The DOE and Energy Secretary Steven Chu are probably going to have a tough time hanging onto research funding now that Republicans are gearing up to take over the House of Representatives next year. According to a New York Times article, the secretary can expect funding fights, increased oversight and resistance to his long-standing goals of supporting and promoting advanced energy research. And one prime target has got to be DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), the agency that funds and supports groundbreaking and transformational advanced research projects that could become the disruptive technologies of the smart grid's future — with the risk being that they, frankly, might not work out. The Times article notes that the turnover in the House promises discretionary spending cuts and that ARPA-E and others considered to be concentrating on long-shot projects could have a very hard time getting continued funding. The reasoning is that if the research is too far out there for private industry to back, there won't be much support for it on Capitol Hill. One of the aspects of the generally praised ARPA-E program has been its infusion of business and legal advisers into the science side of projects it funds. ARPA-E received $400 million in Recovery Act stimulus funding last year.
Quick Take: While ARPA-E isn't exactly a household word, its focus on advanced transformational research makes it a likely target when deficit trimming time comes. And it's likely to be only one of DOE's battles, as the NYT article points out. Read the article.
Stay connected with SGN …
Drop by our Smart Grid News Talk forums
Get LinkedIn with Jesse
Join Smart Grid News on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Try our RSS feed
Get our email digest
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
RSS
Talk Back
