House Budget Shortchanges Energy Research at Universities

Washington — The House of Representatives today approved a $33.3-billion budget bill for energy and water programs in the 2010 fiscal year, which begins on October 1. As part of the bill, the Obama administration had suggested spending $280-million to create eight “energy innovation hubs,” based largely at American universities, to help make breakthroughs in renewable and sustainable sources of energy. But the House version of the bill includes enough money only for one such energy-innovation project.

That amount, along with $300-million to $400-million more in another renewable-energy bill working its way through Congress, would be far short of the $20-billion to $30-billion a year that an expert panel formed by the Brookings Institution estimated as necessary for energy research and development. “We’re really getting off to a bad start in the 2010 budget,” Mark Muro, a policy director at Brookings, said of today’s House vote.

The administration also had requested $115-million for an energy-education program, with about $80-million going to colleges, but the House bill would provide only $7-million to the program. —Paul Basken