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DOE RELEASES FY'1997 BUDGET
DOE RELEASES BUDGET REQUEST FOR FISCAL YEAR 1997
BUDGET CALLS FOR INCREASES TO RENEWABLES, EFFICIENCY
CONTINUES SPENDING ON FISSION, FUSION, AND PYROPROCESSING
The Department of Energy today released its budget request for
fiscal year 1997. The request includes significant increases for
developing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies
that would put spending on par with 1995 levels. Unfortunately,
the budget request also includes additional spending on a number
of wasteful programs in nuclear fission and fails to keep the
fusion energy program in check.
DOE's budget now goes to Congress where it will be considered by
Appropriators as they prepare spending bills for FY'97. The
House Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee (covers
renewables, nuclear power and fusion) is scheduled to mark up a
bill in late April or May. Senate Appropriations will likely
move slower. The Interior Appropriations bill (covers fossil
energy and energy efficiency) will be more problematic. The
FY'96 spending bill stalled over negotiations with the President
over a number of controversial program areas, one of which was
energy efficiency. As a result, funding for efficiency and
fossil has occurred through the various continuing resolutions
passed to prevent the government from shutdown.
The numbers announced today are as follows:
PROGRAM FY'95 FY'96 FY'97 CHANGE
REQUEST FROM FY96
RENEWABLE ENERGY $394 $273 $369 +35.2%
ENERGY EFFICIENCY $717 $539* $715 +32.7%
NUCLEAR FISSION $308 $252 $248 - 1.4%
NUCLEAR FUSION $333 $227 $256 +12.4%
FOSSIL FUELS $421 $422* $349 -17.3%
RADIOACTIVE WASTE $522 $400 $400 0.0%
*Conference number from FY'96 Interior Appropriations bill that
has yet to be signed by the President.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
DOE's budget calls for significant increases to solar buildings
(+157.5%), wind (+57.4%), biofuels (+50.7%) and photovoltaics
(+41.3%). Smaller increases were allocated to geothermal (+6.6%)
and electric energy systems & storage (+5.2%). Areas to be
reduced include solar thermal (-2.1%), resource assessment (-
100%) and hydrogen (-24.1%). If approved, this budget would be
the second highest since 1983 (surpassed only in 1995).
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
All areas of energy efficiency are slated for increases in FY'97,
with the largest going to: federal energy management (+72.2%),
building technologies (+60.8%), industrial programs (+37.9%) and
transportation (+25.3%). State grants, slashed in FY'96, got a
40.8% increase, though they would still be far below 1995 levels.
If approved, this budget would be the second highest since 1981
(surpassed only in 1995).
NUCLEAR FISSION
Funding for the Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR) Program,
attacked by consumer, taxpayer and environmental groups as
textbook corporate welfare, is set at $40 million for FY'97.
DOE now claims that ALWR support, which provides money to General
Electric, Westinghouse, and Asea Brown Boveri, will continue
through at least FY'98 and probably until FY'99.
Pyroprocessing, or "electrometallurgical refining" of spent
nuclear fuel at Argonne-West in Idaho, is listed at $30 million
(up $5 million from FY'96). In adddition, at least $20 million
of $72 million dedicated to termination of the Advanced Liquid
Metal Reactor will be used for pyroprocessing, bringing the total
to $50 million.
NUCLEAR FUSION
Cuts to fusion in FY'96 have forced DOE to refocus the program
and terminate the proposed Tokamak Physics Experiment. Increases
in FY'97 would be used to continue participation in the
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)($55
million), a consortium with Russia, Japan and the European
Community. However, the budget states that the US will not seek
to host the construction of ITER due to the additional expense
involved. Ongoing installation of over $50 million of new
equipment at Princeton and General Atomics will continue in
FY'97. At a pre-release briefing for "stakeholders," DOE Deputy
Secretary Charles Curtis admitted that commercially viable fusion
is more than 45 years away.
RADIOACTIVE WASTE
The $400 million request would come equally from the Nuclear
Waste Fund and from general taxpayer revenues. DOE will focus on
determining in 1998 the viability of Yucca Mountain as a
permanent repository, with a license application planned for 2002
if Congress approves the site. Generic work on interim storage
could be done if authorizing legislation passes.
For more information on DOE's budget request, contact Matt
Freedman (cmep@citizen.org). Bill Magavern's statement on the
DOE budget follows.
--------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 19, 1996
CONTACT: Bill Magavern 202-546-4996
Matt Freedman cmep@citizen.org
"WHY KEEP FUNDING NUCLEAR PORK?"
STATEMENT OF BILL MAGAVERN
DIRECTOR, PUBLIC CITIZEN'S CRITICAL MASS ENERGY PROJECT
ON DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY'S 1997 BUDGET REQUEST
"The Department of Energy's budget request for fiscal year
1997 combines an admirable commitment to the energy efficiency
and renewable energy technologies of the future with a
bewildering attachment to the nuclear pork projects of yesterday.
At a time when its budget has been slashed and its very
existence criticized, the DOE continues to seek funding for
dangerous and expensive nuclear subsidies that benefit only a few
special interests. The Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR)
program is a textbook example of corporate welfare in which
taxpayers subsidize the regulatory fees of huge multinational
corporations like General Electric, Westinghouse and Asea Brown
Boveri. These reactor manufacturers are using federal dollars to
promote construction of new nuclear power plants which have no
domestic market and which, if built, would be as unsafe and
uneconomical as the existing reactors.
DOE continues promoting another piece of radioactive pork in
its plans for pyroprocessing, or "electrometallurgical treatment
of spent fuel." This plutonium reprocessing technology grew out
of DOE's ill-fated breeder reactor program, but hangs on as a way
to placate politicians in Illinois and Idaho. Pyroprocessing
would create additional hazardous wastes and raise significant
proliferation risks.
While its overall budget is going down, DOE unwisely fights
to increase funding for nuclear fusion, a technology that is at
least 45 years away from commercial viability. While the U.S.
should continue to fund some fusion research, investing in big
projects like the International Thermonuclear Experimental
Reactor (ITER) or in domestic tokamaks that generate large
quantities of radioactive waste is counterproductive.
All three of these spending programs have been targetted as
wasteful and environmentally harmful by the "Green Scissors"
coalition of environmental and taxpayer groups. Congress should
terminate the ALWR and pyroprocessing boondoggles, and cut back
on fusion funding, using the savings for efficiency, renewables
and deficit reduction."
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