Science, Space and Technology Committee holds hearing on DOE budget for FY 2017

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology recently held a hearing on President Barack Obama’s budget request for the Department of Energy (DOE) for Fiscal Year 2017, during which committee members questioned DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz.

“The President refuses to make the tough choices necessary in a responsible budget environment,” U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who chairs the committee said. “Instead, the proposal reads like a wish-list for the White House’s political allies. It uses budget gimmicks to add more spending for expensive commercial technologies already available to American consumers or rejected by them in the market.”

Smith and other committee members grilled the secretary on the budget allowance for the Obama administration’s Mission Innovation, which would double federal spending on research and development for clean energy. While some members said the initiative lacked transparency, they were also supportive of the DOE’s basic research projects.

“As we shape the future of DOE, our priority must be basic energy research and development that only the federal government has the resources to pursue,” Smith said. “This will allow the private sector to move groundbreaking technology to the market across the energy spectrum, create jobs and help our economy.”