WASHINGTON, DC, US, March 21, 2007.
The U.S. Department of Energy wants $23.6 billion from Congress for the pending fiscal year, an increase of $45 million (0.2%).
“The spending plan will allow DOE to continue making marked progress in achieving President Bush’s goal of bringing more clean energy sources to market to help cut dependence on fossil fuels, increasing our energy and economic security and boosting competitiveness,” the department explains. The request is made under a Continuing Resolution signed by Bush on February 15, which requires that a spending plan be submitted to Congress within 30 days of enactment.
The spending plan emphasizes alternative fuel technologies, as promoted in the American Competitiveness Initiative and Advanced Energy Initiative announced in Bush’s State of the Union Address last year. It also allocates resources to contribute to Bush’s ‘Twenty in Ten Initiative’ which seeks to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by 20% in ten years by requesting Congress to mandate a fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017.
The spending plan includes $1.5 billion for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, to expand key programs that focus on developing biomass and solar. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado would receive a major boost under the request, including $20 million for biorefinery researching ethanol, $16 million for advanced thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing equipment; and $63 million to build a research facility on the campus.
In the ‘Energy Supply & Conservation’ section, hydrogen technology would receive $193.5 million, while biomass would receive $199.7 million. Solar would receive $159.4, wind $49.3, geothermal $5 and hydropower would receive zero funding.
The plan reflects the $2 billion commitment to clean coal technologies, and supports development of a portfolio of technologies in strategic coal research programs aimed at near-zero emissions, including carbon emissions. Research for carbon sequestration, a 55% increase to $100 million, lays the foundation for expediting the start of projects involving large scale CO2 injection field tests.
