Good news! The President’s FY10 budget request to Congress that was just released (view it here) includes $30 million for the Water Power R&D program. By comparison, President Bush’s budget request for FY09 was only $3 million. By the end of the appropriations cycle for FY09, Congress had appropriated $40 million for the water power program.
OREC has been lobbying the House and Senate appropriators to add $20 million to the President’s budget request of $30 million for a total of $50 million in the FY10 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill for Water Power R&D. As you know, that is the current authorized amount for the water power program which was contained in the last two Energy bills (EPACT05 and EISA07). We should know the final funding level for FY10 sometime late this summer as the Energy and Water appropriations bills are negotiated. We are also working to include language in the energy/climate change measures being negotiated in Congress that would raise the authorized amount for the water power account from the current $50 million per year to $250 million per year.
Credit: Thanks to our friends at SMI for this summary