WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will propose significantly cutting fossil fuel research and closing two facilities, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday.
“Fiscal responsibility demands shared sacrifice — it means cutting programs we would not cut in better fiscal times,” he wrote in a blog post Friday outlining the cuts, as well as a big increase for clean energy, that will be proposed in next year’s budget.
Chu said the budget proposal, which will be released Monday, would cut the Office of Fossil Energy by 45 percent, or $418 million. That includes eliminating the Fuels Program, the Fuel Cells Program, the Oil and Gas Research and Development Program and the Unconventional Fossil Technology Program.
The budget would also save $70 million by reducing funding for the hydrogen technology program in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
The administration would also end operations at the Tevatron facility at Fermi National Laboratory in Illinois, saving $35 million, and close the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, saving $10.3 million. The department made the decision to close that facility in January.