The year-end spending package released by Congress on Tuesday could deliver an influx of funding to several Department of Energy programs that may be pivotal for hitting the Biden administration’s climate targets.
The omnibus bill — which would fund the government at $1.7 trillion for fiscal 2023 — would provide $46.5 billion to DOE to “fund programs in its primary mission areas of science, energy, environment, and national security,” Senate appropriators said in an explanatory statement on the package. That’s an increase of roughly $1.7 billion from fiscal 2022 for the department.
The funds would support the department’s efforts to scale carbon capture and removal technologies, advance technologies aimed at boosting the resilience of the U.S. electricity system and reduce emissions from heavy industry like steel and concrete, among other initiatives.
The bipartisan legislation could receive a final vote later this week before lawmakers adjourn for the year. It represents the last opportunity for Congress to dole out funds to energy-focused agencies prior to Republicans’ taking over the House in January.
Under the plan, DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management would receive $890 million, a $65 million increase from fiscal 2022. The agency’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would get $3.5 billion, a $260 million uptick from last year (E&E Daily, Dec. 20).
The Office of Electricity, which oversees policy for resilience and security of regional electric grids, would also get a boost. It would receive $350 million, a $73 million bump from last year. About $95 million of that pot would go toward energy storage technologies.
In addition to money for DOE, the package would expand funding for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent agency with oversight of electric power markets and natural gas pipelines. FERC would get $508.4 million, up from $466.4 million in fiscal 2022.
Here are three ways the spending bill would affect energy:
Carbon capture and removal
The omnibus would provide $140 million for research, development and demonstration of carbon dioxide removal technologies across multiple offices — with DOE’s fossil office set to receive “not less than” half of that funding, according to the report from Senate appropriators.
Additionally, the bill calls for the creation of a pilot procurement program for the purchase of CO2 that’s been removed from either the atmosphere or the upper hydrosphere.
“Procurement of carbon removal services would be something that the government has never done before, but they are the biggest purchaser of goods and services in the world, so they have the capacity to contribute to a vision like that,” said Danny Broberg, a senior policy analyst for the energy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank.
Broberg said the funds would give DOE the flexibility to pull from existing authorizations to craft “a carbon removal procurement program.”
In addition to carbon removal, the omnibus encourages DOE to prioritize funding for carbon capture projects and research that “look to reduce the cost of these technologies for commercial deployment.”
The bill would provide at least $15 million for research and optimization of carbon capture technologies at industrial facilities and at least $20 million for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies for natural gas power systems, according to congressional documents.
The legislation also dedicated funding for front-end engineering and design studies, “including for the development of a first-of-its-kind carbon capture project at an existing natural gas combined cycle plant, large pilot projects, and demonstration projects,” the Senate report said.
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