Full Title: DOE Staff Crunch Slows American Energy Innovation
Author(s): Sam F. Savitz, Alex Kizer, and Sarah Frances Smith
Publisher(s): EFI Foundation
Publication Date: September 18, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
DOE Staff Crunch Slows American Energy Innovation (September 2025) explores the relationship between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) staffing levels and funding to catalyze and implement American energy innovation. This brief is part of EFI Foundation’s Modernizing American Energy Innovation series.
For decades, DOE has played a critical role in supporting American energy innovation and increasing U.S economic competitiveness in global markets. DOE was built to advance national goals, including the development of new energy resources, lowering costs to consumers, and building out America’s infrastructure.
In recent years, there has been broad support to expand DOE’s mission to fund projects across all “valleys of death” between innovation and commercial deployment. While the prior administration supported a broad suite of clean energy technologies, current DOE leadership is focusing its commercialization activities more narrowly on nuclear, geothermal, and critical minerals, among other technologies.
Regardless of the technology, DOE’s ability to efficiently move funding from appropriation to implementation relies on an adequately staffed team with the appropriate expertise. Despite the need for more rapid processing of awards, contracts, and loans to support the private sector, DOE is currently pursuing deep, unprecedented cuts to its staff. These cuts are part of a plan to “rein in bloated federal spending” even though DOE staff accounts for between 2-5% of its total budget.