Doe To De-bottleneck Cash Flow

摘要

Flush with cash from President Barack Obama's fiscal stimulus package, the Department of Energy now has to work out how to spend it, but the precedents are not promising. The DOE's loan-guarantee program was established by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to support high-risk but promising "clean" energy technologies, including advances in renewable, fossil, electricity and nuclear technologies. The DOE was authorized to issue $42.5 billion in loan guarantees, but so far has awarded a grand total of none, despite holding three rounds of solicitations.rnThat record has attracted the ire of legislators, including Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat. The department's inspector general has also criticized the program, saying that the DOE has not developed the structures necessary to manage the program. In response, new Energy Secretary Steven Chu has reiterated that he personally has reviewed the program, and is streamlining the processing of loans.