The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and other renewable energy groups including the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) have submitted a joint letter to the U.S. Congress expressing serious concern regarding proposed cuts to the Department of Energy (DOE)’s budget for FY19 and encouraging continued current funding levels for vital DOE programs in FY18 appropriations:
Dear Chairmen Cochran and Frelinghuysen and Ranking Members Leahy and Lowey,
We write to express the serious concern of the U.S. renewable energy industry regarding proposed cuts to the Department of Energy (DOE)’s budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, and to encourage you to continue current funding levels for vital DOE programs in FY 2018 appropriations.
At a time when global competitors are drastically increasing research and development funding for renewable energy technologies, the Administration has proposed cutting more than $1.9 billion from programs supporting energy innovation and deployment, a 43 percent decrease from current annualized funding levels. The proposed budget includes a $1.3 billion (66 percent) cut to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and an elimination of the Advanced Research Programs Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) program.
We believe that such cuts in FY 2018 or FY 2019 would seriously jeopardize America’s leadership in cutting-edge research on clean energy technologies and harm our country’s overall competitiveness in a rapidly growing global industry that presents a multi-trillion-dollar business opportunity.
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