The President's FY 2001 budget proposes over $1.4 billion for the research, development, and deployment of renewable energy technologies, energy efficient products and buildings that will help reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. This represents a $337 million increase (30 percent) over FY 2000 spending (see Table 3). The President's proposed investment package covers the four major carbon-emitting sectors of the economy -- buildings, transportation, industry, and electricity -- as well as carbon sequestration (see Table 4). The following sections highlight selected programs in each of these areas of effort. The full agency programs extend well beyond what is described here.

BUILDINGS

• Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing. PATH is a partnership between the Federal government and building industry to develop and deploy housing technologies to make new homes 50 percent more energy efficient and to make at least 15 million existing homes 30 percent more energy efficient within a decade. PATH has established five pilot communities in Denver, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Tuscon. The program coordinates work in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), FEMA, the Department of Commerce and other agencies, ensuring, for example, that research conducted in DOE's enhanced residential buildings program is quickly transferred into practice. The FY 2001 budget request for building efficiency efforts, such as PATH, Energy Star, and Building America, totals $275 million, a 42 percent increase over FY 2000 appropriations.
• Energy Efficient Appliances and Products. Various DOE and EPA programs aim to promote the dissemination of energy efficient appliances and products:

  -- DOE will accelerate its program to establish energy efficiency standards for commercial heating and cooling, water heaters, and electrical distribution transformers, and will begin efforts to harmonize international energy-efficiency standards and test methods to promote exports of efficient U.S. products.

  -- EPA and DOE's Energy Star Products program saves consumers money and reduces greenhouse gas emissions at the same time by promoting the use of energy efficient products – everything from computers to refrigerators to central air-conditioning units. New funding will support the launch of new Energy Star product lines and will promote the Energy Star labeling program in 6-10 export markets.

• Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings. DOE and EPA work in partnership with industry to research, develop, and deploy new technologies and practices to improve the energy performance of commercial buildings. Participants include the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, and Chicago's Sears Tower. Buildings in the top 25 percent in energy efficiency qualify for EPA's “Energy Star Buildings” label.
• Energy Smart Schools/Energy Star Label for Schools. DOE and EPA have two programs that are working in coordination to improve energy efficiency in U.S. primary and secondary schools, bringing together public and private sector resources to cut schools' energy bills so that the savings can be reinvested in students and their education.

TRANSPORTATION

• Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. PNGV is a government-industry effort that aims to develop attractive, affordable cars that meet all applicable safety and environmental standards and get up to three times the fuel efficiency of today's cars. Since 1993, great strides have been made in producing lower-cost, light-weight materials, inexpensive fuel cells, and advanced internal combustion engines for use in hybrid vehicles. The program aims to produce a prototype mid-sized family car capable of 80 miles per gallon with a two-thirds reduction in carbon emissions by 2004. In January 2000, the auto-industry partners unveiled their PNGV “concept cars” at the Detroit Auto Show, which keeps the program on schedule for meeting its 2004 goal. The FY2001 budget includes $255 million for PNGV-related work, an increase of $30million over the amount appropriated for FY 2000.
• Light and Heavy Trucks. Similar government-industry efforts are aimed at developing cleaner, more efficient diesel engines for both light and heavy trucks.

  -- By 2003, DOE aims to develop advanced diesel cycle engine technologies for pickup trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles which achieve at least a 35 percent fuel efficiency improvement relative to current gasoline-fueled trucks while meeting strict emission standards.

  -- By 2004, DOE, in coordination with EPA and the Department of Defense, aims to develop engine and vehicle technologies for heavy trucks that will increase the fuel economy to 10 mpg from the current average of 7 mpg.

INDUSTRY

• Industries of the Future. This DOE program works cooperatively with the nation's most energy-intensive industries – such as aluminum, glass, chemicals, forest products, mining, petroleum refining, and steel – developing technologies that increase energy and resource efficiency. Promising collaborative efforts include improvements in the process of making steel, pulp and paper, and other energy-intensive products that could dramatically increase efficiency, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and improve competitiveness.
• Industrial Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Systems. DOE is developing new industrial CHP systems to capture thermal heat would otherwise be wasted. These systems are expected to be 15 percent more energy efficient and 80 percent cleaner than conventional power systems and cut electricity costs by 10 percent. In addition, EPA and DOE are also working to eliminate barriers to the rapid dissemination of combined heat and power technology.
• Voluntary Industrial Partnerships. EPA will expand its industry partnership programs, such as Climate Wise and the Voluntary Aluminum Industrial Partnership, to encourage businesses to take advantage of cost-effective emissions reductions opportunities -- including emissions of the most potent greenhouse gases, such as methane, perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and sulfur hexaflouride (SF6).
• Agriculture and Forestry. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) will undertake R&D and support demonstration projects aimed at both lowering greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry and reducing their vulnerability to climate change.

  --The Natural Resources Conservation Service will invest $3 million in projects to demonstrate and test various means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, such as compost-based waste-handling facilities, rotational grazing systems, and improved feed and forage systems.

  --The Agricultural Research Service will devote $8.5 million towards climate change related activities, including the development of new technology and expertise for reducing agriculture's vulnerability to a changing climate. Field experiments will seek to measure various potential effects of climate change, such as varying amounts and patterns of rainfall on forage production.

The FY 2001 budget also includes important USDA funding for developing advanced biomass energy technologies; R&D and demonstration projects for carbon sequestration; research to study the role of farms, forests, and other natural or managed lands in capturing and storing carbon; and a comprehensive U.S. soil carbon inventory (see p.16 below).

ELECTRICITY

• Photovoltaic (PV) Energy Systems. Over the past 20 years, Federal R&D has resulted in a 90 percent cost reduction in solar photovoltaics. DOE will accelerate R&D of the next- generation photovoltaic cells; increase manufacturing R&D; increase research in buildings-integrated applications; and fund efforts to develop new, unconventional technologies.

  -- Million Solar Roofs. In June, 1997, the President announced an initiative to encourage the installation of one million solar systems by 2010, which would reduce carbon emissions equivalent to the annual emissions from 850,000 cars. To date, DOE has received commitments for over 900,000 solar rooftop installations. In FY 2001, DOE expects 40,000 systems to be installed under this program, bringing the total to 90,000.

  -- Technology Advances. By 2004, DOE aims to increase the efficiency of thin-film PV modules in multi-megawatt production from 7 percent to 12 percent and to reduce module manufacturing costs by 40 percent (from $2.50/watt to $1.50/watt). Specific performance measures for FY 2001 include achieving 14 percent stable efficiency in prototype thin-film modules and, in a new initiative begun in FY 2000, identifying at least three promising non-conventional PV technologies for further development.

• Biomass Power. DOE supports biopower systems R&D addressing three major technology areas: co-firing biomass with fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, small modular biopower systems, and advanced biomass gasification. This work is also included in the Bioenergy and Bioproducts Initiative described in above (see pp.4-5 above).
• Wind Powering America. This initiative, announced in June 1999, will accelerate DOE's research, development, testing and field validation of next-generation wind technologies, with a goal of supplying 5 percent of U.S. electricity through wind technologies by 2020. This will be supported by an aggressive R&D program that will reduce the cost of electricity in favorable wind sites to 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour by 2002, and will move specialized cold-weather wind turbines from development to demonstration in 2000, leading to commercialization in 2001.

  Hydrogen. DOE will accelerate research on low-cost hydrogen production and storage, prerequisites to the widespread use of hydrogen as a fuel.

• High Temperature Superconductivity. DOE supports industry-led projects to capitalize on recent breakthroughs in superconducting wire technology, aimed at developing devices such as advanced motors, power cables, and transformers. These technologies would allow more electricity to reach the consumer without an increase in fossil fuel input.

CARBON SEQUESTRATION

• R&D for Sequestration. Research initiatives are being funded to find ways to sequester (store) carbon. Examples include:

  -- Enhancing Forest and Farmland Sinks. The Forest Service, in conjunction with other USDA agencies, will spend $3 million for R&D and demonstration projects for optimizing forest, farmland, and rangeland carbon sinks. The focus of such projects will include storage of carbon in forest soils and increased durability and use of wood products to sequester carbon.

  -- Enhancing natural geological and oceanic processes. DOE will support research into the feasibility of capturing and storing carbon dioxide in underground geological structures and in the deep ocean.

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