Washington, DC - Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz detailed President Barack Obama’s $30 billion Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Request for the Energy Department.  This Budget continues the Administration’s efforts to invest in America’s future, making critical investments in research, energy and infrastructure that will help support continued economic growth and job creation, in national and energy security, and in addressing the environmental legacy of the Cold War.

“The President’s Budget Request reflects the Department’s commitment to promoting an all-of-the-above energy strategy that meets our economic and environmental objectives through innovative science, technology and analysis,” said Secretary Moniz. “It also reflects the President’s commitment to maintaining our strategic deterrent without testing and to reducing the danger of having nuclear materials in the wrong hands.”

The FY 2016 Budget Request represents a nine percent increase above the FY 2015 enacted level, reflecting the importance of the Department’s work enabling the transition to a low-carbon secure energy future through the development of low-cost all-of-the-above energy technologies and providing the backbone for America’s research community as the foundation for discovery and innovation. It also continues important work to protect public health and safety through the Department’s commitment to cleaning up the Cold War legacy from nuclear weapons production while also maintaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear weapons stockpile and advancing the President’s commitment to controlling and eliminating nuclear materials worldwide.

Included in the Budget are $257 million to modernize and operate the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and $5.34 billion to strengthen the Department’s world-leading discovery research across the sciences. The Budget also includes $4.8 billion to address the challenges for continued technological innovation to reduce cost and enhance performance, educate and train the workforce for tomorrow’s energy economy, and modernizing our domestic energy infrastructure for the 21st century economy.

The Budget Request also expands the cross-cutting program initiatives introduced in the President’s FY 2015 Budget Request that tap the Department’s full capability to effectively and efficiently address the national energy, environmental, and security challenges.  To focus resources and management coordination on new and ongoing R&D, the Department is proposing crosscutting initiatives funded in various program offices and managed jointly:

• Grid Modernization: Technology development, enhanced security, and stakeholder support to enable evolution to the grid of the future ($356M).
• Supercritical CO2: Establish a 10 megawatt scale pilot Supercritical Transformational Electric Power facility ($44M).
• Subsurface Engineering: Investment in new wellbore systems, seismic research, and other areas supporting a wide variety of energy sources ($244M).
• Energy-Water Nexus: Technology investment and policy support to increase efficiency of these interdependent resources ($38M).
• Exascale Computing: Investments to provide a significant improvement in computing speed and the applications to use it ($273M).
• Cybersecurity: Activities to strengthen the protection of DOE from cyber attacks, bolster the Nation’s capabilities to address cyber threats, and improve the cybersecurity of the energy sector ($305M).

Highlights in the FY 2016 Budget include:

• $2.72 billion for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to continue a diverse suite of sustained investment in development of renewable generation technologies, sustainable transportation technologies, and development of manufacturing technologies and enhanced energy efficiency in our homes, buildings and industries. 
• $325 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy to continue research and development of transformational clean energy technologies.
• $907.6 million for Nuclear Energy for research and development in advanced reactor and fuel cycle technologies as well as small modular reactor licensing technical support. 
• $560 million for Fossil Energy Research and Development to advance carbon capture and storage and natural gas technologies.
• $270.1 million for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability grid modernization activities to support a smart, resilient electric grid for the 21st century and fund critical emergency response and grid security capabilities. 
• $257 million for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to operate and increase the system’s durability and reliability and begin addressing the backlog of deferred maintenance.
• $5.34 billion for Science to continue to lead basic research in the physical sciences and develop and operate cutting-edge scientific user facilities while strengthening the connection between advances in fundamental science and technology innovation.
• $8.8 billion for Weapons Activities to ensure a safe, secure, and effective nuclear stockpile, and sustain nuclear security research and development.
• $1.9 billion for nuclear nonproliferation activities that will continue to reduce global stocks of weapons-useable nuclear materials.
• $5.8 billion for Environmental Management to address the legal and moral obligations to clean up the legacy of the Cold War, including $248 million to maintain critical progress toward returning the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to normal operations, with the goal of restarting limited operations early in 2016.

To view the FY2016 Energy Department Fact Sheet, Click Here.

To view  the FY2016 Energy Department Budget Documents, Click here.