Full Title: Energizing Innovation: Raising the Ambition for Federal Energy RD&D in Fiscal Year 2022
Author(s): Colin Cunliff, Linh Nguyen
Publisher(s): Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
Publication Date: May 17, 2021
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Description (excerpt):
The fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget is a critical opportunity for Congress and the administration to rapidly scale up U.S. investment in energy innovation. In December, Congress provided a sweeping bipartisan overhaul of federal energy innovation programs in the Energy Act of 2020, paving the way for a major expansion in federal research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) to combat climate change and strengthen U.S. competitiveness. And members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have called for reinvigorating the national energy innovation system in order to reverse decades of declining investments and position the United States to thrive in a global clean energy transition. The Biden administration has followed suit, proposing a 27 percent boost in energy RD&D at the Department of Energy (DOE) in FY 2022 and a quadrupling of government-wide clean energy RD&D over the next four years.
Last year, the Information Technology and Information Foundation (ITIF) partnered with Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) to produce Energizing America: A Roadmap to Launch a National Energy Innovation Mission. This landmark volume calls on policymakers to triple investment in energy RD&D over five years, develops strategic principles for balancing the portfolio, and provides targeted recommendations for accelerating innovation across key decarbonization challenges.
This report builds on Energizing America and consolidates ITIF analysis of federal energy innovation programs and its recommendations to accelerate critical energy technologies. The summary herein provides an overview of federal energy innovation programs, including the key role of DOE in advancing energy technologies and the department’s impact on national energy systems. It assesses the significant updates to DOE’s program authorizations made in the Energy Act and the prospects for greater investment in the FY 2022 budget and appropriations cycle.
Companion to the summary herein are 21 short policy briefs that span DOE’s RD&D programs in renewable energy, transportation, energy efficiency, grid modernization, nuclear energy, fossil energy and carbon management, and basic sciences. Each brief includes a description of the DOE’s program and technology goals; what’s at stake and potential impacts of the program; historic and authorized funding levels; and targeted recommendations for Congress and DOE to accelerate innovation.