United States Department of Energy


United States
Department of Energy
Seal of the Department of Energy
Seal of the Department of Energy
Agency overview
Formed August 4, 1977
Preceding agencies Energy Research and Development Administration
 
Federal Energy Administration
Employees 16,000 federal (2009)[1]
93,094 contract (2008)
Annual budget $24.1 billion (2009)
Agency executives Steven Chu, Secretary
 
Vacant, Deputy Secretary.
Website
www.energy.gov

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material. Its responsibilities include the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production. DOE also sponsors more basic and applied scientific research than any other US federal agency; most of this is funded through its system of United States Department of Energy National Laboratories.

The agency is administered by the United States Secretary of Energy, and its headquarters are located in southwest Washington, D.C., on Independence Avenue in the Forrestal Building, named for James Forrestal, as well as in Germantown, Maryland.

Contents

History

Many federal agencies have been established to manage various government sectors, dating back to the creation of the Manhattan Project and the subsequent Atomic Energy Commission. The impetus for putting them all under the auspices of a single department was the 1973 energy crisis, in response to which President Jimmy Carter proposed creation of the department. The enabling legislation was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Carter on August 4, 1977. The department began operations on October 1, 1977.

Operating units

DOE headquarters
United States Department of Energy seal as seen at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is an independent agency in the United States Department of Energy. It is the source for official energy statistics from the U.S. Government. EIA collects, analyzes, and publishes data as directed by law to ensure efficient markets, inform policy-making, and support public understanding of energy.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is part of the United States Department of Energy. It works to improve national security through the military application of nuclear energy. The NNSA also maintains and improves the safety, reliability, and performance of the United States nuclear weapons stockpile, including the ability to design, produce, and test, in order to meet national security requirements.

The Department's Office of Secure Transportation (OST) provides safe and secure transportation of nuclear weapons and components and special nuclear materials, and conducts other missions supporting the national security of the United States of America. Since 1974, OST has been assigned responsibility to develop, operate, and manage a system for the safe and secure transportation of all government-owned, DOE or NNSA controlled special nuclear materials in "strategic" or "significant" quantities. Shipments are transported in specially designed equipment and are escorted by armed Federal Agents (Nuclear Material Couriers).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an independent regulatory agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. The Department also manages the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Office of Science

The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, providing more than 40 percent of total funding for this vital area of national importance.[2].

The Office of Science will invest $777 million over the next five years (from 2009) in 46 new Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs). The EFRCs will be established at universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms across the nation, drawing in part on funds provided by the Recovery Act, while also depending on future Congressional appropriations. Twenty EFRCs will focus on renewable energy.[3]

Facilities

Responsibility for nuclear weapons

In the United States, all nuclear weapons deployed by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) are actually on loan to DoD from the DOE/NNSA, which has federal responsibility for the design, testing and production of all nuclear weapons. NNSA in turn uses contractors to carry out its responsibilities at the following government owned sites:

Controversy

During the Wen Ho Lee scandal, involving stolen nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National Laboratory, hearings were called in Congress regarding the Department of Energy's handling of the matter. Republican senators thought that an independent agency should be in charge of nuclear weapons and security issues, not the Department of Energy.[4] Federal officials, including then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, had publicly named Lee as a suspect in the theft of classified nuclear documents before he was charged with a crime; he was later cleared of the spying charges and won a settlement with the federal government.[5]

Related legislation

Hierarchy of the U.S. Department of Energy

Budget

President Barack Obama unveiled on May 7 a $26.4 billion budget request for DOE for fiscal year (FY) 2010, including $2.3 billion for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The budget aims to substantially expand the use of renewable energy sources while improving energy transmission infrastructure. It also makes significant investments in hybrids and plug-in hybrids, in smart grid technologies, and in scientific research and innovation. [6]

As part of the recent $789 billion economic stimulus package, Congress has provided Energy with $38.3 billion for the next two years, adding about 75 percent to Energy's annual budgets. Most of the stimulus spending will be in the form of grants and contracts. Yet, according to Robert Alvarez, "Even with additional stimulus money, spending for bombs and cleanup will still exceed those for actual energy-related functions. Spending for the weapons complex is currently comparable to that during the height of the nuclear arms race in the 1950s. The big difference now — half of that money is spent dealing with the Cold War's environmental legacy[7]."

Energy Savings Performance Contract

Main article: Energy Savings Performance Contract

Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) are contracts under which a contractor designs, constructs, and obtains the necessary financing for an energy savings project, and the federal agency makes payments over time to the contractor from the savings in the agency's utility bills. The contractor guarantees the energy improvements will generate savings, and after the contract ends, all continuing cost savings accrue to the federal agency [8].

Loan Guarantee Program

Main article: Loan guarantee

Title XVII of Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorizes the U.S. Department of Energy to issue loan guarantees to eligible projects that "avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases" and "employ new or significantly improved technologies as compared to technologies in service in the United States at the time the guarantee is issued". [9]

In loan guarantees, a conditional commitment requires to meet an equity commitment, as well as other conditions, before the loan guarantee is closed. [10]

Energy Innovation Hubs

Energy Innovation Hubs are multi-disciplinary meant to advance highly promising areas of energy science and technology from their early stages of research to the point that the risk level will be low enough for industry to commercialize the technologies. [11]

The DOE budget includes $280 million to fund eight Energy Innovation Hubs, each of which is focused on a particular energy challenge. Two of the eight hubs are included in the EERE budget and will focus on integrating smart materials, designs, and systems into buildings to better conserve energy and on designing and discovering new concepts and materials needed to convert solar energy into electricity. Another two hubs, included in the DOE Office of Science budget, will tackle the challenges of devising advanced methods of energy storage and creating fuels directly from sunlight without the use of plants or microbes. Yet another hub will develop "smart" materials that will allow the electrical grid to adapt and respond to changing conditions. [12]

Failing its own energy audit

In 2009, the Wall St. Journal reported that the Department of Energy had failed its own energy audit. The journal quoted the audit as saying, "While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) noted that shutting down a computer monitor when not in use is one of the easiest things a user can do to save energy, we found that … each of the 20 computers reviewed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) were set to never turn off the monitor after a period of non-use. At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), 8 of 18 computers were set to turn the monitor off after 48 hours, 144 times the recommended standard."[13] The results of the audit can be read here.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.cfo.doe.gov/CF1-2/2008CR.pdf
  2. ^ http://www.er.doe.gov/about/index.htm
  3. ^ http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/EFRC.html
  4. ^ Plotz, David (June 23, 2000). "Energy Secretary Bill Richardson". Slate.com. http://www.slate.com/id/84864/. Retrieved on 2008-11-07. 
  5. ^ Mears, Bill (May 22, 2006). "Deal in Wen Ho Lee case may be imminent". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/22/scotus.wenholee/. Retrieved on 2008-11-07. 
  6. ^ http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12509
  7. ^ Is the Energy Department Ready to Reboot the Country?, Institute for Policy Studies, March 27, 2009
  8. ^ http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12163
  9. ^ http://www.lgprogram.energy.gov/features.html
  10. ^ http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12360
  11. ^ http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12509
  12. ^ http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12509
  13. ^ Energy Department Fails its Own Energy Audit, Wall St. Journal, June 8, 2009

External links

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