 The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed the fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget appropriation for the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the FY 2012 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. The bill totals $31.625
billion, a reduction of $57 million below the FY 2011 enacted level for
programs and agencies funded in the bill.
Given the competition for funding
within the bill, the DOE Office of Science, which funds basic research
associated with agency missions, fared quite well. The Senate Committee
approves $4.843 billion for the DOE Office of Science, which is essentially a
freeze at the FY 2011 enacted funding level. The Committee recommendation
for the DOE Office of Science is $573.5 million (10.6%) below the President’s
request.
 Detailed funding recommendations
for the various programs within the Office of Science are displayed in the
chart below. The Senate bill would provide continuation funding for the
three existing Energy Innovation Hubs (Hubs) – the Fuels from Sunlight Hub; the
Energy Efficient Building Systems Design Hub, and the Nuclear Energy Modeling
and Simulation Hub, for which the President requested $24.3 million each.
As did the House of Representatives, the Senate Committee also approves the new
Batteries and Energy Storage Hub within the Office of Basic Energy Sciences,
providing $20 million for the new Hub in lieu of the requested $34.2 million.
The Committee also recommends $10 million for the predictive modeling of
internal combustion engines initiative.
The Senate Committee is silent on
the President’s request for $20 million in the Industrial Technologies program
within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to establish
a new Critical Materials Hub even though its overall recommendation of $96
million for the program matches the House-passed bill which does fund the
Hub. The Senate Committee does not approve the third new Hub requested by
the President for Advanced Modeling Grid Research.
The Senate Committee concurs with
the President’s request to provide up to $100 million to continue support for
the 46 existing Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs), but not to fund
additional centers at this time.
For the Biological and
Environmental Research (BER) program, the Senate Committee recommendation of
$621.8 million is $10 million (2%) above FY 2011. The Committee
recommends $295.1 million for climate and environmental science, which the
House significantly reduced.
The Senate Committee would
approve $7.5 million to support graduate fellowships.
For the Advanced Research
Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the Senate would provide $250 million to
continue support for research into high-risk, high-reward transformational new
energy technologies, an increase of $70.4 million (39%) above the FY
2011 enacted funding level, but $300 million (55%) below the President’s
request.
The applied research programs of
DOE relating to renewable energy through Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
(EERE) are sustained at the current level of $1.796 billion for FY 2012. The
President requested $3.2 billion for these programs. The House reduced
EERE to $1.3 billion overall. Details of the Senate recommendations for
wind and solar energy, biomass, and the technologies programs are included in
the following chart. New initiatives within the EERE programs are
unlikely given the constraints under current budget allocations.
Additional details on the funding
recommendations approved by the Senate Committee are included in the chart
below.
Senate Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Bill, FY 2012
As reported by the Senate Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Subcommittee, 9/7/11
(In thousands of dollars)
|
FY 2011 CR
|
FY 2012 Subcom Mark
|
Subcom vs.
FY 11 CR
|
Subcom
vs. House
|
Subcom vs.
FY 12 Request
|
|
DOE, total
|
25,591,176
|
25,549,000
|
-42,176 (<1%)
|
808,254 (3%)
|
-5,134,802 (17%)
|
|
Science
|
4,842,665
|
4,842,665
|
----------
|
42,665 (<1%)
|
-573,449 (11%)
|
|
Advanced Scientific Computing Research
|
421,997
|
441,619
|
19,622 (5%)
|
14,526 (3%)
|
-23,981 (5%)
|
|
Basic Energy Sciences
|
1,678,195
|
1,693,860
|
15,665 (1%)
|
5,715 (<1%)
|
-291,140 (15%)
|
|
Biological and Environmental Research
|
611,823
|
621,823
|
10,000 (2%)
|
74,748 (14%)
|
-96,077 (13%)
|
|
Fusion Energy Sciences Program
|
375,463
|
335,463
|
-40,000 (11%)
|
-70,537 (17%)
|
-64,237 (16%)
|
|
High-energy Physics
|
795,420
|
780,200
|
-15,220 (2%)
|
-17,000 (2%)
|
-17,000 (2%)
|
|
Nuclear Physics
|
540,114
|
550,114
|
10,000 (2%)
|
-1,866 (<1%)
|
-55,186 (9%)
|
|
Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists
|
22,600
|
20,000
|
-2,600 (12%)
|
2,151 (12%)
|
-15,600 (44%)
|
|
Science Laboratories Infrastructure
|
125,747
|
136,800
|
11,053 (9%)
|
33,313 (32%)
|
25,000 (22%)
|
|
EERE
|
1,795,641
|
1,796,000
|
359 (0.01%)
|
491,364 (38%)
|
-1,404,053 (44%)
|
|
Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology
|
98,000
|
98,000
|
----------
|
6,550 (7%)
|
-2,450 (2%)
|
|
Biomass and Biorefinery Systems
R&D
|
182,695
|
180,000
|
-2,695 (1%)
|
30,000 (20%)
|
-160,500 (47%)
|
|
Solar Energy
|
263,500
|
290,000
|
26,500 (10%)
|
123,857 (75%)
|
-167,000 (37%)
|
|
Wind
Energy
|
80,000
|
80,000
|
----------
|
4,000 (5%)
|
-46,859 (37%)
|
|
Geothermal
Technology
|
38,003
|
34,000
|
-4,003 (11%)
|
-4,000 (11%)
|
-67,535 (67%)
|
|
Water Power
|
30,000
|
34,000
|
4,000 (13%)
|
-16,000 (32%)
|
-4,500 (12%)
|
|
Vehicle Technologies
|
300,000
|
319,157
|
19,157 (6%)
|
65,157 (26%)
|
-268,846 (46%)
|
|
Building Technologies
|
210,500
|
210,500
|
----------
|
60,500 (40%)
|
-260,200 (55%)
|
|
Industrial Technologies
|
108,241
|
96,000
|
-12,241 (11%)
|
----------
|
-223,784 (70%)
|
|
Federal Energy Management Program
|
30,402
|
30,000
|
-402 (1%)
|
----------
|
-3,072 (9%)
|
|
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
|
141,010
|
141,000
|
-10 (<1%)
|
1,504 (1%)
|
-96,717 (41%)
|
|
Nuclear Energy
|
725,824
|
584,000
|
-141,824 (20%)
|
-149,633 (20%)
|
-170,028 (23%)
|
|
Fossil Energy Research and Development
|
444,529
|
259,000
|
-185,529 (42%)
|
-217,993 (46%)
|
-193,975 (43%)
|
|
ARPA-E
|
179,640
|
250,000
|
70,360 (39%)
|
70,360 (39%)
|
-300,011 (55%)
|
|
Loan Guarantee Program
|
-340
|
Embargoed
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
DOE Defense Activities
|
10,522,520
|
11,050,000
|
527,480 (5%)
|
450,969 (4%)
|
-662,598 (6%)
|
|
Weapons Activities
|
6,896,398
|
7,190,000
|
293,602 (4%)
|
98,339 (1%)
|
-399,384 (5%)
|
|
Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
|
2,273,653
|
2,383,000
|
109,347 (5%)
|
326,230 (15%)
|
-136,492 (5%)
|
|
Defense Environmental Cleanup
|
4,979,738
|
5,002,000
|
22,262 (<1%)
|
64,381 (1%)
|
-404,781 (7%)
|
|
Army Corps
of Engineers, total
|
4,857,213
|
4,864,000
|
6,787 (<1%)
|
95,594 (2%)
|
291,000 (6%)
|
|
Bureau of
Reclamation, total
|
1,062,585
|
1,067,000
|
4,415 (<1%)
|
161,704 (18%)
|
48,611 (5%)
|
For additional information,
including the Appropriations Committee’s press release, please see the Senate
Appropriations Committee website: .
Tags:
appropriations
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DOE
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