The U.S. Department of Energy’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget requests $52 billion that includes investments into reducing energy costs.
A budget request of $375 million includes $50 million “for a new energy burden reduction program,” through a Weatherization Assistance Program to make homes healthier and efficient to decrease household energy bills, a March 9 news release said. A request was made for $52 million to expand the Weatherization Readiness Fund to increase the number of homes the Weatherization Assistance Program helps.
“President Biden’s budget request reflects his unwavering commitment to building a clean energy future made in America and powered by American workers,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in the release. “The budget provides DOE critical resources to transform the president’s historic clean energy investments and ambitious climate vision into reality — laying the foundation for an inclusive 21st century economy that lifts up communities everywhere while boldly facing the climate crisis head-on.”
President Joe Biden's 2024 budget emphasizes the need to bolster the economy from the ground up and middle out, according to the release. The aim is to reduce costs for American households and firms, while also ensuring all communities reap the benefits of historic clean energy and climate initiatives.
Other funding proposals, according to the release, include $8.8 billion for the Office of Science for issues such as clean energy and climate change; $35 million for an 18th National Lab at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions; $245 million for the Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response to address physical and cyber threats to energy infrastructure; $75 million in the Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains to carry out Biden’s “recent determinations under the Defense Production Act.”
“DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations proposed funding of $215 million will help catalyze historic private sector investments and accelerate new market-ready, commercial-scale technologies—reducing our reliability on foreign supply chains and laying the foundation for a strong domestic clean energy economy,” the release said.
