Energy office nets $2 billion in appropriations

The appropriations bill signed by President Obama this month includes $1.93 billion in funding for the Dept. of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) for fiscal year 2009, which runs through the end of September.

The funding represents a 13.5% increase over funding for the previous fiscal year. Although FY 2009 actually started in October 2008, DOE and many other federal agencies have been operating under a continuing resolution, awaiting congressional action on the appropriations act. Spending levels had been on par with the previous fiscal year; however, the president’s stimulus package provided a one-time injection of $16.8 billion into the EERE budget. In total, the stimulus and appropriations funding has brought the EERE budget to an 11-fold increase over FY 2008.

Among the items in the act:
* Building technologies; $140 million, including $33 million for the Commercial Buildings Initiative and $25 million for solid-state lighting
* Geothermal energy: $44 million
* Funding for hydrogen technology at $169 million, including $3 million for fuel processors and $5 million for manufacturing
* Biomass energy funding stands at $217 million
* Solar energy will receive $175 million, including $30 million for concentrating solar power
* Wind energy technology will get $55 million
* Hydroelectric power: $40 million
* Vehicle technologies: $273 million, including $25 million for the Clean Cities program.

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