DOE celebrates the certainty that comes with $34.5 billion under 2018 Omnibus bill

As President Donald Trump signed off on the Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations process via an Omnibus bill, the Department of Energy (DOE) was among those cheering, with $34.5 billion slated for their use.

The breakdown of expenditures will include $6.3 billion for science research programs, $2.3 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy, $1.2 billion for nuclear energy, $727 million for fossil energy, and $7.1 billion for environmental management. Also of note was the budget bill’s redemption of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which was initially at risk of being eliminated altogether. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry was among the research program’s key defenders and it will now receive $353 million instead.

“As a former appropriator, I am keenly aware of the work that goes into the budget process, and I am grateful for the certainty that this FY 2018 Budget will bring our Department,” Perry said. “This package funds our missions and will allow us to do great work for American energy. DOE will now be focused on executing our work under this budget in the most effective way possible.”

Notably, the package includes something for which Perry himself had argued: the elimination of any plans to barter, sell or transfer uranium used to fund the DOE’s Portsmouth site. At the same time, it puts more than $500 million to the advancement of exascale computing and more than $100 million for cybersecurity among the nation’s electric grid.