#27

270 Energy:Eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Savings in Millions of Dollars
  • 2016
    1930
  • 2017
    1937
  • 2018
    1941
  • 2019
    1964
  • 2020
    2010
  • 2021
    2054
  • 2022
    2098
  • 2023
    2155
  • 2024
    2197
  • 2025
    2238
  • 2016-2020
    9782
  • 2016-2025
    20524

Sources

Savings are expressed as budget authority and were calculated by using the FY 2014 enacted spending levels as found on page 93 of House of Representatives, 113th Congress, 2nd Session, “Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill, 2015.” The FY 2014 enacted spending was increased at the same rate as discretionary spending for 2016–2025, according to the CBO’s most recent August 2014 baseline spending projections.

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Technical Notes on Scoring

CBO Baseline

Unless otherwise noted, calculations for savings for each recommendation relies on the most recent Congressional Budget Office baseline, as found in “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024,” published August 27, 2014, has been used.

Savings “Totals”

While totals for the five and 10 year savings are provided by section and for the complete set of recommendations, there are two reasons they should not be viewed as representing total savings for The Budget Book.

First, as noted in the introduction, The Heritage Foundation would recommend that the savings realized in the Function 050 Defense section would stay within the Department of Defense to strengthen the nation’s defense capabilities.

Second, the numbers cannot be deemed to represent the realized savings if every single recommendation were adopted because policy changes made in one program can impact spending levels in other programs.  Thus, the numbers in the table do not reflect any potential interactions between the various policy changes affecting spending or savings.

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Heritage Recommendation:

Eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). This proposal saves $1.9 billion in 2016, and $20.5 billion over 10 years.

Rationale:

Keep energy innovation in the private sector for innovation & market growth.

EERE funds research and development of what the government deems clean-energy technologies—hydrogen technology, wind energy, solar energy, biofuels and bio-refineries, geothermal power, vehicle technology, and building and weatherization technologies, most of which have been in existence for decades. Promoting these technologies is not an investment in basic research, but mere commercialization. Congress should eliminate EERE.

All of this spending is for activities that the private sector should undertake if companies believe it is in their economic interest to do so. The reality is that the market opportunity for clean-energy investments already exists if it is economically viable. Americans spent $481 billion on gasoline in 2011. Both the electricity and the transportation-fuels markets are multitrillion-dollar markets. The global market for energy totals $6 trillion. With such a robust, consistent demand, any clean-energy technology that can capture a part of that market share will make tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars annually.

Keep energy innovation in the private sector for innovation & market growth.

Contributing Expert

Nicolas (Nick) Loris, an economist, focuses on energy, environmental and regulatory issues as the Herbert and Joyce Morgan fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

See publications by Nicolas Loris

Nicolas (Nick) LorisHerbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow

Heritage Experts

Jack Spencer oversees Heritage Foundation research on a wide range of domestic economic issues as director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. Those topics include federal spending, taxes, energy and environment, regulation and retirement savings.

See publications by Jack Spencer

Jack SpencerVice President for the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity

Katie Tubb is a Research Associate and Coordinator in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies

See publications by Katie Tubb

Katie TubbResearch Associate and Coordinator

Additional Reading