Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
4/24/2015
House appropriators approved their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill this week, releasing more detail as to how the bill would fund various Department of Energy fossil energy R&D programs. The bill, which is set to be debated on the House floor next week, would provide significant funding boosts above DOE’s FY 2016 budget request for fossil energy programs. “Even with the enormous increases shown to almost every account within the Department, the budget request once again proposes reductions to the Office of Fossil Energy. Nearly 66 percent of electricity generated in the United States comes from coal and natural gas. Fossil fuels will continue to be a critical source of energy many years into the future. In order to ensure the efficient use of existing fossil energy resources and to deliver safe and responsible uses of untapped domestic resources, the Office of Fossil Energy must remain one of the highest priorities of the Department,” says the committee report accompanying the bill.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) applauded the bill during this week’s full committee markup as a clear indication of the committee’s support of an “all of the above” energy strategy that “smartly utilizes and improves the way that we use the energy resources we have now and that works to develop new technologies that will make energy production in the country safer and more efficient.” He added, “This includes making investment in fossil energy research, which will help the country make better use of our rich natural resources of energy and help keep down energy costs for American families and businesses.”
Bill Would Provide a Total of $423.9 Million for Coal Programs
The House bill would provide a total of $423.9 million for programs related to coal, a 15 percent increase from the Department’s request and a 6 percent increase from current funding levels. Carbon capture would be funded at $97.8 million, $18.8 million less than the request, but $9.8 million more than 2015 enacted levels. Within the carbon capture funding provided by the bill, $12 million is to support pre-combustion technologies and $85.8 million is earmarked for post-combustion capture.
Carbon storage would be funded at $104 million, an increase of $4 million from 2015 enacted levels but $4.8 million less than the request. Of the funds allocated for carbon storage, $13.5 million would be for geologic storage technologies, $10 million for Monitoring, Verification, Accounting, and Assessment, $2 million for carbon use and reuse and $8.5 million for carbon sequestration science. The report states that the remaining $70 million is allocated for storage infrastructure, “of which funding above the request is for additional support of detailed site assessments for potential storage sites.”
The committee recommends funding the Advanced Energy Services significantly above than the request, providing $105 million, $65.6 million more than the Department’s request, but nearly in line with 2015 enacted funding of $103 million. Of that total, $30 million would be allocated for advanced combustion systems and $25 million would be allocated for gasification. Funding for the National Energy Technology Laboratory in the House bill stayed even with 2015 levels at $50 million, a roughly $16 million increase from the request. The Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) Generation Program would be funded at $15 million, a $5 million increase from FY15 enacted level.
