The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has announced US$ 1.5 billion from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to build and upgrade America’s national laboratories.
The resources will upgrade scientific facilities, modernize infrastructure, and address deferred maintenance projects at DOE’s Office of Science-managed national laboratories, which are regional hubs for innovation, including clean energy technology that supports good-paying jobs and lower energy costs for families.
This historic amount of support will help achieve the Biden-Harris Administration’s vision to advance solutions-driven research and innovation conducted by America’s best and brightest scientists to tackle the nation’s greatest challenges and achieve the President’s ambitious climate goals.
“Our world-class system of national labs has enabled American innovation and made the U.S. the world leader in science and technology for generations,” said White House Senior Advisor for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation John Podesta. “The investments in national labs in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will help drive clean energy innovation, boost our economy, lower costs for families, create good-paying American jobs, and combat the climate crisis here at home and around the world.”
On Nov. 4, 2022 at DOE’s state-of-the-art Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, Secretary Granholm joined White House Senior Advisor for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation John Podesta, Office of Science and Technology Policy Deputy Director for Energy and Chief Strategist for the Energy Transition Sally Benson, and other senior White House and DOE officials.
The visit underscores DOE’s swift action to allocate funds for science and research infrastructure provided by President Biden’s Agenda, and the critical role that DOE and the National Labs play in the newly released White House report on U.S. Innovation to Meet 2050 Climate Goals.
The additional investments made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act supposedly will deliver benefits to the national laboratory complex that will spur and support climate science and innovation while also creating local jobs and helping attract and retain the highly skilled workforce needed to tackle the climate crisis.
DOE’s Office of Science is the nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences and the lead federal entity supporting fundamental research for clean energy.
The Office of Science oversees the majority of DOE’s national laboratories, as well as various programs and facilities, which help achieve its mission of delivering major scientific discoveries, capabilities, and tools to transform the understanding of nature and to advance America’s energy, economic, and national security.
However, decades of underfunding across DOE’s network of national laboratories have put the Office’s mission at risk and threatened America’s scientific and technological competitive edge over adversarial nations like China and Russia.
To address this funding backlog, the Office of Science received an additional $1.55 billion in FY 2022 through the President’s Inflation Reduction Act to accelerate ongoing facility upgrade projects and national laboratory infrastructure projects. Projects include continuing construction of everything from cutting-edge electron colliders to the world’s fastest supercomputers, as well infrastructure upgrades for systems like fire alarms, electrical, and updated HVAC systems to ensure DOE’s national laboratories are modern, safe, and reliable.
The Inflation Reduction Act will provide funding for:
- Advanced scientific computing research facilities
- Basic energy sciences projects
- High energy physics construction and major items of equipment projects
- Fusion energy science construction and major items of equipment projects
- Nuclear physics construction and major items of equipment projects
- Isotope research and development facilities
- Science laboratory infrastructure projects
More information on the funding announced today can be found here.
The funding announced today has already been distributed to selected projects to address a wide variety of long-term priorities and accelerate ongoing projects for critical facilities and other infrastructure.
