Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy
The Budget includes $10.6 billion in DOE
climate and clean energy research, development, demonstration, and
deployment programs, including over $1 billion to improve technologies
to cut pollution from industrial facilities, nearly $900 million to
commercialize technologies like sustainable aviation fuel and
zero-emission trucks to cut emissions from the transportation sector,
and over $2.4 billion – a majority of which is included in the Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Program – to improve carbon
pollution-free electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and
storage technologies for reliability, resilience, and decarbonization.
Specifically, within the EERE Program, the
budget includes $502 million for Vehicle Technologies Office, $280
million for Bioenergy Technologies Office, $318 million for Solar Energy
Technologies Office, $199 million for Wind Energy Technologies Office,
$179 million for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, and over
$500 million for Advanced Materials/Manufacturing and Industrial
Efficiency and Decarbonation Offices. In addition, the Budget invests in
advancing climate modeling within the Biological and Environmental
Research Program in the Office of Science. By investing $966 million in
discretionary DOE industrial decarbonization
activities, the Budget reflects the importance of supporting U.S.
industrial decarbonization through innovation, targeted investment, and
technical assistance. The Budget includes $8.5 billion across
DOE to support researchers and entrepreneurs
transforming innovations into commercial clean energy products,
including in areas such as: offshore wind, industrial heat, sustainable
aviation fuel, and grid infrastructure. Across
DOE, the Budget provides over $325 million to
support the research, development and commercialization of technologies
and processes to increase the domestic supply of sustainable critical
minerals and materials essential for several clean energy technologies.
The Budget supports $76 million to advance technologies that can enable
earlier detection of methane leaks and integrate across a network of
methane monitoring sensors for more reliable measurement and mitigation
and $150 million to make small quantities of high-assay, low-enriched
uranium (HALEU) available for ongoing advanced nuclear reactor
demonstrations. The Budget also assumes enactment of the
Administration’s request for $2.16 billion in FY
2024 supplemental funding to procure low-enriched uranium (LEU)
and HALEU, which coupled with a long- term ban
on imports of LEU and
HALEU from Russia, would prompt sufficient
private sector investment to reinvigorate U.S. uranium enrichment and
reduce our current dependence on Russian imports for roughly 20 percent
of LEU used in civilian nuclear power
reactors. The $8.5 billion also includes $845 million for a
Department-wide initiative to accelerate the viability of commercial
fusion energy, coordinating academia, national laboratories, and the
private sector, which supports the Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial
Fusion Energy. The Budget funds eight crosscutting
DOE Energy Earthshotsâ„¢ initiatives which
could substantially reduce the cost of energy for the American consumer
through innovations in clean energy generation, energy efficiency, and
storage. In addition, the Budget provides $30 million to accelerate
commercial demonstration projects through a new National Laboratory
Demonstration Support Program.
The Budget provides a historic investment of $25 billion in the Nation’s
nuclear security enterprise to implement the President’s National
Defense Strategy and the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), including $19.9
billion for Weapons Activities.
The Budget includes $141.7 million for the Energy Information Agency
(EIA).
House Appropriations Committee
Senate Appropriations Committee
Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee
Xavier Becerra Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
The HHS budget includes the The Low Income
Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps low-income
households access home energy and weatherization assistance, vital tools
for protecting vulnerable families’ health in response to extreme
weather and climate change. States administer the Low Income Home Energy
Assistance Program, typically making payments to utility companies and
other home energy vendors on behalf of eligible households. Preliminary
FY 2022 data shows an estimated 5.7 million
households received heating assistance and nearly 60,000 households
received weatherization assistance funded by federal Low Income Home
Energy Assistance Program dollars. Common weatherization measures
include sealing air leaks, adding insulation to walls and attics, and
repairing heating and cooling systems. Since the Low Income Household
Water Assistance Program expired at the end of FY
2023, the budget proposes to expand the Low Income Home Energy
Assistance Program to advance the goals of both programs. Specifically,
the budget proposes giving states the option of using a portion of their
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds to help low-income
households pay their water bills. The budget includes $4.1 billion, an
increase of $111 million over FY 2023. This is
in addition to $100 million available for the Low Income Home Energy
Assistance Program from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. As part of
the Justice40 initiative, ACF plans to
continue its efforts to prevent energy shutoffs and increase support for
households with young children and older people or high energy burdens.
CDC addresses emerging environmental health
risks and responds to environmental health emergencies by developing
tools, guidance, and trainings; disseminating best practices; and
providing expertise and requested technical assistance on environmental
health concerns. CDC provides expertise and
guidance relied upon by other federal, state, tribal, local, and
territorial partners, including extreme heat, wildfires and hurricanes;
cancer cluster investigations; chemical exposures related to the train
derailment in East Palestine, Ohio; potential chemical, radiological,
nuclear or explosive mass casualty events; and ensuring drinking and
recreation water are free from contaminants that can cause waterborne
illness. The FY 2025 Budget includes an
increase of $10 million for Climate and Health to pilot the provision of
portable High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtration systems in
homes and communities most affected by wildfire smoke.
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (+$10.000 million)
Lead exposure can cause adverse effects in nearly every system in the
body and seriously harm a child’s health. Even at low levels, lead
exposure has the potential to affect growth and development, hearing and
speech, IQ, academic achievement, and behavior. Public health approaches
to reducing lead exposure have protected millions of Americans since the
1970s. However, nearly 29 million U.S. homes contain at least one lead
hazard, and over 10 million U.S. homes rely on lead-containing service
lines to carry water from municipal sources into family dwellings,
putting large numbers of children at risk for lead exposure.
CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention
Program (CLPPP) reduces the number of children exposed to lead and
eliminates blood lead level disparities. CDC
funds 62 states and localities to conduct blood lead testing and
reporting, use data to track trends and identify risks, lead-exposed
children to services, and implement tailored, community-based
interventions. CDC also conducts lead
poisoning prevention research to continuously improve programs and
services. CDC operates the Blood Lead
Surveillance System and the Flint Lead Exposure Registry, a model for
the nation’s first lead-free city and support for the Flint community.
As the only federal program that directly funds health departments to
address the health impacts of climate-related extreme events,
CDC’s Climate and Health program is building
capacity throughout the nation to prepare for and respond to
weather-related health risks. In FY 2023, CDC
funded 11 health departments and three tribes to prepare for and respond
to extreme weather health impacts by following
CDC’s Building Resilience Against Climate
Effects (BRACE) Framework. The BRACE framework
helps communities anticipate weather impacts, assess vulnerabilities,
project disease burden, assess public health interventions, develop
adaptation plans, and evaluate the impact and quality of health
interventions.
CDC also develops tools that jurisdictions can
use to inform decisions about how to protect people from weather-related
health impacts, such as CDC’s Heat & Health
Tracker. Through a collaboration with CDC’s
National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, the tracker
provides real-time local-level heat and health data that can be used to
inform decisions and public health actions related to heat.
CDC maintains expertise to help communities
prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires and wildfire smoke
events. As the wildfire crisis continues to increase in size, duration,
and intensity, millions of people are at increasing risk from wildfire
and wildfire smoke. Smoke inhalation following a wildfire is linked to
increases in respiratory conditions like asthma, heart disease, and
cancer. Additionally, higher levels of dissolved organic matter,
volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals in community water systems
following wildfires can overwhelm traditional water treatment
capabilities and reduce access to safe drinking water.
CDC experts develop guidance and communication
materials for public health departments and others and conduct research
about the public health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure that are used
to develop evidence-based strategies to reduce wildfire smoke exposures.
CDC activated an emergency response unit to
assist the Hawaii Department of Health following the August wildfires on
the island of Maui and provided technical assistance on a range of
environmental health issues related to the wildfires.
As climate change continues to be an ongoing crisis, the risks to human
health will grow, exacerbating existing health threats and creating new
public health challenges. Global climate change is already directly and
indirectly affecting human health in the United States and around the
world. Impacts occur through changes to climate systems such as
temperature, air and water quality, and extreme weather events, as well
as through changes to the geography and timing of exposures. Climate
change contributes to or exacerbates a wide range of health impacts,
including non-communicable diseases, injury and trauma, and infectious
diseases. Although climate change affects everyone, certain populations
are especially vulnerable to various impacts due to social determinants
of health, including life stage, sex, underlying health status, access
to health care, education, and economic, racial, and ethnically driven
disparities. In this way, the climate change and health agenda are
inextricably linked to health equity. Climate change impacts are the
concern of NIH as a whole and are often at the
intersection of multiple NIH ICOs. For this
reason, NIH has developed an “all of
NIH” approach to building a solutionsdriven
climate change and health strategic framework that will build on past
research investments. The NIH strategic
framework will seek to understand the health impacts and factors that
contribute to individual and community susceptibility, strengthen
capacity for needed research and the development of a transdisciplinary
workforce, and promote community-engaged research, translation, and
dissemination to maximize efforts and outcomes among the United States
and global communities most urgently affected. The FY
2025 budget request of $40.0 million sustains the
FY 2023 Final increase to boost research on
the human health impacts of climate change.
The FY 2025 President’s Budget Request
directly supports ASPR’s mission to help the
country prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health
emergencies and disasters. We are living in an increasingly
interconnected world where diseases and other threats can travel
quickly, unnoticed for days. In addition, infectious disease outbreaks
are becoming more frequent and natural disasters more deadly as a result
of the increasing changes to our climate. ASPR
Policy and Planning manages a variety of White House policy engagements
to ensure appropriate representation and coordination of
ASPR’s equities in preparedness and response
policy actions, and tracks ASPR-wide
implementation of Executive Orders. Additionally, Policy and Planning
established and uses a hub to coordinate climate change and health
equity policy and activities across ASPR.
House Appropriations Committee
Senate Appropriations Committee
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee
Theresa McKenney, Director Of Sustainability And Government Affairs,
NEMO Equipment
Hilary Hutcheson, Outfitter
Gus Schumacher, American Cross-Country Skier, Olympian
Dr. Joao Gomes, Howard Butcher III Professor
Of Finance; Professor Of Economics, And Senior Vice Dean Of Research,
Centers, And Academic Initiatives, Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania
[Minority Witness] Scott Walter, President, Capital Research Center
Kate R. Bowers, Legislative Attorney, American Law Division,
Congressional Research Service
Scott Faber, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs,
Environmental Working Group
James Kenney, Secretary, New Mexico Department of Environment
Michael D. Witt, General Counsel, Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission
(testifying on behalf of the Water Coalition Against
PFAS)
Robert Fox, Partner, Manko Gold Katcher Fox, Limited Liability
Partnership (testifying on behalf of the National Waste and Recycling
Association & Solid Waste Association of North America)
Overview of DOE early to mid stage R&D
activities. Panelists from Labs, ARPA-e,
EERE
Speakers:
Vanessa Chan, Chief Commercialization Officer for the Department of
Energy and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions
Steven Ashby, Director of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory
Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
11:00am – 11:40am (CST) / 12:00pm- 12:40pm (EST)
The “Capital Transition” Funding the Energy Transition
Energy has reemerged as a great driving force in finance, unlocking
capital for the sector and underpinning rising investment. Energy
remains the lifeblood of national economies, and in a newly competitive
era, both legacy fossil fuel and new cleantech assets are being funded
despite higher interest rates. How this new energy era plays out will be
determined by how the “capital transition” unfolds, and the availability
of private and public capital for existing and emerging technologies.
How does the renewed focus on energy attract capital and shareholders’
interest?  How do capital markets, companies and governments manage a
“capital transition”?  
Speakers:
Roger Diwan
Jigar Shah, Department of Energy
Marcel van Poecke
Christian Bruch
11:30am – 12:15pm (CST) / 12:30pm- 1:15pm (EST)
DOE Continuum – Carbon Management
Speakers:
Darien Sturges, Senior Advisor, United States Department of Energy,
Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations
Noah Deich, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Carbon
Management in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management,
Department of Energy
Katheryn Scott, United States Department of Energy, Office of
Technology Transitions
12:40pm – 01:55pm (CST) / 1:40pm- 2:55pm (EST)
Luncheon & Keynote Address
Speakers:
Daniel Yergin
Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary of Energy
02:05pm – 02:45pm (CST) / 3:05pm- 3:45pm (EST)
Energy: The impact of competition and rivalries in a multipolar world
Governments around the world are competing to win the clean energy
industries of the future. Some countries are relying on incentives,
others are using regulation to accelerate clean energy deployment while
also bringing green supply lines close to home. How will energy
competition reshape economic ties? What are the energy transition
security drivers and how do companies navigate this new landscape? 
Speakers:
Carlos Pascual
Amos Hochstein, Special Presidential Coordinator for Global
Infrastructure and Energy Security
Catherine MacGregor
Kadri Simson
03:30pm – 04:10pm (CST) / 4:30pm- 5:10pm (EST)
Enabling Critical Technologies through Public-Private Partner
Partnerships
Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) can play a crucial role in
facilitating the expansion of clean energy. Energy transformation
requires coordinated, holistic, whole-systems solutions across our full
energy economy to accelerate new technologies, integrate energy systems
and implement solutions at scale. What needs to be done to secure
financial support, foster collaboration and promote mutual understanding
between the private and public sectors?
Speakers:
Shin Kim
Vyshi Suntharalingam, Chief Technology & Engineering Officer (CTEO)
for the United States Department of Defense Office of Strategic
Capital
Vanessa Chan
Hans Kobler
04:00pm – 04:30pm (CST) / 5:00pm- 5:30pm (EST)
Hydrogen Policy Post IRA: What is the status
of the American hydrogen hubs?
Hear from America’s newest hydrogen hub to hear how this historic
investment of clean energy through hydrogen will help the United States
meet its energy security goals. Diverse regions will enjoy federal
support to help regional economies and with a large investment in clean
energy jobs and manufacturing. These diverse regions will kickstart the
United States energy economy with large scale production projects,
transportation networks and decarbonizing industry. Hear directly from
the hubs to get the latest updates.
Speakers:
Noah Feingold
Kelly Cummins, Acting Director for the Office of Clean Energy
Demonstrations (OCED) at the U.S. Department of Energy
Eric Guter
Manka Khanna
04:30pm – 04:55pm (CST) / 5:30pm- 5:55pm (EST)
Spotlight | How U.S. Policy Can Accelerate the Energy Transition
The year 2024 is pivotal for U.S. ambitions to drive climate action and
sustain energy security. The U.S. legal foundations are in place through
the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
COP28 created a framework for transitioning
away from fossil fuels. How will climate ambitions translate into an
agenda that drives investment nationally and globally to accelerate
emission reductions? How quickly can IRA
incentives be incorporated into the tax code? Can permitting reform keep
pace with infrastructure demands? What are the strategies to leverage
private capital, especially for developing countries? Will industry be
welcomed as a partner in innovation and decarbonization? Join a dialogue
with the new U.S. Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Change to
understand how he is shaping the U.S. agenda for 2024 and preparing for
future challenges.
Speakers:
Carlos Pascual
John Podesta, Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Change
04:30pm – 05:10pm (CST) / 5:30pm- 6:10pm (EST)
Hydrogen: How to grow a market
Countries are providing incentives to develop new hydrogen markets, with
the U.S. leading the way on the scale of government funding available to
the emerging industry. Yet there are still questions about how hydrogen
can be produced cleanly at scale, and how new end-user markets will
develop, creating uncertainties about the hydrogen business’ pace of
growth and ultimate size. Where will supply come from? Which use case
segments are most promising for hydrogen demand? Where can hydrogen
compete with traditional fuels without government support? 
Speakers:
Shankari Srinivasan
David Crane, Department of Energy
Seifi Ghasemi
Marco AlverÃ
Stéphane Michel
4:55pm – 05:15pm (CST) / 5:55pm- 6:15pm (EST)
Spotlight | Energy Present and Energy Future
Speakers:
Daniel Yergin
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
05:00pm – 05:30pm (CST) / 6:00pm- 6:30pm (EST) Solutions to Decarbonize
Hard-to-Abate Sectors Carbon Management/Decarbonization Hard-to-abate
sectors have many decarbonization approaches available to consider.
These include changing manufacturing processes and operations to reduce
costs and emissions; waste heat integration; utilizing lower-carbon
materials and feedstocks; electrification; energy efficiency; using
renewable power; as well as participating in low-carbon hubs with
CCUS and hydrogen. How are different
industries selecting viable solutions? Which solutions can save costs or
boost revenue as well as cut emissions? What emerging solutions could
transform some of these harder-to-abate sectors?
Speakers:
Deb Ryan
Kendall Dilling
Kai Guo
Katheryn Scott, United States Department of Energy, Office of
Technology Transitions
5:15pm – 05:35pm (CST) / 6:15pm- 6:35pm (EST)
Spotlight | Energy Security and National Security
Speakers:
Daniel Yergin
Sen. Daniel Sullivan (R-Alaska)
07:30pm – 09:00pm (CST) / 8:30pm- 10:00pm (EST)
Climate Policies Post COP28
Climate change has become a top-tier agenda item for governments around
the world and at international forums like the UN and
G20. What are the different approaches that
governments are taking at home to tackle climate change? How is climate
ambition reshaping the global energy system, political alliances and
trade? Can international initiatives still rally a consensus or must new
strategies emerge to address the combined challenges of energy security,
transition and affordability?
Speakers:
Anna Mosby
Charlotte Wolff-Bye
Joshua Volz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Europe, Eurasia,
Africa and the Middle East in the Office of International Affairs at
the U.S. Department of Energy
The 2024 Global Methane
Forum is a premier
global event that will bring together global thought and industry
leaders in Geneva, Switzerland from 18-21 March 2024 to promote
replicable methane mitigation successes and mobilize action to achieve
ambitious methane emission reductions. This event will be organized
jointly with the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s Group of Experts
meetings – the 19th Session of the Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane
and Just Transition, and the 11th Session of the Group of Experts on
Gas.
The goals of the 2024 Global Methane Forum are to:
Convene and inspire high-level international participants to advance
action to achieve ambitious global methane mitigation targets;
Highlight methane mitigation activities, including to achieve the
goals of the Global Methane Pledge;
Share information about technical, policy, financing, and regulatory
issues related to methane policy and project development; and
Engage and enhance private sector participation in methane mitigation.
The Forum will be hosted by the Global Methane Initiative (GMI) and the
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in partnership
with the Global Methane Hub and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition
(CCAC).
Get ready to laugh your way to climate action with The Comedy Show for
Climate
Defiance,
brought to you by Grassroots Comedy! Join us for an evening of hilarity
and activism as we team up with the fearless youth-led group, Climate
Defiance, to make the powers-that-be quake…with laughter!
When it comes to tackling the climate crisis, Climate Defiance doesn’t
just go along to get along. They block doors, crash galas, and shut down
speeches faster than you can say “carbon footprint.” Because let’s face
it, when our very lives are on the line, it’s time to bring the fight
AND the funny.
Featuring double headliners Robert Mac (Comedy Central, Dry Bar) and
Reem Edan (Sirius XM, Laugh After Dark), this show is guaranteed to have
you rolling in the aisles while we elevate environmental concerns
straight to the political spotlight and raise funds that make this work
possible. Chelsea Handler herself raves about Climate Defiance as “the
best new, nonpartisan group that goes after politicians on both sides in
the U.S.”
So grab your
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gather your friends, and get ready to laugh, cheer, and maybe even join
the movement. Because when it comes to saving the planet, we believe
laughter is not just the best medicine—it’s the best form of defiance!
