Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
from renewable sources. Consideration has also been given to either a carbon tax
or a carbon cap and trade program to reduce the environmental impact of carbon
emissions and to better enable the market to compare total costs of conventional
fossil energy sources with advanced energy technologies. Many states and foreign
governments have enacted energy portfolio standards, mandates, and financial
incentives to stimulate the deployment of renewable energy technologies that
address their growing energy needs and environmental concerns. In particular, 29
states have established renewable portfolio standards requiring or encouraging
that a fixed percentage of the state's electricity be generated from renewable
sources. For example, in response to the Texas renewable portfolio standard's
requirement that 5,880 megawatts of renewable capacity be installed by 2015,
electric power companies had installed over 1,900 megawatts of new renewable
capacity by September 2006—about 3 percent of Texas' total electricity
consumption. Similarly, to develop a sustainable energy supply and protect the
environment, Germany established a goal to increase the share of renewable
energy consumption to at least 4.2 percent of its total energy requirements by
2010 and 10 percent by 2020.
Within this broader context, I will discuss today (1) funding trends for DOE's
renewable, fossil, and nuclear energy R and D programs and its Office of Science
and (2) key challenges in developing and deploying advanced energy
technologies. My remarks are primarily based on our December 2006 report on
key challenges to developing and deploying advanced technologies for using
renewable, fossil, and nuclear energy.[7] I will also highlight findings from our
recent reports on DOE's R and D for oil and natural gas and the Hydrogen Fuel
Initiative.[8] We conducted our work for these reports from October 2005 through
December 2007 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and
conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained
provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit
objectives.
In summary, DOE's budget authority for renewable, fossil, and nuclear
energy R and D dropped by 92 percent (in inflation-adjusted terms) between fiscal
years 1978 and 1998 before bouncing back in part during the past 10 years.
Specifically, DOE's budget authority for renewable, fossil, and nuclear energy R
and D of about $6 billion was near its high point in fiscal year 1978, when the
nation faced severe energy crises. DOE's budget authority subsequently declined
in the 1980s and 1990s as energy prices returned to historical levels reaching its
lowest level in fiscal year 1998 at $505 million (in inflation-adjusted terms). Since
