Shut Down the US Department of Energy

The October 3 issue of Chemical & Engineering News has an article by Jeff Johnson entitled, "DOE Plans Shift in R&D Direction".

The US Department of Energy has an annual budget of $26 billion. My comment is that the Department of Energy has accomplished nothing with its previous annual budgets and the Department of Energy should be disbanded.

However, looking at the details of Jeff Johnson's article, the present annual budget for research at the Department of Energy is $3 billion. About 50% is for development of clean electricity sources, 19% for improving building and industrial efficiency, 5% for improving the electric grid, and 26% for supporting transportation. Note that the $3 billion does nothing to actually improve these items. The expenditure is only for studies.

Obama has now appointed a select committee of "scientists", which recommends that the research budget should be increased from the present $3 billion, which is a little over 10% of the total DOE budget to 20%. Obama's "scientific" committee recommends more attention (money) to improve vehicle efficiency, electrification of automobiles, deployment of alternative fuels, enhanced building and industrial efficiency, modernization of the electrical grid, and increased deployment of clean energy sources.

This committee is obviously following the Obama party line of ignoring our great potential for continued and increased use of gas and oil, while it fritters away our tax assets on "pie in the sky studies" followed by real losses, such as Solyndra and a larger one yet to come.

My recommendation is to eliminate the Department of Energy, which will eliminate not only its $3-6 billion "studies" budget but also the larger $30 billion annual expenditure of the whole agency. I have written separately on how this can be done.