The House Appropriations Committee wants to cut clean energy funding by $900 million in fiscal 2011, a sizable piece of President Obama's proposed spending on clean energy.
President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget line item for "energy efficiency and renewable energy," requested $2.36 billion. The $900 million reduction in clean energy spending would represent 37.5% of that budget request.
The debate over clean energy spending by the federal government is linked to the larger debate over the size of the federal deficit. The big hit to clean energy funding was included in the House Appropriations Committee full release on Wednesday of its proposed budget cuts for fiscal 2011.
The Appropriations Committee didn't specify where cuts were being proposed within the general clean energy and energy efficiency budget.
The Obama Administration proposed $2.36 billion in energy efficiency and renewable energy spending — which would be administered by the Department of Energy — was 1.6% larger than President Bush's last budget request for energy efficiency and renewable energy, according to a Senate analysis of the budget.
In the Obama fiscal budget 2011, spending on solar would be increased by $55.4 million to $302.4 million, according to the Senate analysis, which would be 5.5% less than President Bush's last request for solar energy.
A SunPower(SPWRA) executive was recently among the solar industry officials present for Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's "sun shot" announcement, when the DoE announced the goal of making solar power as affordable as traditional power within a decade.
The amount that DoE was talking about devoting to the "sun shot," $27 million, was relatively small compared to the budget figures now being debated by the White House and Congress.
U.S. solar company First Solar(FSLR) is the low-cost leader in the solar industry, but there is a race on between First Solar, other U.S. companies including SunPower, European solar companies, and the low-cost Chinese solar companies for control of the solar marketplace.
In the Obama fiscal budget 2011, spending on wind energy would be increased by $42.5 million to $122.5 million. That request is 39% larger than President Bush's last budget request for wind energy.
