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FY 2004 Budget Request Analysis:
Renewable Energy and Energy
Efficiency
Downloadable Version (PDF Format)
Overview
The Administration has focused much public attention on its hydrogen
fuel cell initiative. The fiscal year 2004 budget request contains
a large increase in spending on hydrogen-related projects, but
this increase comes at the expense of spending on energy efficiency
and renewable energy technologies. Furthermore, while hydrogen
spending increases significantly, very little new money is proposed,
and is primarily found in the Fossil and Nuclear budgets. As a
whole, renewable spending is roughly equal to nuclear research &
development spending and is significantly below fossil fuel research
and development spending.
Hydrogen &
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE):
Overall, EERE’s budget request remained flat (.1% increase) at $1.32
billion. However, funding by program did not stay flat. Within
EERE’s budget request, all projects that were not related to
hydrogen specifically, or in other words, those projects that dealt
with just renewable energy or energy efficiency, were cut by $83.7
million or 7.3 percent overall. Hydrogen-related projects, however,
enjoyed increased funding of 58.7 percent, or $100.6 million -- $85
million of this sum falls within EERE and $15.5 million within
Nuclear and Fossil. Therefore, the EERE budget request basically
creates a straight transfer of funds, roughly 7.3 percent of its
budget, from renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to
hydrogen projects. In the Department of Energy budget as a whole,
only about $17 million dollars of new money was added to hydrogen
projects, $15.6 million of which was added to Fossil and
Nuclear-related research.
Please note that because Congress has not reached final agreement on
fiscal year 2003 appropriations, these charts are done in relation
to the Administration’s budget requests for fiscal year 2003.
|
Hydrogen-Related Budget
(thousands of dollars) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2003 Request |
2004 Request |
Actual Change |
Percent Change |
|
EERE |
$171,381 |
$256,482 |
$85,101 |
49.7% |
|
Nuclear |
$0 |
$4,000 |
$4,000 |
|
|
Fossil (Coal) |
$0 |
$5,000 |
$5,000 |
|
|
Fossil (Gas) |
$0 |
$6,555 |
$6,555 |
|
|
Total |
$171,381 |
$272,037 |
$100,656 |
58.7% |
|
EERE Budget
Excluding Hydrogen-Related Projects
(thousands
of dollars) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2003 Request |
2004 Request |
Actual Change |
Percent Change |
|
Renewables |
$367,119 |
$356,225 |
-$10,894 |
-3.0% |
|
Efficiency |
$780,151 |
$707,293 |
-$72,858 |
-9.3% |
|
Total |
$1,147,270 |
$1,063,518 |
-$83,752 |
-7.3% |
Other highlights within EERE’s request include the fact that Biomass
projects took a $31.4 million cut (29.5 percent cut), the largest
monetary cut in the request. Industrial technologies also took a
large percentage cut, 29.6 percent or $27 million, while the rest of
the EERE programs took significantly smaller percentage and monetary
cuts. One highlight increase was a request for $9 million
additional dollars for the “National Climate Change Technology
Initiative,” increasing its budget to $24 million.
|
Overall EERE Request (thousands
of dollars) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FY 2002 Appropriation |
FY 2003 Request |
FY 2004 Request |
Monetary Change 2003-2004 |
Percentage Change 2003-2004 |
|
Programs |
Biomass |
$112,462 |
$109,944 |
$78,558 |
-$31,386 |
-28.50% |
|
|
Hydropower |
$4,986 |
$7,489 |
$7,489 |
$0 |
0.00% |
|
|
Solar Energy Technology |
$87,107 |
$79,625 |
$79,693 |
$68 |
0.10% |
|
|
Wind |
$38,211 |
$44,000 |
$41,600 |
-$2,400 |
-5.50% |
|
|
Geothermal Technologies |
$27,035 |
$26,500 |
$25,500 |
-$1,000 |
-3.80% |
|
|
Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, &
Infrastructure |
$75,574 |
$97,381 |
$165,482 |
$68,101 |
69.90% |
|
|
FreedomCar and Vehicle
Technologies |
$181,352 |
$153,563 |
$157,623 |
$4,060 |
2.60% |
|
|
Building Technologies |
$64,449 |
$60,563 |
$56,563 |
-$4,000 |
-6.60% |
|
|
Distributed Energy |
$55,137 |
$54,784 |
$51,784 |
-$3,000 |
-5.50% |
|
|
Electricity Reliability |
$76,764 |
$76,506 |
$76,866 |
$360 |
0.50% |
|
|
FEMP |
$20,321 |
$26,425 |
$22,262 |
-$4,163 |
-15.80% |
|
|
Industrial Technologies |
$100,909 |
$91,477 |
$64,429 |
-$27,048 |
-29.60% |
|
|
Weatherization & Intergovernmental |
$329,861 |
$374,253 |
$369,460 |
-$4,793 |
-1.30% |
|
|
Program Direction/Management |
$100,115 |
$91,141 |
$93,241 |
$2,100 |
2.30% |
|
|
Other |
$4,870 |
$25,000 |
$29,450 |
$4,450 |
17.80% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Program Type |
Renewables |
$382,689 |
$407,000 |
$444,207 |
$37,207 |
9.10% |
|
|
Efficiency |
$896,464 |
$911,651 |
$875,793 |
-$35,858 |
-3.90% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
|
$1,279,153 |
$1,318,651 |
$1,320,000 |
$1,349 |
0.10% |
Fossil
Fuel
The Fossil Fuel
request as a whole is down 6.6 percent, or $53 million. Research
and Development funds remain flat at $533.3 million, while funding
decreases for fossil fuel reserves make up the bulk of the cuts. As
mentioned previously, the fossil energy budget request includes $5
million for a coal-to-hydrogen project and $6.5 million for a
natural gas-to-hydrogen project.
Nuclear
The
Nuclear Energy budget is up $60.7 million overall, or 18.6 percent.
The bulk of this increase is in the “Advanced Fuel Cycle” project
which garners an increase of $44.8 million, or 245.9 percent. This
project aims to “develop advanced technologies to optimize the
disposal of spent nuclear fuel by reducing its volume. In the long
term [it aims] to reduce the toxicity of nuclear waste and support
the future operation of next generation energy systems.” As
mentioned before this request also includes $4 million for a
hydrogen production initiative.
***Fusion research funding remains flat at $257.3 million.
Energy
Supply Investments (thousands
of dollars)
|
|
2003 Request |
2004 Request |
|
Renewables† |
$367,119 |
$356,225 |
|
|
|
|
|
Hydrogen* |
$171,381 |
$256,482 |
|
|
|
|
|
Fossil R&D |
$533,305 |
$533,305 |
|
Fossil Overall |
$799,992 |
$746,886 |
|
|
|
|
|
Nuclear R&D** |
$347,031 |
$384,335 |
|
Nuclear Overall** |
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