US budget proposals spell fresh funding for renewables industry

The US renewable energy industry received a major boost yesterday as the release of new budget proposals from both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Interior (DOI) confirmed that billions of dollars of new investment will flow into the sector next year.

Presenting the DOE's $26.4bn budget for fiscal year 2010, energy secretary Steven Chu said the new spending programme reflected President Obama's "commitment to ending our dependence on foreign oil, restoring our scientific leadership and putting Americans back to work through investments in a new green energy economy".

The budget runs parallel to plans to invest a further $38.8bn (£26bn) of economic stimulus spending in clean energy projects and will see a massive increase in spending on low-carbon projects, including an 83 per cent year-on-year increase in investment in solar energy projects to $145m, a 60 per cent increase in spending on green buildings to $98m, a 36 per cent increase in wind energy investment to $20m and a 22 per cent increase in spending on low-carbon vehicles to $60m.

Significant budget increases were also awarded to scientific programmes, with Chu outlining plans for 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers at a cost of $100m and announcing $280m in funding for eight Energy Innovation Hubs.

The budget identified savings of more than $200m through funding cuts for deep water and unconventional oil and gas products, which Chu said the energy industry could carry out on its own, and a shift in vehicle research away from hydrogen fuel cells and towards "technologies with more immediate promise".

The DOI's $12bn budget similarly focused heavily on clean energy, including $183m in increased funding for clean energy projects on federal land and initiatives to mitigate the impacts of unavoidable climate change.

The budget came just days after interior secretary Ken Salazar unveiled plans for four new renewable energy permitting offices and a number of renewable energy teams across the country, designed to reduce red tape and accelerate the processing of applications for new renewable energy projects.

Meanwhile, the White House announced yesterday that it wanted to officially end work on the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear storage waste site and instead invest $197m in identifying alternative approaches for disposing of nuclear waste.

"All funding for development of the [Yucca Mountain] facility would be eliminated, such as further land acquisition, transportation access, and additional engineering," the administration said in its proposed government budget.