270 Energy

#23
Eliminate the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership

Manufacturers already know that energy is a significant input cost and will innovate to find ways to lower costs and gain a competitive advantage. Companies will make these investments if they believe that the technology is promising, worth the risk, and the best use of their investment dollars. American manufacturers and industrial companies will flourish … Continue reading Eliminate the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership

#24 & #25
Eliminate Department of Energy Loans and Loan Guarantees

The federal government should not be involved with investment decisions that are better left to the private sector. The government’s intervention in the market decreases the incentive to innovate, and increases the incentive to use the political process to lobby for handouts. Federal loans and loan guarantees promote cronyism that rewards political connectedness over market … Continue reading Eliminate Department of Energy Loans and Loan Guarantees

#26
Eliminate the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability

The OE pursues activities to modernize the nation’s grid; it is evident that much of the funding advances the Administration’s goals of promoting electric vehicles and renewable energy. In fact, the Administration recognizes, “Without development and deployment of ‘next generation’ electric transmission, distribution and customer technologies, the grid could become a barrier to the adoption … Continue reading Eliminate the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability

#27
Eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

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. … Continue reading Eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

#28
Reduce Office of Fossil Energy Funding

Most of the funding for fossil-energy research and development focuses on technologies that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and are activities that the private sector should carry out. The FE spends money on a clean-coal power initiative, on fuels and power systems to reduce fossil power plant emissions, innovations for existing plants, integrated gasification combined … Continue reading Reduce Office of Fossil Energy Funding

#29
Reduce Funding for the Office of Nuclear Energy

Like spending with conventional fuels and renewables, the Department of Energy spends entirely too much money on nuclear projects that should be conducted by the private sector. For example, the Office of Nuclear Energy includes tens of millions of dollars for small modular reactor (SMR) licensing and support programs. While SMRs have great potential, commercialization … Continue reading Reduce Funding for the Office of Nuclear Energy

#30
Eliminate Subsidies for 
Power Marketing Administrations

The DOE’s Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) consist of four power entities that sell electricity that stems primarily from hydroelectric power. Formed in the early 1900s, PMAs were set up to provide cheap electricity to rural areas, mostly small communities and farms. PMAs originated as federal water projects currently operated by the Army Corps of Engineers … Continue reading Eliminate Subsidies for 
Power Marketing Administrations

#31 & #32
Eliminate Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs

The Office of Science includes SBIR and STTR programs with the original intent to “increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from Federal R&D, thereby increasing competition, productivity, and economic growth.” ((DARPA, “Small Business Innovation Research Program,”  (accessed December 11, 2014).)) A recent overview of the SBIR and STTR programs stresses that the goal of … Continue reading Eliminate Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs

#33
Auction Off the Assets of the Tennessee Valley Authority

The TVA has had 80 years of independence from the oversight, review, and budgetary control of a more traditional federal agency, as well as from the rigors of operating as a private shareholder-owned utility. This lack of effective oversight from either the government or the private sector has resulted in costly decisions, excessive expenses, high … Continue reading Auction Off the Assets of the Tennessee Valley Authority