Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
6/13/2014
Funding for the Department of Energy’s fossil energy research activities would receive a small boost under the House version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill reported out of subcommittee this week. The bill would provide $593 million, up 6 percent from current funding levels and 20 percent more than DOE’s budget request. “Within energy programs, the recommendation rebalanced the portfolio to provide greater emphasis on improving the efficiency of energy sources that we’re using today and into the future. Especially with greater regulation pressures on our coal and nuclear plants, it’s incumbent upon us to provide support to help keep electricity costs manageable for our ratepayers while helping industry cope with these dramatic and challenging regulatory actions,” House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said at this week’s markup hearing.
Details on the funding levels in the House bill were not made available this week, though the measure could be considered by the full Appropriations Committee as early as next week. DOE’s FY 2015 budget request called for $302.4 million for coal research, a 23 percent decrease from 2014 enacted levels. With the exception of an additional $25 million for natural gas carbon capture and storage demonstration projects, the request cut funding to every coal program. Under the request, funding for Carbon Capture would have been cut 16 percent, Carbon Storage would have been cut 26 percent, Advance Energy Systems would have been cut 49 percent and the National Energy Technology Laboratory Coal Research and Development program would have been cut 32 percent from 2014 enacted levels.
Amendments Blocking EPA Regulations Anticipated
Perhaps the most ominous threat to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently released proposal to reduce emissions from existing power plants is the possibility of language being added to one of next year’s appropriations bills blocking it from going into effect. “We’ll be on the look-out for riders on the EPA’s budget. They only last for a year but they’d preclude the EPA from working on something like this for a year, so a budget rider would be problematic. I’m sure there are people who are doing that, so we’re looking closely at budget riders,” said Conrad Schneider, Advocacy Director at the Clean Air Task Force.
Most of these potential riders would likely be attached to the Interior appropriations bill, which directly funds the EPA, though some may also be attempted to get added to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill. “Most of [the amendments] would probably come on the interior bill, I would suspect. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see some amendments coming on our bill,” Simpson said on the sidelines of this week’s hearing. The potential effect of such a rider is unknown, Simpson said. “We’ll take it up when amendments are offered and see what comes out.”
