Martin Schneider
GHG Monitor
3/28/2014
Acting Department of Energy fossil energy chief Chris Smith faced few direct questions from House appropriators during a March 25 hearing on DOE’s applied energy budget request for FY 2015, though proposed cuts in the Department’s fossil energy request did come in for criticism from Republicans on the panel. “I must note that while the request is more balanced than last year, the two accounts—Nuclear and Fossil—which Congress increased last year received reductions,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. “To the extent that the President is serious about an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy, I would hope that this is the last year we see this imbalance in the request.”
For his part, Smith, the acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy at DOE, said the FY 2015 request will “help maintain DOE’s leadership role in addressing issues of energy and environmental security. We believe this budget will provide the resources needed to achieve these goals while ensuring maximum benefit to U.S. taxpayers.”
The Obama Administration slashed funding for the Department of Energy’s coal research budget in its Fiscal Year 2015 request, proposing $302.4 million for the program, a 23 percent decrease from 2014 enacted levels. Despite the proposal of a new program for natural gas carbon capture and storage demonstration projects, which was listed in the budget along with clean coal programs, every other coal program received cuts—with the budget for Carbon Capture trimmed 16 percent to $77 million and the budget for Carbon Storage cut 26 percent to $80 million. Funding for the Advanced Energy Systems program took the largest hit, with the request proposing a 49 percent decrease in funding to $51 million, followed by the NETL Coal Research and Development program, which was slashed 32 percent to $34 million. Funding for Cross Cutting Research was trimmed 16 percent to $35.3 million.
Overall, the DOE’s budget for Fossil Energy Research and Development was cut 15 percent to $475.5 million, when accounting for use of prior year balances, down $86.4 million from the FY 2014 enacted level. The only programs that received funding boosts were Natural Gas Technologies, at 70 percent, and Fossil Energy Environmental Restoration, at 34 percent.