A report from United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) alleges that the billions of dollars spent on research and development into alternative fuels by the Department of Energy (DOE) has done little to lessen the country's dependence on fossil fuels.
Some US$ 60 billion has been invested in R&D on so-called advanced energy technologies by the U.S. DOE over the last 30 years, but consumption from traditional fuels has remained relatively stable: today fossil fuels supply 85 percent of U.S. energy consumption compared with 93 percent in 1973. The growth of nuclear power in the 1970s and 80s accounts for most of the difference, according to the GAO.
The DOE has US$1.8 billion to spend on R&D for the 2008 fiscal year. This is up from US$ 505 million in 1998, but down from the US$ 6 billion in 1978, during the heart of the energy crisis.
The GAO points to several roadblocks on the road to a more diversified energy portfolio, including the challenge of making alternative forms of energy cost-competitive with fossil fuels and ensuring that these new technologies and are in fact environmentally "cleaner" than fossil fuels.
The DOE is not the only department that invests in alternative energies: both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense do so as well. Also, tax incentives and mandates are another policy tool used to promote alternatives to fossil fuels (for e.g. the renewable fuels standard requires the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022). The GAO recommends better coordination with other federal programmes and incentives, given that the DOE spending on alternative energies alone will not be enough to diversify the U.S. energy portfolio.
The full report, Advanced Energy Technologies: Budget Trends and Challenges for DOE's Energy R&D Program, is available on-line at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08556t.pdf
