Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
3/15/13
The Department of Energy’s acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Chris Smith told GHG Monitor this week that the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration are delaying many research activities that fall under the Office of Fossil Energy’s (FE) purview, but indicated that the office’s carbon capture and storage demonstration projects will largely remain unaffected. On the sidelines of a House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee hearing March 14, Smith said FE’s programs are going to see “some impacts which we’re going to have to manage.” “There’s some work that we’re doing at our Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center that involves workover wells that we’re going to have to delay which will lower the sale cost of that asset. There’s also some maintenance work that we’re going to have to delay at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that involves inspecting the well casings that we use to withdraw oil and put oil back into the caverns,” Smith said. But he clarified that FE’s eight major CCS demonstration projects—all of which are partially funded with money from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—will largely not be affected by the cuts. “Those projects are forward-funded,” he said. “We’re going to go forward to the best of our ability to make sure we’re able to meet our goals.”
More than $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts went into effect for all government programs on March 1. While the White House has released some top-line figures about how the sequester will affect different offices—the Office of Management and Budget estimated that DOE’s Fossil Energy R&D program will likely see a $25 million budget cut through the remainder of the fiscal year—few details have been released about the cuts’ impacts on individual projects.
Smith was on Capitol Hill this week testifying in front of a the Appropriations Subcommittee about funding for the Department’s applied energy programs along with DOE assistant secretaries for Nuclear Energy and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Pete Lyons and David Danielson, respectively. Without a Fiscal Year 2014 budget request from the Obama Administration to guide discussion, members of the subcommittee asked Smith questions about the work FE is doing to expand the production unconventional oil and gas resources and lower gas prices. Aside from a brief passing mention of CCS, little of the discussion focused on DOE’s advanced coal work. Also, perhaps surprisingly, little mention was given to the sequester during the hearing. Subcommittee member Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) was quick to point out the lack of discussion on the issue. “I don’t know of anybody on this committee or in Congress who thinks this is a smart idea,” he said. “But nevertheless this is where we are.”
