that new energy technologies will be based upon.

Ø A strong follow-through on the promise of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), with nearly $300 million of new funding proposed for transformational, high-risk, high-payoff energy technology projects. This funding will build on the $389 million provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act one year ago to jump-start ARPA-E.

Ø Major increases in technology funding for solar energy (up 22 percent), wind energy (up 53 percent) and geothermal energy (up 25 percent).

Ø A revitalized nuclear energy research and development effort, supporting a diverse new set of nuclear reactor concepts and enabling technologies at a combined level of nearly $300 million. The President’s proposal includes in this program small modular reactor concepts similar to those proposed in two bipartisan bills now before the Committee.

Ø Strong increases for energy storage and SmartGrid electricity transmission technologies, with nearly $33 million of new and increased funding proposed.

Ø New funding to expand the DOE Loan Guarantee Program across the board, with $500 million proposed to subsidize new loans, which could translate to as much as $50 billion in additional loan volume for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects (depending on the loan subsidy rate – the preceding estimate is based on a subsidy rate of 1 percent). In addition to this, an additional $36 billion in loan guarantee authority is requested for “self-pay” loan guarantees for nuclear power projects.

Ø A major new initiative to attract into energy technology careers the best and brightest students, technicians, and young researchers, entitled RE-ENERGYSE, which is proposed to start at $50 million.

Ø Finally, although the defense programs of the DOE are annually authorized through the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the new DOE budget request is notable for ending a decade of relative neglect of these programs by the previous Administration, especially in the area of nuclear nonproliferation (which was targeted for budget cuts in the last budget submitted by the previous Administration for FY 2009). A 26 percent increase, representing new funding of over a half billion dollars, is proposed for Defense nuclear nonproliferation activities in the Department. “We face huge challenges in nuclear nonproliferation worldwide, and in April 2009 President Obama set a goal of securing all the vulnerable nuclear material around the world within the next 4 years. This funding increase is a strong follow-through on that commitment, which is essential to our national security,” Bingaman said.

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