S. HRG. 111–954 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations Energy and Water Development Appropriations Fiscal Year 2011 111th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION S. 3635 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE—CIVIL DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Energy and Water Development Appropriations, 2011 (S. 3635) S. HRG. 111–954 ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 3635 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOP- MENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2011, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Department of Defense—Civil Department of Energy Department of the Interior Nondepartmental Witnesses Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 54–965 PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Chairman ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire PATTY MURRAY, Washington ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio JACK REED, Rhode Island LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey BEN NELSON, Nebraska MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JON TESTER, Montana ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania CHARLES J. HOUY, Staff Director BRUCE EVANS, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah PATTY MURRAY, Washington THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JACK REED, Rhode Island RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TOM HARKIN, Iowa GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio JON TESTER, Montana DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii (ex officio) Professional Staff DOUG CLAPP ROGER COCKRELL FRANZ WUERFMANNSDOBLER CAROLYN E. APOSTOLOU (Minority) TYLER OWENS (Minority) LASHAWNDA SMITH (Minority) Administrative Support MOLLY BARACKMAN-EDER (II) CONTENTS THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2010 Page Department of Energy ............................................................................................. 1 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010 Deparment of Energy: National Nuclear Security Administration ..................... 83 THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010 Department of Defense—Civil: Department of the Army: Corps of Engineers— Civil ....................................................................................................................... 151 Department of the Interior: Bureau of Reclamation ............................................. 171 NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Department of Defense—Civil: Department of the Army: Corps of Engineers— Civil ....................................................................................................................... 239 Department of the Interior: Bureau of Reclamation ............................................. 274 Department of Energy ............................................................................................. 298 (III) ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2010 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room SD–192, Dirksen Sen- ate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Dorgan, Murray, Landrieu, Reed, Tester, Ben- nett, Bond, and Alexander. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY STATEMENT OF HON. STEVEN CHU, SECRETARY OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BYRON L. DORGAN Senator DORGAN. We are going to call the hearing to order. This is a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. Mr. Secretary, welcome to you. The hearing today is to take testimony from Secretary Chu on the Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2011 budget request. We will have other colleagues who will be joining us momen- tarily. And I wanted to mention at the start of the hearing that I am necessarily going to have to leave. The President is signing a piece of legislation that I authored at the White House. So I will be leav- ing in about an hour, but we will have someone take the chair at that point. Between now and then, we will have a discussion about the budget request. I would like to note that we will have Administrator D’Agostino before the subcommittee on March 10 to discuss the NNSA fiscal year 2011 budget request. That does not mean that we cannot ask about that today, but because he is going to be here, I just want people to be aware that we will have an opportunity to discuss that budget in some detail in 2 weeks’ time. Further, on March 11, we will have a hearing with the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation on the fiscal year 2011 budget request for water agencies, another very important hearing. Today’s hearing and next week’s hearing on the NNSA budget represent I think the good news for the subcommittee. Next Thurs- day, when we hear from the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, we will be discussing budget cuts that exceed $500 million. That is not such good news if one believes water projects (1) 2 are both important investments in our country’s infrastructure and job-creation and necessary. We are going to have a challenge of rec- onciling the overall budget request to the subcommittee because we are not going to have a half-a-billion-dollar cut for water projects when this subcommittee completes its work. I would hope that would be the case. The budget request of $28.9 billion for the Energy Department is a generous 6 percent increase over the enacted fiscal year 2010 bill. Much of that increase is within the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget, which is up about 13 percent. Excluding NNSA, the remaining DOE programs are collectively up about 3 percent. I am pleased that the administration agrees that energy research is the key to maintaining our competitiveness internationally, as well as increasing our energy security. We need to continue to de- velop the technology that will allow us to harvest usable energy from the wind and the sun, even as we pursue responsible oil and gas development and ways to reduce carbon emitted when we use coal. The research that is required to get us to a cleaner energy future happens in this Department, and I am excited about the work that is coming out of the Department, Mr. Secretary. I do have some concerns and questions about the budget request, obviously, and we will talk about that. The significant priority on funding within the EERE is where programs are up collectively about $400 million. Only two programs are down from last year. One is hydrogen and the other is water power, and I have some concern, again, about the hydrogen programs which I feel we should continue. I know that you have continued those programs in this budget at a lower rate. The Office of Science also sees a 6 percent, or $295 million, in- crease in its program funding, and there are new initiatives in science, including a proposed battery hub and a new program on combustion engines. Energy Frontier Research Centers and a fellowship program are proposed for expansion. Both of those programs have only been up for 2 years at this point. So they are now proposed to be expanded. The ARPA–E program is proposed at $300 million, and I think that is an exciting program. I know that there was a significant na- tional gathering, Mr. Secretary, Monday and Tuesday of this week. I am told it was very successful, but I am a big supporter of this program and think it holds real promise in its approach to back high-risk, but high-reward technology in energy. Nuclear energy sees a significant increase with over $150 million in new initiatives. I am concerned that we have a lot of new initiatives that we are proposing very significant increases to. I do not know that we know specifically how some of these new initiatives are working yet be- fore we proceed with very large increases. We would like to see longer-term spending plans for some of these initiatives. NNSA, I might say, gives us the 5-year spending plan. It would be nice to see that in some of the rest of the areas. One of the concerns I have in the budget is—and this will not be a surprise to you, Secretary Chu, is regarding fossil energy. Fos- 3 sil energy is proposed for an $86 million decrease, while other ac- counts receive a substantial increase. Coal provides about 50 per- cent of our electricity generated today in our country, and I believe that the use of coal, natural gas, and oil will continue to be used for decades to come in this country. So we have to find the means to use our fossil fuels and develop the technologies, put a price on carbon, and do so in a way that helps us mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. All of that is critically important. But I am concerned because the fossil energy account does not show me new, substantive, elements in the budget to address what I think is a critical need as well. I am a big fan of all the renew- ables and this search for new technology and new science, but I think it is important to keep our eye on the ball with respect to fossil energy, which we are going to continue to use. I have said before, Secretary Chu, you are a creative and innova- tive person who has demonstrated great skill in a lot of areas and I think much of that creativity and innovation is something we can see in your budget request.