March 6, 2014
WASHINGTON, March 4 (DoE press release) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz detailed President Barack Obama’s $27.9 billion Fiscal Year 2015 budget request for the Energy Department. Secretary Moniz emphasized the President’s continued commitment to a low-carbon future, improved energy infrastructure resilience, U.S. science and technology leadership and stronger national security.
This budget request represents a 2.6 percent increase above the FY 2014 enacted level, reflecting the importance of the Department’s core focus areas — Energy and Science, Nuclear Security and Management and Performance. The budget request also reflects a reorganization of the Energy Department into three Under Secretariats, mirroring the Department’s focus areas.
“The United States remains the global leader in energy, science and security, building on its longstanding commitment to innovation,” said Secretary Moniz. “The President’s budget request for the Department of Energy sustains this commitment for future generations – in clean energy, in frontier scientific discovery, and in global nuclear security.”
The budget request includes cross-cutting program initiatives that tap the Department’s full capability to effectively and efficiently address the national energy, environmental, and security challenges. To focus resources and management coordination on new and ongoing R&D, the Department is proposing crosscutting initiatives funded in various program offices and managed jointly:
Grid: Unified grid modernization strategy to address institutional and technological challenges to creating a more secure, resilient, and flexible future grid. ($314M)
Subsurface: Energy production and storage, CO2 storage, and hazardous materials disposal share common challenges in characterizing, engineering, and monitoring geologic environments ($192M).
Exascale: Research and development in Science and NNSA leading to the implementation of advanced computing systems. ($141M)
Supercritical CO2: Research, development, and demonstration of SCO2 technologies with broad potential for higher-efficiency, lower-cost power generation, including a new STEP demonstration project. ($57M)
Cybersecurity: Activities to strengthen the protection of DOE from cyber attacks, bolster the Nation’s capabilities to address cyber threats, and improve the cybersecurity of the energy sector. (Over $300M)
The budget request for fiscal year 2015 also highlights the steps the Department continues to take to improve its management and operations.
Specifically, the President’s FY 2015 budget request for the Department of Energy plays a key role in achieving the Climate Action Plan and in keeping the United States at the forefront of science and technology innovation, by:
Supporting activities in the transformational research, development, demonstration, and deployment of an extensive range of clean energy technologies that support the President’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to advance the economy while mitigating the risks of climate change;
Supporting DOE’s role as the Secretariat for the development of the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) due in FY 2015 that will provide a roadmap to help enhance the resilience of our Nation’s infrastructure for transporting and delivering energy;
Including $2 billion over the next 10 years from existing federal oil and gas development revenue for the Energy Security Trust to fund research and development on cost-effective, advanced transportation alternatives utilizing cleaner fuels and domestically produced natural gas; and
Supporting the President’s goals to halve the Nation’s net oil imports by 2020 and strengthen U.S. leadership in advanced vehicle development and production.
Highlights in the FY 2015 budget include:
$2.3 billion for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to continue a diverse suite of sustained investment in development of renewable generation technologies, sustainable transportation technologies, and advanced manufacturing technologies, as well as in improving energy efficiency in our homes, buildings and industries.
$325 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy to continue research and development of transformational clean energy technologies.
$863 million for Nuclear Energy for ongoing research and development in advanced reactor and fuel cycle technologies as well as small modular reactor licensing technical support.
$475 million for Fossil Energy Research and Development to advance carbon capture and storage and natural gas technologies.
$180 million for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability grid modernization activities to support a smart, resilient electric grid for the 21st century and fund critical emergency response and grid security capabilities.
$123 million for the Energy Information Administration to modernize its data infrastructure and meet evolving customer needs.
$5.1 billion for the Office of Science including $1.8 billion for basic energy sciences activities to provide the foundations for new energy technologies, to mitigate the environmental impacts of energy use, and to support DOE missions in energy, environment, and national security by understanding, predicting, and ultimately controlling matter and energy.
$8.3 billion for Weapons Activities to maintain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent.
$1.6 billion for nuclear nonproliferation activities that will continue to reduce global stocks of weapons-useable nuclear materials.
$5.6 billion for Environmental Management to address the legal and moral obligations to clean up the legacy of the Cold War
For more information visit energy.gov/budget.