US senator calls for doubling spending on energy research, development

Washington (Platts)--29May2013/537 pm EDT/2137 GMT

Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican-Tennessee, said Wednesday the US government should double its spending on energy research and abandon subsidies for more costly renewable energy sources, particularly wind.

In a speech he planned to give at the Department of Energy's Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Alexander, a frequent critic of the wind industry and the multi-billion dollar production tax credit it receives, outlined his plan for US energy policy.

This plan focuses on cheaper sources of energy; clean, but not necessarily renewable, energy, including nuclear and hydropower; and free-market principles over government mandates, he said.

This plan would "end an obsession with taxpayer subsidies and strategies for expensive energy, and instead focus on doubling research and allowing marketplace solutions to create an abundance of clean, cheap, reliable energy," he said.

The speech came five years after one Alexander gave in Oak Ridge that identified seven energy policy priorities, including making electric vehicles more common, making solar cost-competitive and safely managing nuclear waste.

In his speech Wednesday, Alexander said he wanted to double US non-defense spending in research and development, which was $9 billion in fiscal 2011.

"There is an argument that, by imposing government mandates, just as by imposing higher prices, government could force some innovation that could move us toward clean energy independence," Alexander said, "but I think the surer path would be to double the $9 billion we spend annually on non-defense energy research and development -- and trust the marketplace to produce better results."

Alexander is a member of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

--Brian Scheid, brian.scheid@platts.com --Edited by Valarie Jackson, valarie.jackson@platts.com

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