COAL STATE LAWMAKERS QUESTION MONIZ ON FE BUDGET

Kenneth Fletcher
GHG Monitor
6/14/13

Lawmakers from coal-producing states questioned newly-minted Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on cuts to the proposed Fossil Energy budget at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing this week. The Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 request proposed $276.63 million for its coal research budget, a 25 percent decrease from currently enacted levels. “During your Senate confirmation you said you would support the CCS research in R&D. I am a little concerned whether you will be able to carry that out if we continue to have a lessening amount of money for R&D. My question is do you support the President’s proposed decrease in the budget for the [National Energy Technology Laboratory]?” Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va) asked at an Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing.

Moniz replied that more than $3 billion in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has gone towards carbon capture and storage projects in recent years, and that NETL also receives about $12.5 million per year for research from a royalty trust fund. “NETL is our lead laboratory for fossil energy research,” Moniz said. The Administration’s FY14 Fossil Energy request focuses squarely on carbon capture moving forward at the expense of most other Fossil Energy R&D programs. While it trims less than 7 percent of its carbon capture and storage research budget—it is requesting a cumulative $173.1 million for the program, compared to its current budget of $185.44 million—the White House proposal cuts the funding levels for the Office of Fossil Energy’s Advanced Energy Systems and Cross-Cutting Research programs by more than half, 52 percent and 59 percent, respectively.

Those cuts prompted Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) to push Moniz on the budget. “While there are a number of difficulties that people look at with coal, there are also some really interesting technological advances that are moving forward. So I would ask why when we look at the budget do we not see more money being spent on looking at some of these technological advances?” Griffith asked. Moniz replied that DOE supports a “huge amount” of potential technologies that could advance CCS projects. “For example, one of the projects is a so-called oxy combustion project as opposed to a conventional boiler. The chemical looping, very interesting. We do have an increased focus on carbon capture technologies. Also advanced materials, very important to coal,” Moniz said.

Griffith replied, “I think that means that we can count on you to embrace the development and assure the success of these types of programs for transformational coal technologies.” Griffith said that he was “disturbed” by what he considered more emphasis from DOE on biomass energy than coal. “I really believe that with our great resource out there, coal, finding a way to make everybody happy burning it and giving jobs back to my district that have been stripped away over the last few years is extremely important and I would encourage you to continue to pursue that,” he said.