Senator Byron Dorgan

Senator Dorgan and the Energy Budget

February / March 2009 By: Tom Michael Volume 7 Number 1

Print this Article

E-mail this Article

A year ago, the House of Representatives proposed stripping nearly a billion dollars from the budgets at the national nuclear weapons laboratories. But one man—€”Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota—€”single-handedly stopped it from happening. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee, Dorgan restored $900 million in weapons labs money that the House had chopped out of its own spending plan. As subcommittee chairman, Dorgan wields immense power over budgets at the Department of Energy and to a lesser extent the Department of Interior.

As Congress wrestles with the federal spending blueprint again this year, the three-term Democrat told Innovation he's prepared to go to the mat for the national laboratories once again. "Our national laboratories are doing critically important science," Dorgan said. "Investment in these laboratories will largely determine what kind of economy we'll have in 10, 20, 30 years from now. Do we retain the lead in scientific inquiry and innovation? Investment in these national laboratories is critical to our country's future."

Dorgan, an early advocate of the America Competes Act, which aims to boost U.S. proficiency in math and science, said he views the laboratories as incubators for science and technology innovation that will help the country regain its financial footing. He conceded that the nuclear weapons laboratories might not get as much admiration from a Democratic Congress and White House as they did under President Bush and the Republicans, when they were in control.

"It does seem likely to me that the new administration might slow that down, and change some of those priorities," he said. "But that doesn't mean we don't need weapons labs." Dorgan said all national laboratory budgets—€”whether the labs are pure science or weapons labs—€”should be retained, and possibly enhanced.

"The weapons labs are just as important and can play dual role in both weapons and science," he said. "We have a stockpile stewardship program that is expensive and very technical and we need to continue that to have assurance with respect to our nuclear weapons."

Dorgan also said cutting weapons budgets would force some of the country's best scientists out of jobs. "Rather than have the loss of some of our best scientists I would hope we can keep those scientists working on other areas that will contribute to our country's knowledge of science and other interests," he said.

Of course, one of the best ways the national laboratories can help America's economy is by spinning its cutting-edge science into the marketplace, or aggressively engaging in technology transfer. "In this economy, it becomes more important but also more difficult because the fact is technology transfer requires money; it requires venture capital," Dorgan said. "But technology transfer is one of the significant opportunities for our country's growth. What we discover in our laboratories that can be used to make more efficient our economy, our companies, our products—€”I think it's very important."

He said the Energy Policy Act of 2005 made some progress, but probably not enough. "We're trying to provide loan funds and other devices to encourage transfer, but it's not something you can just switch on and off like a light switch," he said.

And what about that America Competes Act? Congress passed the law with great fanfare in 2007 only to see it remain unfunded heading into 2009.

"It is a priority," Dorgan said. "But it demonstrates how easy it is to pass an authorization bill and how difficult it is—€”even for good ones—€”to get them funded. It is also the case that we are in a pretty substantial financial crisis, so you can understand why there is not enough money to go around. We were all very excited about passing an authorization bill but when it comes to funding there is much less progress."

The senator said the $800 billion-plus economic stimulus package has some money to initiate some of the programs in America Competes. "Certain things in the Competes Act that call for funding may well be advanced by some of the funding categories that will come from the stimulus bill," he said. "Not necessarily identified as part of that act, but nonetheless moving in the direction that the act contemplates."

As for overall priorities for the Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee, Dorgan said he will focus on a couple of key areas out of the gate: Carbon-capture technology for coal, renewable energy and interstate electrical transmission.

"We need a big effort toward carbon capture because of the recognition that we need to continue to use coal, but we need to use it differently to protect the environment," he said. "There are a lot of people working on it, and I've had lots of people coming into my office with the silver bullet, or the new-new thing, and I think some of them are going to represent the best ideas that are affordable.

"We will also see a very significant effort to extend renewables such as solar and wind to both research and also deployment," he said. "We have loan guarantees to do that. In order to maximize the potential for renewables we're going to have to significant progress in developing an interstate transmission system. You will see in the stimulus as well as in the FY 10 legislation, those types of interests."

Tom Michael is Innovation's Washington bureau chief.