Appropriators in the House and Senate agree that the administration’s fiscal 2017 budget request underfunds fossil energy research and development, though they don’t appear to be on the same page regarding by exactly how much. Appropriations subcommittees in both chambers Wednesday reported out spending bills rejecting the administration’s proposed cut of $32 million to Department of Energy fossil energy research and development programs. Fossil energy R&D was budgeted at $632 million in the current budget.
While the House energy and water funding bill increased spending by $45 million above the requested $600 million, the Senate simply refused to cut funding from the programs, keeping the dollar amount at $632 million. “This bill rejects the budget request’s proposal to reduce investment in the energy sources that we rely on today. Within energy programs, the recommendation rebalances the portfolio to provide a true all-of-the-above energy strategy,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), chairman of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, said during the panel’s markup.
The Senate energy and water funding bill will go before the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday morning. The House Appropriations Committee has not scheduled its markup of its version of the legislation.
House Rejects TCEP Funding Cut
Simpson made clear in his opening statements on the House side that his subcommittee has also rejected the administration’s proposal to reallocate $240 million of funding for the Texas Clean Energy Project under the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) to new, smaller demonstrations of innovative clean coal technology. “This bill rejects this proposal, instead providing $645 million for fossil energy research and development to ensure the nation is utilizing its abundant fossil energy resources as efficiently and safely as possible,” Simpson said.
The status of the project was not immediately clear in the Senate bill, which was not made public Wednesday.
Summit Power Group is developing TCEP, a 400-megawatt coal integrated gasification combined cycle facility, located outside of Odessa, Texas, that will incorporate carbon capture and storage. The project is forecast to cost $2.5 billion in total and to begin operations in 2019.
This is not the first time DOE has cut TCEP funding. The project was to receive $450 million in total funding from the department. Of that, $211 million was awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. DOE returned $104 million of the ARRA funding to the Treasury Department on Sept. 30, 2015, because it was not spent by the statutory deadline. The $240 million repurposed in the White House fiscal 2017 budget request was the last of TCEP’s DOE funding.
