Federal budget proposal promising for PNNL research

The Obama administration’s budget request for fiscal 2017 looks promising for research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, according to officials at the national lab in Richland.

It supports nationwide funding for research in PNNL focus areas, including non-proliferation, grid modernization, energy efficient buildings, energy storage, cybersecurity and “big data,” and environmental remediation.

PNNL also may benefit from the administration’s Mission Innovation initiative, said PNNL spokesman Greg Koller. The White House is recommending doubling clean energy research spending over the next five years to bring technologies that could transform the nation’s energy systems and use from laboratories to the marketplace.

Next the House and Senate will use the budget request as a basis for developing their own budget proposals for DOE and other federal departments. The administration’s proposed DOE budget is 10 percent above current spending levels.

About two-thirds of PNNL’s funding came from various DOE program offices in the last fiscal year. Other funding came from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and other sources, including private industry.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Federal budget proposal promising for PNNL research."