Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

The US DOE: To Be or Not to Be in Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy world: Without exception, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is all about Atomic Energy Defense (AED). Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), on the other hand, are far from mission-critical. To the extent that the DOE’s 2016 budget request allocates 63 percent to AED activities and only 9 percent to EERE, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs seem to make good publicity and little else (See Figure 1).

The argument is not whether AED is more important than EERE; rather it is a question of the horsepower behind EERE, and DOE’s performance in ensuring America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.

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