Senate Passes Bipartisan Energy Bill, Includes Schatz’s Energy Research Funding Amendment

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate today voted 85-12 to pass the Energy Policy Modernization Act, a comprehensive and bipartisan bill that will modernize the nation’s aging pipeline and power infrastructure and boost energy efficiency in federal buildings.  The bill also includes an amendment introduced by U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) that will authorize increased funding for energy science and technology research.  The amendment will expand funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), an agency within the Department of Energy tasked with funding energy technology projects that help the United States compete and prosper. 

“This is the first comprehensive energy bill in nearly a decade, and it is a positive step toward modernizing our energy system,” said Senator Schatz. “We have an opportunity to build on this momentum and make revolutionary changes in clean energy.  With a national grid system that is increasingly obsolete, my amendment to fund ARPA-E will make real technological advancements to give us a clean and modern energy infrastructure that we can depend on.  These business and quality of life issues need our full attention now.”

Senator Schatz worked with the ARPA-E director to assess the need and utilization for additional funding.  Specifically, the Schatz amendment sets forth authorization levels as follows:

• $325 million per year for fiscal years 2016-2018
• $375 million per year for fiscal years 2019-2020

More than 400 cutting-edge energy projects have received ARPA-E funding and many show early signs of success.  This early funding has encouraged millions of dollars in follow-on private-sector funding to many ARPA-E projects. Many ARPA-E beneficiaries have used their awards as a catalyst to create new, independent companies or have joined with other government agencies to help advance energy technologies.

The bipartisan legislation also permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund and permanently reauthorizes the Historic Preservation Fund, both set to expire this fall. It also creates a new National Park Maintenance and Revitalization Fund, to address the maintenance backlog at our nation’s most treasured public places.