U.S. Energy RD&D Analysis

New Analysis of DoE Energy RD&D;

Laura Diaz Anadon (University of Cambridge) and I have collected U.S. government investments in energy research, development, and deomonstration (RD&D;) dating back to 1978, and each year we update the database with the proposed and then the enacted budgets. This year's proposed budget from the Trump Administration represents a significant decrease frm previous years for the U.S. Department of Energy. Together with John Holdren (Harvard Kennedy School), who helped establish the database, we spell out the implications of this budget proposal in an article just published by Nature Energy:

Trump’s proposed cuts in aggregate are greater than the Reagan-era cuts of 1982, which were the most severe single-year cuts to US energy RD&D budgets since 1978.  If enacted through appropriations, these cuts could noticeably slow the pace of energy-technology innovation in the United States.  A slowdown in the pace of energy-technology innovation in the United States could be catastrophic to the competitiveness of US energy technologies in global markets, where other countries are speeding up their efforts.  Raw data is available to download CIERP: Building sustainable prosperity in a changing global environment through rigorous, policy-relevant, interdisciplinary research and training of the next generation of leaders.