During a Senate Energy Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) spoke about ensuring that the Advanced Research Projects Agency is not picking 'winners and losers.'
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00:00Thank you, Chairman. Mr. Bright, Bill, at the legal direction of Congress, DOE has
00:06developed energy efficiency standards that have saved American families
00:10hundreds of dollars annually on utility costs. The current administration is set
00:17on reversing these cost-saving efforts and announced this week that they will
00:20eliminate many of these standards, which will undoubtedly raise energy costs for
00:25American families. Do you believe the actions announced by the administration
00:30are consistent with the federal judges' orders to update those standards, and how
00:35would you approach enforcing energy efficiency standards in your new role if
00:40you're confirmed? Senator, thank you. At this point, I'm not at the Department of
00:47Energy, and so I have not been advising the secretary and the program managers who
00:53are at the agency at this time regarding the actions that they've undertaken, and
00:57I have not had an opportunity to review those executive orders or the legal bases
01:04for the actions that have been taken. I know within the context of those
01:09statutes, there are statutory reforms that were undertaken by Congress in the later
01:17part of the early aughts, and that related to those statutes, that actually enhanced the
01:24capacity of the department to consider economic considerations, and some of that
01:28post-date, some of the case law that I know is on the books, and which many people
01:33point to in that area. So, at this point, Senator, what I can commit to you is that,
01:38should I be fortunate enough to be confirmed as the General Counsel, that I will, of course, work with the existing
01:46career staff and advisors at the Office of General Counsel to understand their
01:51existing legal reviews, and then advise the secretary and the and the program
01:59officials who are responsible for those policy decisions on their obligations
02:04under the laws and statutes, as well as the authorities that they have?
02:09Mr. Prochaska, with electricity demand expected to grow for the next decade, I think
02:20many of us believe that we're going to need every electron that we can get for the
02:24foreseeable future. If confirmed, how will you make sure that ARPA-E is investing in a
02:30complete portfolio of next-generation energy technologies and not picking winners and
02:38losers? Thank you very much for the question, Senator, and that is a very big
02:41part of the way ARPA-E operates. The way ARPA-E operates is we bring in the best
02:47program managers that we can find, and those program managers bring the best
02:50ideas that they can, and they're forced through a crucible of internal debates and
02:55external reviews to come out with some of the best possible programs and projects
03:00we possibly can. And part of that analysis is, how does this make sense in the
03:05overall energy portfolio and move the ball forward on behalf of the United States
03:10and the world? Because these technologies do go and help the world at the end of
03:14the day in many cases. And so, to answer your question, one of the reasons is we're
03:19going to take the best projects, and I promise that that's going to be the
03:24process with which, if I am confirmed, ARPA continues to move forward with the best
03:30projects and not picking winners and losers necessarily, but understanding what makes
03:35sense in the energy portfolio that's affordable, secure, reliable, and gets us
03:40to the end goals. Mr. Brightbill, Congress has important oversight
03:47responsibilities over the department, obviously. If confirmed, will you commit to
03:52responding to members of this committee's requests for information regarding DOE's
03:57compliance with the law? Senator, if I am confirmed, I can, if I'm fortunate enough
04:06to be confirmed, yes, I can assure you that we will comply with the law, and insofar as
04:13the department is required to make responses to requests, we will do so. So, thank you.
04:20That is the right answer. On May 5th, I, along with a number of other members of
04:26Congress, sent Secretary Wright a letter regarding the department's suspension of
04:31energy programs, cancellation of executed awards and contracts, as well as mass
04:38reductions in staffing and changes to contracting policies, and I very much
04:43look forward to receiving a full and complete response to that letter.
04:49Senator McCormick.
04:54Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and ranking member Heinrich, and-
04:58.
05:03.