# Trump seeks "sever" 70% cut to renewable energy funding



## Curt Renz (May 22, 2017)

Electrek - yesterday: https://electrek.co/2019/03/07/trump-cut-renewable-funding/


----------



## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Since I never trust government programs, I have to ask the question: Where does that money _actually_ go? Do they pay for EV or solar rebates, or actual power generation facilities, or is it $1.3 billion funding to bureaucracy that has nothing to do with actual renewable energy? If it's the latter, I'd rather have that money go into actual building of renewable power, and actual rebates for it. I don't really care which political party does it.

I feel like the word "renewable" in government has gotten to be like "blockchain" in investing. It's just a buzzword they use to get people to throw money at them.


----------



## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

Ins't that just precious? 
Bless his little heart!


----------



## Dr. J (Sep 1, 2017)

JasonF said:


> Since I never trust government programs, I have to ask the question: Where does that money _actually_ go? Do they pay for EV or solar rebates, or actual power generation facilities, or is it $1.3 billion funding to bureaucracy that has nothing to do with actual renewable energy? If it's the latter, I'd rather have that money go into actual building of renewable power, and actual rebates for it. I don't really care which political party does it.
> 
> I feel like the word "renewable" in government has gotten to be like "blockchain" in investing. It's just a buzzword they use to get people to throw money at them.


From the DOE link in the article:

_To date, third-party evaluations have assessed one-third of EERE's research and development portfolio and found that an EERE taxpayer investment of $12 billion has already yielded an estimated net economic benefit to the United States of more than $230 billion, with an overall annual return on investment of more than 20%. _

*STRATEGIC GOALS*
EERE aims to achieve the following strategic goals:


Accelerate the development and adoption of sustainable transportation technologies.
_Through improvements in engine efficiency, vehicle weight reduction, battery performance, drop-in biofuels, fuel cell performance, and reduced biofuel and hydrogen production costs, EERE can meet this goal. This includes supporting advanced vehicles and alternative fuels._
Increase the generation of electric power from renewable sources.
_Through reducing the cost of hydropower and solar, wind, wave and tidal, and geothermal power, EERE can increase renewable generation._
Improve the energy efficiency of our homes, buildings, and industries.
_EERE has set milestones for providing energy savings of 25%-50% by 2020-2030. By developing new materials, technologies and processes for American homes, buildings, and industry, EERE will implement minimumenergy performance standards, improve building energy codes, and support home weatherization._
Stimulate the growth of a thriving domestic clean energy manufacturing industry.
_Through reducing the life-cycle energy consumption of EERE-targeted manufactured goods by 50% by 2025, EERE will encourage the manufacture of clean energy technologies in the United States._
Enable the integration of clean energy into a reliable, resilient, and efficient electricity grid.
_Through new grid-support technologies, as well as standards, test procedures, sensors, communication protocols, cyber security, and resilience these technologies need, EERE can meet clean energy goals._
Lead efforts to improve federal sustainability and implementation of clean energy solutions.
_Through EERE technical support to all federal agencies and federal agency access to third-party financing, EERE can help federal agencies to be early leaders in deploying clean energy._
Enable a high-performing, results-driven culture through effective management approaches and processes.
_Through enhancing and maintaining EERE's workforce and establishing clear plans to deliver on EERE's mission, the organization will see a high-performing culture._
Though there are probably some direct subsidies there, it appears to be a lot of grant funding for technology improvements. Direct subsidies often are not the most efficient route to the discovery and implementation of new technology, which seems to be the core mission of this government agency.

Edit: You might also be interested in The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis, which goes into detail about why the Department of Energy in particular is an important government bureaucracy. There's an appalling description of how unprepared the Trump transition team was to take over DOE, but Rick Perry (of all people) has turned out to be a surprisingly good cabinet member, by some accounts. Who knew?


----------

