Highlights
- Congress has finalized a comprehensive energy policy bill that establishes
U.S. energy policy for the next decade. The bill includes authorizations
for science and energy R&D programs in the Department of Energy
(DOE).
- The energy bill authorizes $23.7 billion in funding for DOE’s Office of Science over the next five years, but funding
is unlikely to match the authorization (see Table).
The FY 2004 appropriation for the Office of Science falls $333 million
short of the FY 2004 authorized level.
After two
years of debate, Congress has finalized a comprehensive energy authorization
bill (HR 6) that sets U.S.
energy policy for the next decade. [Congress was set to give final approval
to the conference report (final version) of the bill last week, but
the Senate failed to close debate on the bill, postponing final action
until 2004 and possibly dooming the chances for the bill to be signed
into law.] The 1000-plus page bill provides tax incentives for U.S.
energy production, sets federal standards for energy use and energy
efficiency, changes federal regulations on extracting energy from public
lands, partially restructures the U.S. electric power industry in response
to the August Northeast blackout, and authorizes programs in the Department
of Energy (DOE). The bill includes authorizations for DOE’s energy and science R&D programs which provide both policy guidance as well as suggested funding levels for
the next five years.
The energy bill authorizes $23.7 billion in funding for DOE’s Office of Science over the next five years (FYs
2004-2008) on a funding path that would see the Office’s budget grow
by 76 percent from last year’s level to a high of $5.8 billion in FY
2008 (see Table). After adjusting for
expected inflation, the gain would be 62 percent over FY 2003. The bill
authorizes similar increases in funding for DOE’s energy R&D programs in the areas of energy conservation,
fossil energy, solar and renewable energy, and nuclear energy. In all,
the bill authorizes $37.2 billion over the next five years for DOE’s primarily R&D programs in energy and science, including
$6.0 billion for FY 2004.
Authorization bills,
however, only contain suggested funding levels and do not actually provide
funding. Unlike the tax cuts totaling $26 billion over
the next decade that are included in the bill and would take effect
without further action, funding for these DOE programs and others will
continue to be provided year by year in the annual appropriations bills
and could fall well short of the authorized funding levels. Authorizations
are intended as guides for future Congresses as they make budget decisions
one year at a time, and are intended to set policy guidelines for how
programs operate.
This week, Congress approved FY 2004 appropriations for DOE that fall
well short of the authorized levels in the energy bill. On the same
day that the House authorized $3.8 billion for the Office of Science
in FY 2004 in the energy bill, the House approved an Energy/Water appropriations
bill (HR 2754) that provided $3.5 billion in actual funding for FY 2004,
falling $333 million short of the authorization. For all the R&D
programs covered in the energy bill, final FY 2004 appropriations fall
short of the authorized funding levels (see Table),
dimming prospects for actual funding to meet the authorized targets
in future years. For primarily R&D programs authorized in the energy
bill, final FY 2004 funding levels fall $582 million short of the $6.0
billion authorized. (The November 10 AAAS R&D
Funding Update on the AAAS
R&D web site provides details of final FY 2004 appropriations
for DOE).
Office of Science programs in the Energy bill
The energy bill
legally authorizes the activities of DOE’s Office of Science (OS) for the next five
years, and authorizes $23.7 billion on a budget path that would see
its budget grow from $3.3 billion last year to $5.8 billion by FY 2008
through a series of budget increases between 10 and 15 percent a year,
including an authorized 15 percent boost in FY 2004. The final FY 2004
appropriation of $3.5 billion, however, is only a 4.7 percent increase
and falls well short of the authorization. 93 percent of the OS budget
goes to R&D activities, with the remainder for overhead costs and
infrastructure support.
Only a few OS programs
receive specific authorized funding levels, leaving DOE with greater
flexibility to determine the shape of future budgets. The
Fusion Energy Sciences program is the only OS major program to receive
a specific authorization of $335 million in FY 2004, increasing to $393
million in FY 2008 for a nearly 60 percent increase over last year.
The $264 million appropriation for FY 2004 falls $71 million short of
the authorization. The Fusion authorization does not include future
construction costs of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
(ITER) program, a multi-national multi-billion dollar fusion research
facility that will begin construction shortly in either Europe
or Japan,
but the energy bill authorizes DOE to negotiate U.S.
participation in ITER. It also calls on DOE to create a written plan
to fully document the U.S.
role in ITER. If U.S.
participation in ITER should end, the energy bill provides an alternative
for a domestic burning plasma experiment instead. For the wider fusion
program, the energy bill declares that it will be U.S. policy to conduct
R&D and other activities leading to the utilization of fusion for
domestic energy as soon as possible and calls on DOE to submit a plan
within six months on how the U.S. can achieve that policy.
The energy bill
also authorizes the completion of another major science facility, the
Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) under construction in Tennessee.
The bill caps total SNS project costs (including past costs) at $1.4
billion and authorizes $349 million for construction and development
costs through the expected completion of the facility in FY 2006. The
project is funded by the OS Basic Energy Sciences program.
The energy bill
authorizes several R&D efforts within the OS portfolio. The bill
authorizes continuing efforts in catalysis research and development.
Catalysis R&D in the OS Basic Energy Sciences program funds R&D
on catalyst design, catalyst synthesis, and basic molecular research
to better synthesize catalyst compounds. There is an authorization of
$183 million over five years within OS for these efforts. The bill also
authorizes the rapid expansion of the existing nanoscale science and engineering program in DOE,
part of the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative. The bill
envisions the DOE effort nearly tripling between FY 2003 and FY 2008,
from $133 million to $390 million, although the FY 2004 appropriation
would fall approximately $65 million short of the FY 2004 authorization.
The nanotechnology authorization is similar to the authorized levels
in the pending House bill to authorize the multi-agency initiative.
The bill also authorizes the Genomes to Life program within OS Biological
and Environmental Research, although it authorizes $100 million only
in FY 2004 as an explicit authorization of funding. Looking to the future,
the bill authorizes a new fission and fusion energy materials research
program beginning in FY 2006 that would perform materials science research
related to fission and fusion.
Left out of the
final Energy bill is the creation of a post of Under Secretary for Science
in the DOE to provide a high-visibility figure in the Department with
direct responsibility to the Energy Secretary. Many advocates for DOE’s
science activities have called for this step, and had hoped that the
final energy bill would create this position. Currently, the Director
of DOE OS is several steps lower than an Under Secretary in the DOE
hierarchy.
Energy R&D Programs in the Energy Bill
In addition
to the Office of Science, DOE
funds energy-related R&D programs through programs in Energy Conservation,
Fossil Energy, Renewable Energy, and Nuclear Energy, all of which
are authorized in the final energy bill. The bill envisions steadily
increasing budgets for all of these programs (see Table),
including a doubling of the Nuclear Energy budget from $260 million
in FY 2003 to $690 million in FY 2008. The Energy Conservation program
funds R&D on energy efficiency technologies in energy-using industries,
buildings, transportation, and the energy distribution network, in addition
to non-R&D activities to encourage greater use of energy-efficient
technologies in housing. The Fossil Energy program funds R&D on
new technologies to reduce the use of coal, oil, and natural gas or
to reduce their environmental impacts. Included in the Fossil Energy
program is the Clean Coal Power Initiative, an R&D effort to develop
cleaner-burning coal technologies and to encourage their implementation
in power generation and other industries. The energy bill authorizes
$200 million a year separately for the next five years for this program.
The Renewable Energy program funds R&D on solar, geothermal, wind,
hydrogen, biomass, and other renewable energy technologies, and also
funds efforts to deploy these technologies on a wider scale. Elsewhere
in the energy bill is a comprehensive authorization for a hydrogen program
to develop, deploy, and encourage the use of hydrogen in vehicles, energy
production, and fuel cells, authorized at $274 million in FY 2004 in
an overlap with the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation programs.
The Nuclear Energy program funds a variety of programs related to nuclear
power, including a Nuclear Energy R&D Initiative to develop next-generation
nuclear power technologies and university programs to encourage nuclear
R&D.
All told, these
energy R&D programs are authorized to receive $13.5 billion over
the next five years, of which roughly two-thirds would go to R&D
activities. But the FY 2004 appropriations for these programs fall $249
million short of the FY 2004 authorization, casting doubt on whether
these funding levels will actually materialize in future budgets.
Other Provisions in the Energy Bill
There are several
miscellaneous provisions in the energy bill that could affect the management
of DOE’s R&D portfolio. The
bill calls on DOE to contract with the National Academy of Sciences
to do a study on DOE’s R&D evaluation
methodologies to determine the scientific and technical merit of these
methodologies and to recommend improvements. The bill also calls on
DOE to use merit review to award R&D funds as much as possible,
and to rely on external advisory boards for scientific advice for both
the DOE Office of Science and the energy R&D programs. In a nod
to the future workforce needs of DOE, the bill also authorizes the creation
of a DOE scholarship program that will prepare students for careers
at DOE, starting at $800,000 in FY 2004 and growing to $2 million in
FY 2008. Finally, there are also earmarks (congressionally designated
performer specific R&D projects) in the bill. The bill instructs
DOE to build an Arctic Engineering
Research Center
at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks and provides $3 million a year
for six years out of DOE funds for that purpose. Another facility, the
Barrow Geophysical Research Facility, is authorized as a multi-agency
$61 million facility, but funds are only authorized and not appropriated.
Next Steps
[The Senate
failed to limit debate on the energy bill, and Senate leaders have pulled
the bill from the Senate calendar until 2004. It is unclear whether
the Senate will be able to approve the bill next year, or whether the
bill will die in the Senate. The final Energy/Water appropriations bill
is expected to be signed into law shortly. The Fossil Energy and Energy
Conservation programs already have their final FY 2004 budgets in the
Interior appropriations bill.]
- November 19, 2003 (updated Nov. 26)
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
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