Chu outlines energy spending plan

By: Darius Dixon January 26, 2011 04:13 PM EST A day after President Obama pitched a clean energy agenda in his State of the Union speech, Energy Secretary Steven Chu outlined the administration’s strategy for producing 80 percent of the nation’s electricity from clean sources by 2035 — and how much it might cost. The strategy includes doubling the number of the department’s energy innovation hubs to six and adding more than $8 billion for new clean-energy funding in the upcoming budget, roughly a third more than in the president’s 2010 budget request. Obama’s plan to “win the future” suggests that the money would be paid for by cutting tax subsidies for fossil fuel producers. What each of the new energy hubs would specialize in is still a work in progress. But in a Wednesday morning event at the department’s headquarters, Chu announced that General Motors had signed an agreement to use advanced battery technology developed at Argonne National Lab — a sign of DOE’s chops in deploying high tech. Obama did not use the term “climate change” in his speech Tuesday night, and Chu said the administration will now emphasize economics in its energy strategy. But he added, “It’s very clear that the president thinks clean energy and our environmental goals are a very big deal to him.” Chu continued Obama’s “Sputnik moment” theme to suggest that the United States take the “moon shot” of President John Kennedy as a model, and push instead for a “sun shot” to make solar electricity cost-competitive with fossil sources by the end of the decade. “This race is more important,” said Chu. “This is an economic race to develop those technologies that the world will want, demand and buy.” Chu emphasized to reporters that the details of the president’s clean energy goal would be the subject of an ongoing debate with Congress, especially with congressional Republicans looking to take big bites out of the federal budget. “Certainly, there are going to be people [in Congress] who feel that above all else, you should cut budgets,” he said. “I think you should decrease budgets but you should do this, not across the board flat, but you have to decide what you want to do.” “That means that the president is willing to make hard choices,” Chu said. “He said we will make hard choices. We will decide what to do but he considers what energy is about is winning this race that will create wealth.” Concerning the specifics of what DOE will be willing to cut — or not — Chu said simply that “you’ll have to stay tuned” for release of the president’s budget request next month. “It’s not even so much Republican-Democrat. People’s solutions to the energy challenges seem to be regional,” Chu said. He said different regions should be able to tailor their energy goals. “Anything that gets us to drive innovation in a way where we think not only where the U.S. market, but the world market, will need,” he said. “I personally think that nuclear reactors, the world market will need.”