President calls on US$878 million for fossil energy

President Obama’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget includes a programmatic level of US$878 million for the Office of Fossil Energy (FE), including the use of US$240 million in prior year funds, to advance technologies related to the reliable, efficient, affordable and environmentally sound use of fossil fuels, implement ongoing federal responsibilities at the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves, and manage the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve and Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to provide strategic and economic security against disruptions in US petroleum supplies.

The President’s request includes US$600 million for fossil energy research and development (FER&D), including the use of US$240 million in prior year funds from existing Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) projects that have not reached financial close. Of this total, US$564 million is targeted to support Mission Innovation, an initiative launched by the US and 19 other countries to accelerate widespread clean energy technology innovation and cost reduction. It is a widely shared view that innovation is essential for economic growth by providing affordable and reliable energy for everyone, is critical for energy security, enhances US competitiveness, and is the key to a transition to a low carbon energy future.

The FY 2017 request also includes US$257 million for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, US$14.95 million for the Naval Petroleum Reserves, and US$6.5 million, as well as use of US$4 million in prior year balances, for the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.

The FY 2017 Budget will allow fossil energy (FE) to provide the nation with the best opportunity to tap the full potential of its abundant energy resources in an environmentally sound and affordable manner, and to ensure America’s readiness to respond to short term energy supply disruptions.

The FY 2017 request reflects a restructuring of the FER&D budget to streamline the structure, align sub-programmes that support related efforts under the same programme, and provide a more comprehensive view of the costs associated with NETL. Importantly, one of the key motivations for the structural change is to eliminate the categorisation by fuel type, which is no longer appropriate for this research and development (R&D) portfolio. The new budget structure reflects the fact that the carbon capture storage (CCS) and advanced power systems programme supports CCS technologies, storage best practices, and innovative power systems integrated with CCS that are applicable to both coal and natural gas generation.

The FY 2017 budget includes a total of US$600 million for FER&D, including the use of US$240 million in prior year funds. This programme advances technologies to enable the reliable, efficient, affordable, and environmentally sound use of fossil fuels, which are essential to US security and economic prosperity. FER&D also manages previously funded major CCS demonstration projects.

The President’s FY 2017 budget requests US$170.3 million for carbon capture R&D. This R&D is focused on the development of post combustion and pre-combustion CO² capture and compression technologies for new and existing fossil fuel-fired power plants and industrial sources. Under the budget restructuring, this subprogramme also now includes advanced combustion technologies that facilitate CCS.

FY 2017 funding will enable selection of one additional large scale post combustion capture pilot and will fund a total of three large scale post combustion pilots. Funding will also enable continued transformational R&D technology development for pre and post combustion capture. The programme will also support a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study and initial construction of a large pilot facility to capture CO² from a natural gas power system. The increase in FY 2017 funding will support two additional (four total) FEED studies for advanced combustion systems.

Adapted from press release by Francesca Brindle

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