Government shutdown crimps US energy innovation
As of聽12 o鈥檆lock聽midnight聽on the 30th September 2013, the US federal government has officially shutdown due to Congress鈥檚 failure to pass a new budget for the coming fiscal year. Since 2012 the government has been running on a Continue Resolution, an聽, but this time a new decision was needed; and it wasn鈥檛 made.
Most people will concentrate on the political implications that this shutdown will lead to, but the fact is that it鈥檚 directly impacting on America鈥檚 overall capacity to drive聽. The short-term lack of a federal government means that many of the nation鈥檚 top energy innovation institutions and laboratories must scale down their operations, or be completely shutdown.
Basically, the longer this continues, the less the US will be able to carry out cutting edge research, and produce next generation energy technologies. Given time this will threaten the country鈥檚 ability to remain internationally competitive and its progress to a low-carbon economy. (Related article:聽)听
聽of the shutdown:
鈥⒙犅� 聽The Interior Department has had to halt all permits and permit reviews for onshore and offshore oil and gas leases.
鈥⒙犅� 聽The Bureau of Land Management has stopped developing rules for hydraulic fracturing operations on federal lands.
鈥⒙犅� 聽The Environmental Protection Agency has had to halt its work on the recently announced regulations for controlling the greenhouse gas emissions for coal power plants.
鈥⒙犅� 聽The Department of Energy has had to cut-back on its review of LNG export applications, and may even have to stop altogether.
鈥⒙犅� 聽The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has stopped approving new offshore wind permits.
鈥⒙犅� 聽The ARPA-E program, responsible for some of the聽聽in clean energy technology, has been completely shutdown.
鈥⒙犅� 聽Research at NIST and NOAA, such as climate and weather research, nano-science, and energy science have all been put on hold.
鈥⒙犅� 聽And possibly the biggest threat, is that the Patent and Trademark Office may have to be closed after another month, preventing innovation of all kind.
Many believe that the current shutdown will only be short-term and that the impacts will be minor, but the truth is that the federal government is vital to energy innovation and this shutdown is already causing lots of damage.
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