Coordinates | 55°47′″N49°10′″N |
---|---|
Agency name | United StatesDepartment of Energy |
Type | Department |
Picture | US Dept of Energy Forrestal Building.jpg |
Picture width | 140px |
Picture caption | James Forrestal headquarters complex in Washington, D.C. |
Seal | US-DeptOfEnergy-Seal.svg |
Seal width | 140px |
Seal caption | Seal of the Department of Energy |
Formed | August 4, 1977 |
Date1 | October 1, 1977 |
Date1 name | Activated |
Preceding1 | Energy Research and Development Administration |
Preceding2 | Federal Energy Administration |
Employees | 16,000 federal (2009)93,094 contract (2008) |
Budget | $24.1 billion (2009) |
Chief1 name | Steven Chu |
Chief1 position | Secretary |
Chief2 name | Daniel Poneman |
Chief2 position | Deputy Secretary. |
Website | energy.gov |
Footnotes | }} |
The agency is administered by the United States Secretary of Energy, and its headquarters are located in southwest Washington, D.C., on Independence Avenue in the Forrestal Building, named for James Forrestal, as well as in Germantown, Maryland.
In 1942, during World War II, the United States started the Manhattan Project, a project to develop the atomic bomb, under the eye of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After the war, the Atomic Energy Commission was created to control the future of the project.
The AEC was reinstated and gave way to Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which was tasked with regulating the nuclear power industry, and the Energy Research and Development Administration, which was tasked to manage the nuclear weapon, naval reactor, and energy development programs. Only a few years after that, the Energy Crisis called attention to unifying these two groups. The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, which Carter signed on August 4, 1977, created the Department of Energy, which assumed the responsibilities of the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Federal Power Commission, and programs of various other agencies.
The department began operations on October 1, 1977.
As part of the $789 billion economic stimulus package in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress provided Energy with an additional $38.3 billion for fiscal years 2009 and 2010, adding about 75 percent to Energy's annual budgets. Most of the stimulus spending was in the form of grants and contracts. Yet, according to Robert Alvarez, "Even with additional stimulus money, spending for bombs and cleanup will still exceed those for actual energy-related functions. Spending for the weapons complex is currently comparable to that during the height of the nuclear arms race in the 1950s. The big difference now — half of that money is spent dealing with the Cold War's environmental legacy. "
For fiscal year 2011, each of the operating units of the Department of Energy operate with the following budgets:
!Division | !Funding (in billions) |
Management | $0.4 |
Energy and Environment | $10.6 |
Science | $4.9 |
Nuclear Security | $10.5 |
Other | $0.6 |
Total | $27 |
Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) are contracts under which a contractor designs, constructs, and obtains the necessary financing for an energy savings project, and the federal agency makes payments over time to the contractor from the savings in the agency's utility bills. The contractor guarantees the energy improvements will generate savings, and after the contract ends, all continuing cost savings accrue to the federal agency.
Title XVII of Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorizes the U.S. Department of Energy to issue loan guarantees to eligible projects that "avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases" and "employ new or significantly improved technologies as compared to technologies in service in the United States at the time the guarantee is issued".
In loan guarantees, a conditional commitment requires to meet an equity commitment, as well as other conditions, before the loan guarantee is closed.
The DOE budget includes $280 million to fund eight Energy Innovation Hubs, each of which is focused on a particular energy challenge. Two of the eight hubs are included in the EERE budget and will focus on integrating smart materials, designs, and systems into buildings to better conserve energy and on designing and discovering new concepts and materials needed to convert solar energy into electricity. Another two hubs, included in the DOE Office of Science budget, will tackle the challenges of devising advanced methods of energy storage and creating fuels directly from sunlight without the use of plants or microbes. Yet another hub will develop "smart" materials that will allow the electrical grid to adapt and respond to changing conditions.
! Term | ! Name | President of the United States>President served |
August 6, 1977 - August 23, 1979 | James R. Schlesinger | Jimmy Carter |
August 24, 1979 - January 20, 1981 | Charles W. Duncan, Jr. | Jimmy Carter |
January 23, 1981 - November 5, 1982 | James B. Edwards | Ronald Reagan |
November 5, 1982 - February 7, 1985 | Donald Paul Hodel | Ronald Reagan |
February 7, 1985 - January 20, 1989 | John S. Herrington | Ronald Reagan |
March 1, 1989 - January 20, 1993 | James D. Watkins | George H.W. Bush |
January 22, 1993 - January 20, 1997 | Hazel R. O'Leary | Bill Clinton |
March 12, 1997 - June 30, 1998 | Federico F. Peña | Bill Clinton |
August 18, 1998 - January 20, 2001 | Bill Richardson | Bill Clinton |
January 20, 2001 - January 31, 2005 | Spencer Abraham | George W. Bush |
February 1, 2005 - January 20, 2009 - | Samuel W. Bodman | George W. Bush |
January 21, 2009 - Current | Steven Chu | Barack Obama |
Department of Energy Category:Energy in the United States Category:Ministries established in 1977
ar:وزارة الطاقة الأمريكية bg:Министерство на енергетиката на САЩ cs:Ministerstvo energetiky Spojených států amerických de:Energieministerium der Vereinigten Staaten et:Ameerika Ühendriikide Energeetikaministeerium es:Departamento de Energía de los Estados Unidos eu:Ameriketako Estatu Batuetako Energia Saila fa:وزارت انرژی ایالات متحده آمریکا fr:Département de l'Énergie des États-Unis ko:미국 에너지부 hr:Ministarstvo energetike Sjedinjenih Američkih Država it:Dipartimento dell'Energia degli Stati Uniti d'America he:מחלקת האנרגיה של ארצות הברית nl:United States Department of Energy ja:アメリカ合衆国エネルギー省 no:Energidepartementet (USA) nn:Energidepartementet i USA pl:Departament Energii Stanów Zjednoczonych pt:Departamento de Energia dos Estados Unidos ru:Министерство энергетики США simple:United States Department of Energy sv:USA:s energidepartement uk:Міністерство енергетики США vi:Bộ Năng lượng Hoa Kỳ zh:美國能源部This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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