Biden administration seeks $46.1B for FY 2022 DOE discretionary funding
Amid a $769 billion discretionary funding request submitted to Congress last week, the Biden Administration is seeking $46.1 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) specifically, focusing on climate change needs.
“To win the future, America must claim its stake in a growing $23 trillion global clean energy market—that’s why President Biden wants to supercharge investments in our country and our people and build world-leading clean energy industries here at home,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “Alongside the American Jobs Plan, this funding request offers the major investments we need to tackle the climate crisis while simultaneously increasing our economic competitiveness, ensuring overlooked communities benefit from the clean energy revolution, and creating millions of good-paying, union jobs across America.”
Such investments will include $1.9 billion for a Building Clean Energy Projects and Workforce Initiative to push carbon free electricity by 2035 through incentives and energy efficiency standards, along with streamlined transmission permitting. More than $8 billion would go toward quadrupling clean energy research within four years, from advanced nuclear energy to electric vehicles and new air conditioning approaches. The goal is a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
“The Alliance supports proposed increases in clean energy and climate programs across the federal government, including at the Department of Energy, EPA, Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and elsewhere, and we’re encouraged by the administration’s commitment to addressing the climate crisis in a way that is fair and equitable across all communities,” Paula Glover, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, said in a statement following the news. “These investments will pay enormous dividends both in the short-term – in terms of stimulating economic activity – and also in the long-term for putting the United States at the forefront of the global energy transition and avoiding massive public costs to taxpayers from climate disruption.
As one of the most powerful solutions for addressing climate change, and as the single largest employer in the clean energy industry, energy efficiency must be prioritized in any approved budget. The Alliance looks forward to seeing a budget framework into law that fully recognizes this value.
However, the budget request does not stop there. A massive $7.4 billion would go toward the Office of Science to expand research into the climate, new materials and concepts for clean energy technologies, artificial intelligence, and bolster the National Laboratory network with new facilities. Another $1 billion would establish an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Climate, as well as the existing ARPA-Energy (ARPA-E).
Like the Alliance, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) quickly released a statement of support for the budget proposal, praising the Administration’s promotion of clean energy, security, and critical infrastructure resilience.
“The Administration’s whole-of-government approach that aims to utilize federal agencies and the national labs to scale up clean energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment is critical as we all work to reduce carbon emissions across the U.S. economy,” EEI tweeted. “The proposed budget also builds on the foundation laid by President Biden to electrify the federal vehicle fleet, which is critical since the transportation sector is the largest domestic source of carbon emissions. We share the Administration’s goal of expanding affordable and reliable broadband access to all American communities, and we applaud its continued focus on creating new opportunities to reach underserved and unserved areas.”
It also pointed positively to the Administration’s industry-government partnerships, specifically in terms of reducing wildfire risk and protecting critical infrastructure through new cybersecurity capabilities.
Other budgetary priorities would include advancing carbon reduction and mitigation efforts at the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, investments into research and infrastructure for historically black colleges and university and minority-serving institutions, support for the new Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities, and Economic Revitalization and the POWER+ Initiative, along with nuclear security.
