FY 2010 Defense Appropriations Act Provides About $374M in Earmarks for Advanced Energy and Vehicle Programs; $55.7M for Advanced Battery Development and Manufacturing
28 December 2009
On 19 December, President Obama signed into law the $636.3-billion Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 (H.R. 3326) (earlier post) which provides FY 2010 appropriations for Department of Defense (DOD) military programs. Attached to the bill (now law) are $4.197 billion in 1,719 earmarks—Congressionally directed spending projects.
Of those earmarks, about 156 (worth about $374 million) deal with advanced energy storage, ground vehicle technology, power electronics and motors, composites, renewable hydrocarbon fuels, synthetic fuels and biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells, plug-in hybrids, renewable power generation, and so on. Of those, 24 projects worth $55.7 million target Li-ion and advanced battery technology development and manufacturing.
| FY2010 Defense appropriations earmarks for lithium-ion and energy storage projects. Click to enlarge. |
Some of the other energy and transportation-related earmarks are roughly categorized below:
| Click to enlarge. |
Resources
Bill language and explanatory statement in the Congressional Record of 16 2009, pages H15022-H15414
Considering that this is such a small fraction (374 million / 663 BILLION) it does not bother me. There have been a lot of programs that the DOD does not want but are funded over the many decades.
I wish that they would not lump the wish list on DOD spending, but that is the way of Congress. Many times there is NO where else that they can get any of this done. The military knows how dependent they are on fossil fuels, the irony is not lost on them.
Posted by: SJC | 28 December 2009 at 09:10 AM
It is a defense issue so it belongs in that budget. The biggest vulnerability of the U.S. is dependence upon foreign oil. I'm glad to see the DOD recognizes this.
Posted by: danm | 28 December 2009 at 09:52 AM
Many of these programs the DOD never requested, this is why they are referred to as "earmarks". They get added as pet projects of legislators for their states. I suppose we could say that they are defense oriented, but if the Pentagon never wanted them, then they are not really for defense.
Posted by: SJC | 28 December 2009 at 11:15 AM
Just think, only .05% of the entire DOD budget goes for ways to provide alternative energy resources to their overall mission.
Yet, national security rests largely on our ability to domestically generate energy and resources to power the nation. Certainly these goals are worthy of a far greater percentage of the budget. Especially since developing domestic based resources means having to put fewer young men and women in harm's way overseas.
Or are we expected to find foreign energy wars acceptable?
Posted by: sulleny | 28 December 2009 at 12:54 PM
Actualy the miltary spends alot on battery and fuel cell tech its just inside other projects you arnt allowed to know about or that just dont sound like they are alt energy related.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 28 December 2009 at 01:26 PM
I hope you're right winter... because DOD is doing a poor job of telling the public the good stuff they're spending our money on.
They might want to look at the NASA type programs to commercialize very expensive R&D. DARPA does some of this but more would be helpful.
Posted by: sulleny | 30 December 2009 at 11:05 PM