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Dept. of Energy R&D in FY 2008 Final Appropriations PDF
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Supplemental
Materials: "Senate Gives DOE
$10 Billion for R&D," AAAS R&D Funding Update on DOE R&D
in FY 2008 Senate Appropriations "House
Boosts DOE Science and Energy R&D," AAAS R&D Funding Update on
DOE R&D in FY 2008 House Appropriations "DOE
Science Leads the Pack in 2008 Budget," AAAS R&D Funding Update on
R&D in the FY 2008 DOE Budget AAAS
Analysis of R&D in the FY 2008 Budget -
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The Department of Energy’s (DOE) R&D portfolio in fiscal year (FY) 2008 would
do relatively well with a $644 million or 7.4 percent increase to $9.4 billion
(see Table), but the omnibus appropriations bill brings
several disappointments in DOE’s Science portfolio.
- Although large increases for the Office of
Science between 15 and 18 percent made it through the request, House and Senate
appropriations, and an authorization bill as a cornerstone of federal efforts
to boost basic physical sciences research, most of the increases vanished in the
omnibus appropriations bill. DOE
Science’s final 2008 budget of $4.0 billion would be a 4.6 percent increase, but
a loss of nearly $500 million from earlier congressional appropriations. - DOE’s energy-related R&D would enjoy another
large increase in 2008, up 23.0 percent to $1.9 billion after a similar increase
in 2007, in sharp contrast to a requested cut. Congress went along with proposed
increases for R&D investments in renewable energy technologies such as hydrogen,
biomass, and solar energy, but also revived geothermal and hydropower R&D
programs proposed for elimination. In fossil fuels, Congress added to a large
request for coal R&D, including a 19 percent boost for carbon sequestration
R&D, but also saved gas and oil technology R&D programs from elimination
and added congressionally designated projects after a one-year moratorium. Congress
also boosted energy conservation programs proposed for cuts. - Congress eliminated requested funding for
the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). In addition to flat funding for nuclear
weapons R&D, Congress appropriated large increases for nonproliferation R&D,
resulting in a total DOE defense R&D investment of $3.8 billion, up 2.9 percent.
- The America COMPETES Act of August 2007 created
a new semi-independent Advanced Research Projects for Agency (ARPA-E) to fund
breakthrough alternative energy R&D technologies, but ARPA-E did not receive
any appropriations in the omnibus bill. DOE R&D in FY 2008 Final Appropriations On
December 26, President Bush signed into law the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations
bill (HR 2764) that had cleared Congress a week earlier, bringing the 2008 appropriations
process to a close. The omnibus bill included a final version of the FY 2008 Energy-Water
appropriations bill that was billions of dollars less than earlier House or Senate
versions of the bill providing funding for Department of Energy (DOE) programs.
The omnibus bill provides DOE with a total budget of $24.4 billion in 2008, $136
million or 0.6 percent more than 2007 but well below the President’s request (see
Table). DOE was in line for a large R&D funding
increase in DOE’s request, and even larger increases in earlier House and Senate
appropriations bills, but these increases for science and defense programs evaporated
in the December omnibus bill, leaving only the large increases for energy R&D.
DOE R&D totals $9.4 billion
in the 2008 omnibus bill, 7.4 percent more than last year,
but well short of the request, the House appropriation, and especially a Senate
appropriation that topped $10 billion. While earlier congressional appropriations
had large increases for all three of DOE’s R&D missions areas in defense,
science, and energy, only energy R&D ends up with large increases in the final
bill. President
Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and Advanced Energy Initiative
(AEI), both set for their second years in 2008, made the Department of Energy’s
(DOE) R&D programs a high priority within an increasingly tight domestic budget.
DOE’s Office of Science is the largest federal sponsor of physical sciences research
and is thus one of three federal agencies (the other two are the National
Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
laboratories) that were in line to receive substantial increases to fulfill the
ACI’s goal of increasing federal investments in basic physical sciences research.
DOE’s energy R&D portfolio funds R&D on a variety of topics, including
renewable energy R&D on the Administration priorities of hydrogen, solar power,
and biomass, all of which received substantial increases in 2007. The Democratic
majority in the 110th Congress had signaled its support for these two
Administration priorities, both rhetorically (under different labels) and financially
in wrapping up 2007 appropriations earlier this year with increases for these
programs. But
in late negotiations over the omnibus appropriations bill, Congress gave up $22
billion in domestic appropriations that had been added to House and Senate appropriations
bills in the face of presidential veto threats; the ACI proposed increases took
a big hit in all three ACI agencies. Earlier in 2007, the House fully funded a
requested 15 percent increase for the Office of Science while adding even more
money for biological and environmental programs for a 16.8 percent increase; the
Senate followed with an 18 percent increase. But the final Science increase of
5.3 percent increase falls far short of these earlier plans, and becomes only
a 1.4 percent increase after factoring out congressional earmarks. R&D
in the DOE Office of Science 
Figure
1. (click on the image for PDF)
DOE’s
Office of Science, in its various incarnations over the decades, has long been
the dominant federal sponsor of physical sciences research, and is also an important
supporter of computer sciences, mathematics, environmental sciences, materials
research, nanotechnology, and engineering. Last year, DOE requested a 14 percent
increase for Science funding, and ended up with 5 percent in February’s final
2007 appropriations. To catch up with the ACI’s funding trajectory, the 2008 request
for the total Office of Science budget would have been a 16 percent boost to $4.4
billion, consistent with a plan to double the budget between 2006 and 2016. But
just like last year, the final Science increase in 2008 is far less. The total
Science budget would increase 5.3 percent to $3.7 billion, after several rescissions
and across-the-board cuts in the omnibus bill.
More than 90 percent of the Science budget goes to R&D activities;
Science R&D would gain 5.3 percent increase to $3.7 billion (see Table). The
2008 increase following 2007’s increase would mark a departure from the flat or
declining funding trends of earlier years but just barely (see Figure 1), and
would keep Science funding generally flat for this entire decade. Funding
for several Science programs would decline in 2008, and leave funding well below
recent levels (see Figure 2). The high-energy
physics, nuclear physics, fusion sciences, and basic energy sciences programs
would get dramatically less than the request, with wrenching dislocations in store
for the programs and laboratories executing these programs. The
Office of Science supports cutting-edge research through a mix of laboratory research
at DOE’s national laboratories, university-based research, and the construction
and operation of large scientific user facilities that can be used by external
researchers for their experiments. Roughly half of Science R&D funding goes
to operate and construct facilities, while the other half supports research, mostly
at DOE laboratories but a large portion at universities. The laboratory research
and large facilities are housed primarily at ten Science laboratories that are
federally owned and contractor operated, such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
in Tennessee, Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. 
Figure
2. (click on the image for PDF) Some
Science programs would do well, including Biological and Environmental Research
(BER) with a 13 percent boost to $544 million, particularly for climate change
research. Computing research would increase 24 percent to $351 million to reach
an all-time high (see Figure 2). And there would be $124 million in R&D earmarks,
congressionally designated performer-specific projects making a reappearance in
2008 appropriations after a one-year moratorium on domestic earmarks in 2007.
But steep cuts are in store for other Science
programs. Congress would zero out the U.S.
contribution to the multinational International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
(ITER) in the Fusion Energy Sciences program. ITER funding climbed from $19
million in 2006 to $60 million last year, but the omnibus bill provides nothing
for the program instead of the $160 million request. As a result, Fusion funding
would fall 10 percent to $287 million, leaving just enough funding for a slight
increase for domestic fusion activities in New Jersey,
California, and Massachusetts.
And the High Energy Physics (HEP) program, which funds basic research on the nature
of matter and energy, would see its funding fall 8 percent down to $688 million
(see Table). The program does most of its work at three facilities located at
two DOE labs (Fermilab in Illionois and the Stanford
Linear Accelerator
Center in California)
and also cooperates in the international Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland,
which transitions from fabrication toward operation later this year. Instead of
the $60 million request, there would be only $15 million for the International
Linear Collider, the next big international high-energy physics project after
the LHC; most of the 2008 work would have been performed at Fermilab. Fermilab
would face additional hits, including the elimination of its NOvA neutrino experiment;
the lab has already announced layoffs that could exceed 10 percent of its staff.
The High-Energy Physics program has fared the worst among the Science program
lines this decade (see Figure 2). The Nuclear Physics (NP) program would do only
slightly better with a 2.4 percent increase to $433 million, far less than the
request to leave funding flat for the entire decade (see Figure 2). NP seeks to
understand the structure and interactions of subatomic particles, and supports
four user facilities. And Basic Energy Sciences (BES) would receive less than
$1.3 billion in 2008, barely an increase and far short of the $1.5 billion request,
with as-yet unknown impacts on its array of scientific user facilities and laboratory
research. DOE Energy R&D Programs The dollars that would have gone to Science
programs instead flowed to the Energy side of DOE in final 2008 appropriations,
turning requested cuts into large increases for the second year in a row. In 2006,
President Bush proposed dramatic funding boosts for selected alternative energy
R&D programs as part of his Advanced Energy Initiative (ACI) to reduce U.S. dependence on Middle
East oil; Congress
unexpectedly added even more money to bring DOE energy R&D to $1.5 billion
in 2007, a surprising 32 percent boost over the year before. The 2008 request
retreated from the 2007 highs in most areas down to $1.4 billion, but Congress
brings total DOE energy R&D in 2008 to $1.9 billion, up another 23 percent.
Both the House and Senate made a point in 2007 of decrying a decades-long decline
in federal energy R&D investments down to one-fifth to one-third of peak 1980
funding levels, and pointed to the 2007 and 2008 increases as the first steps
toward restoring federal investments in energy R&D. DOE energy R&D investments
climb 62 percent in just two years. While the Administration’s energy R&D
increases in some areas would have been offset by steep cuts or program eliminations
in other energy areas, Congress provided increases across the board for renewables,
energy conservation, and fossil fuels R&D programs.
In renewable energy, Congress added to the request
for nearly every program, with the only exception hydrogen R&D, which would
still increase 9.0 percent over last year to $211 million, up dramatically from
$153 million in 2006 (see Table and Figure 3). Biomass
R&D would decline slightly from 2007 to $198 million in 2008, but would still
be nearly triple the 2006 funding level, while solar energy R&D would total
$168 million, up 5.7 percent from 2007 and more than double the $82 million in
2006. Congress turned a requested cut in wind energy R&D into a slight increase
to $50 million, and would save geothermal R&D from proposed elimination with
a $20 million appropriation. Congress also restored funding to the now-dormant
hydropower program with $10 million. Also in for a big increase is nuclear energy
R&D, a renewable energy technology funded in a separate account, up 47 percent
to $162 million in 2008. These programs were heavily earmarked in the recent past
to 2006, and after a one-year moratorium earmarks reappear in 2008, though they
are now in a separate account and would not impact the above totals. Of the earmarks
for renewable energy and energy conservation in the omnibus bill, $127 million
would go to R&D projects (see Table). Congress once again reverses proposed cuts
in many energy conservation and fossil energy R&D programs, as in 2007. Congress allocates $557 million for fossil
energy R&D, up a dramatic 13 percent instead of down 27 percent as requested.
Coal R&D funding would surge 16 percent to $493 million, including $74 million
for the FutureGen program to develop a carbon-neutral, coal-fired electricity
and hydrogen production plant. Congress added $40 million to the request for carbon
sequestration R&D to bring the 2008 total to $119 million, up 19 percent over
2007 and nearly double the funding the program had in 2006. At the same time,
Congress once again reverses the proposed eliminations of the oil R&D and
gas R&D programs. For good measure, Congress also nixes DOE’s request to block
$50 million in mandatory funding for an ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural
gas and other petroleum research fund that was created in the Energy Policy Act
of 2005 for a 2007 start. Congress declined to block 2007 funding, so DOE initiated
the program in 2007, paid for out of oil and gas royalty fees. The House blocked
2008 funding in order to shift money to other programs, but the Senate and now
the omnibus bill leave the program untouched, thus adding $50 million to 2008
Fossil Energy spending. 
Figure
3. (click on the image for PDF)
The Energy Conservation portfolio is now part
of the Energy Supply and Conservation program, and Congress would provide increases
instead of proposed cuts for its component Vehicle Technologies, Building Technologies
and Industrial Technologies parts. DOE Defense R&D DOE and its predecessors have
long had responsibility for managing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, supplying
nuclear reactors to the Navy, and dealing with the environmental consequences
of nuclear weapons work. DOE’s defense R&D to address these responsibilities
gains 2.9 percent or $107 million to $3.8 billion in 2008 (see Table).
The core Weapons Activities program, which funds science-based alternatives to
nuclear testing in order to maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, would
remain flat at $2.7 billion for R&D in 2008 (down 0.1 percent).
The
DOE proposal to initiate research on a new generation of nuclear weapons has been
opposed by Congress so far, and the 2008 omnibus bill makes that opposition
emphatic by zeroing out funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) project
to explore new warhead designs for use with existing nuclear weapons. DOE recently
selected Lawrence Livermore to design the RRW, but the project still faces continuing
skepticism in Congress over whether the U.S.
needs new warheads. Funding would be stagnant for some other key defense R&D
areas, including inertial confinement fusion ($470 million, down 4.0 percent)
and advanced simulation and computing ($574 million, down 6.1 percent), the defense
counterparts to the Office of Science’s fusion and computing portfolios, respectively.
The one big growth area would be in nonproliferation R&D. The nonproliferation
and verification R&D program would receive $387 million in 2008 (see Table),
up a surprising 43 percent from last year. Outlook and Next Steps Now
that the 2008 omnibus bill is law, the impacts of DOE’s final 2008 budget are
rippling across the nation. The sharp reversal of fortunes in the Office of Science’s
plans for big increases are already being felt at FermiLab in Illinois, which
bears the brunt of the High-Energy Physics portfolio cuts, and will soon be felt
in Europe when the U.S. goes empty-handed to its ITER partners. Other Science
facilities are still working out how to reduce operating times, staff, and research
grants to deal with the shortfalls to their requested funding levels. On the energy
side, however, DOE faces the opposite challenge of spending the enormous increases
the energy R&D programs have won over the last two years and ramping up R&D
efforts that had long been accustomed to flat or declining budgets. Meanwhile,
the 2009 budget request is due in early February, setting into motion what is
sure to be another budget roller-coaster ride of give-and-take between the Bush
Administration and the Congress. -
January 2, 2008
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
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