Senate Subcommittee completes mark up of DOE FY10 budget.
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Press Release Summary:
Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee has announced Chairman's mark that provides $190 million for hydrogen and fuel cells at DOE, restoring funding to FY2009 levels. According to Chairman Dorgan, Energy and Water Appropriations bill invests in efforts to reduce reliance on foreign oil and restores funding for hydrogen energy research. House Appropriations Committee also met to review proposed FY10 budget, which will proceed to House floor.
Original Press Release:
NHA Policy Update: Senate and House Markup Developments
The Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee (Senator Dorgan's Subcommittee) just finished marking up DOE's FY10 budget. The Chairman's mark that emerged from the Subcommittee provides a total of $190 million for hydrogen and fuel cells at DOE, largely restoring funding to FY2009 levels [the $68M that was in DOE's FY10 request for fuel cells would be included in that $190M]. We do not yet have further details on how the Senate Subcommittee would allocate this funding between sub-programs, etc., but we will continue to provide updates as soon as developments occur.
According to Chairman Dorgan:
"The Energy and Water Appropriations bill makes investments in our nation's efforts to develop safe, homegrown energy sources that will reduce our reliance on foreign oil. To enhance our nation's energy security, we've made short-term, mid-range, and long-term investments in building efficiency, vehicle technologies, wind, and solar energy programs. And, because ongoing research and development is necessary to develop game-changing technologies, this bill also restores funding for Hydrogen energy research."
A link to a summary of the Senate E&W Subcommittee's bill is available in the middle of this webpage: http://appropriations.senate.gov/energy.cfm
For a comparison, the Senate Subcommittee's $190 million compares to the current House total of $108 million for hydrogen and fuel cells (the $40M for 'hydrogen vehicle systems' in addition to the $68M that was in the DOE FY10 request for fuel cells).
The full House Appropriations Committee also met last night to review the proposed FY10 budget that was passed by their Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on June 25th. The budget the full committee agreed to contained the same $40 million increase for hydrogen transportation systems that the House E&W Subcommittee had added to the DOE FY10 proposed budget. The House budget will now proceed to the House floor, currently rumored to be expected sometime in mid-July. Once completed in both the House and Senate, any differences between the House and Senate budgets would need to be negotiated in a conference committee. We will continue to support FY09 budget funding levels, now encouraging support for the Senate E&W Subcommittee's version through Congress.
We will continue to provide you with updates as developments occur. Best regards,
Geoff Bromaghim
NHA Policy Staff
(202) 261-1326
bromaghimG@hydrogenassociation.org
Jerry Hinkle
Vice President, Policy and Government Affairs
(202) 261-1307
hinkleJ@hydrogenassociation.org
