The Biden-Harris Administration released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24). The Budget details a blueprint to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, lower costs for American families and businesses, and ensure every community benefits from the historic clean energy and climate investments the President secured since the beginning of his term. The Budget will help build a strong, people-centered clean energy economy that supports new, generational economic opportunities, drives new investments in clean energy projects across the country, and creates good, high-paying jobs for all Americans—many of which will not require a college degree. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) budget reinforces the President’s commitment to restoring America’s global manufacturing competitiveness in the clean energy technologies of the future, building strong domestic supply chains, and achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
“President Biden’s budget request reflects his unwavering commitment to building a clean energy future made in America and powered by American workers,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “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.”
In total, DOE’s FY 2024 Budget Request is $52 billion, and makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity and economic growth for decades to come, including:
- Reducing energy costs for American families. The Request provides $375 million—including $50 million for a new energy burden reduction program—to complete approximately 46,000 low-income residential energy retrofits through the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), making homes healthier and more efficient while driving down household energy bills. Underscoring the President’s deep commitment to increasing energy affordability for low-income households, the Budget also requests $52 million to expand the Weatherization Readiness Fund—increasing the number of homes WAP is able to serve.
- Sustaining America’s global leadership in science and innovation. The President proposed a historic funding of $8.8 billion for the Office of Science to support DOE’s world-class scientists and their important work to solve humanity’s most complex and pressing problems. The proposed budget represents transformational investments in the Office of Science for clean energy, climate change, emerging technologies, workforce development, and more, and moves the Department closer to the authorized funding level provided by the President’s CHIPS and Science Act. These critical investments ensure that the U.S. will continue to lead the world in emerging technologies, which are essential for ensuring America’s future economic and national security remains strong and competitive. Within the $8.8 billion, the Budget requests over $1 billion for the Fusion Energy Science Program to help unlock the full potential of commercialized fusion energy and support the President’s bold climate vision.
- Investing in inclusive clean energy solutions that benefit every American. Reflecting the President’s strong support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), the Budget requests $35 million to start the process of standing up an 18th National Lab at an HBCU or MSI—building upon DOE’s history of solutions-driven research and innovation driven by America’s best and brightest students and scientists to tackle the nation’s greatest challenges. The President also requested $3.8 billion for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to spur development of innovative clean energy technologies and create new economic opportunities for all Americans.
- Increasing America’s Energy and National Security. The President proposed $179 million for DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) and $173 million for nuclear isotope research and development to boost America’s global manufacturing competitiveness and build out reliable domestic supply chains free of influence from adversarial foreign nations, like Russia. 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 Budget also requests $23.8 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the largest request in NNSA history. This is a Presidential priority and is needed to ensure a safe, secure, and effective deterrent. The NNSA funding addresses new threats and opportunities in nuclear nonproliferation and counterterrorism, provides nuclear propulsion systems for current and future naval fleets, and supports the President’s Nuclear Posture Review objectives—including the NNSA’s nuclear modernization and construction efforts. The Budget provides DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response $245 million to address the evolving physical and cyber threats to the nation’s energy infrastructure. In addition, the Administration supports the use of the Defense Production Act at DOE to support rebuilding domestic uranium production and enrichment capacity to establish a secure supply for the nation’s current and future nuclear fleet and also to reduce reliance on foreign supplies of uranium, as well as other clean energy technologies to ensure robust supply chains for electrical transformers and other critical grid components. The Budget also includes $75 million in MESC for DOE to carry out the President’s recent determinations under the Defense Production Act.
Building on the President’s strong record of fiscal responsibility, the Budget more than fully pays for all of its investments—reducing deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade by asking the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share.