in urban bus applications. Des Moines and Polk County, Iowa, are participants in the development of a commercial refueling infrastructure for fleet vehicles capable of operating on ethanol (E85). Other jurisdictions participating in this project include Indianapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota. In Atlanta, where a major effort to showcase the use of alternative fuel vehicles is planned during the upcoming Summer Olympics, a UCETF-funded project will support analysis of the economics and efficiency of a broad selection of AFVs when used in high-volume, high traffic applications. Washington, D.C., is developing an alternative fuel vehicle training curriculum for public schools to provide qualified service technicians for AFVs. Santa Barbara, California is addressing regulatory barriers and incentives to the use of electric vehicles. Utility and Industrial/Commercial & Government Energy Efficiency: This priority area focuses both on cutting energy usage in government and other local facilities and, increasingly, on the changing relationships between local government and energy utilities, in part in response to the trends toward restructuring in the electricity industry. Many projects in this area have a strong technical focus. In the area of facility energy efficiency, Pittsburgh, PA, is validating the savings resulting from the implementation of a two-step program to reduce peak electricity demand. Montgomery County, MD, is working to encourage deployment of efficient technologies by identifying proper control and coordination of advanced commercial variable air volume heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. San Francisco, CA, is evaluating alternative project delivery and management systems for implementing large scale, multi-year and multi-facility energy efficiency retrofit projects. Philadelphia, PA, is analyzing and identifying applications for optimal use of new, energy efficient induction lighting technology in public buildings. In the area of utility restructuring, Barnstable County, MA, is identifying options for local governments to issue competitive franchises. Portland, OR, is investigating the opportunities for performance based franchise agreements and aggregated energy purchases. Sustainable Urban Energy Management: At the implementation level, planning for a sustainable future means linking local energy policies and programs to broader community goals affecting economic, social and environmental priorities. In the current program, Denver, CO is preparing an information resource guide which will become part of the zoning, environmental regulations and incentive programs for the redevelopment of Stapleton Airport. Hennepin County, MN, is testing potential applications for solar power and light emitting diode lamps in red flashing traffic lights. Houston, TX, is evaluating methods to obtain refrigerant inventories, schedule HVAC equipment replacement, maintain HVAC equipment, and manage refrigerants in order to formulate a workable strategic refrigerant recycling management plan and use the savings to minimize refrigerant costs. Memphis, TN, is developing a partnership between several government agencies and local contractors to encourage HVAC, mechanical and electrical contractors to provide energy efficiency technology and services to commercial customers. Tucson, AZ, is building two straw bale buildings to demonstrate a building technology that uses an annually renewable, readily obtainable agricultural waste product to build an affordable, super-insulated wall system. 24-697 96-15 Technology Transfer Projects: Seven projects in this area focus on expanding knowledge generated through the UCETF program, refining and replicating previously conducted UCETFsupported work in additional jurisdictions, and developing new approaches. Lansing, MI, is convening an Urban Energy Empowerment Consortium to integrate energy and water efficiency into redevelopment and revitalization programs for the City. Phoenix, AZ, is identifying for replication by other jurisdictions the process used by the City in establishing an energy conservation savings reinvestment plan. Cedar Rapids, IA, is creating an energy efficiency demonstration, evaluation and training module to provide technology assessment and training for city and private sector facilities personnel from the region. Portland, OR, sponsored an alternative fuel vehicle "sideshow" to the annual Portland Auto Show held in February, with the purpose of attracting vehicles to the Pacific Northwest area for demonstration and offering local fleet managers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with technologies likely to become available in the next several years. San Francisco, CA, is working to transfer aspects of the sustainable municipal buildings program developed by Austin, TX, to San Francisco, with the result being plans and specifications to guide City architects and engineers in implementing sustainable building practices. Cabo Rojo/Mayaguez, PR, is determining the feasibility of solar-assisted air conditioning and dehumidification systems in tropical climates. Seattle, WA, is working to overcome barriers to telecommuting by validating the effectiveness of telecommuting as a management tool. In addition to these specific technology transfer projects, the UCETF program features peer to peer exchange and dialogue on a variety of issues, and is concentrating in particular on effectively documenting products available for transfer from prior year programs. Specific efforts are underway in several areas to conduct direct transfer activities to widely share the benefits of federally-supported energy technology development and application programs. CONCLUSION Local governments can and should be a component of the national effort to position and maintain the United States as the world's leader in developing, applying and exporting sustainable, environmentally benign and economically competitive energy technologies. Local governments have needs to implement energy policies that support local economic development, including jobs growth and retention and particularly focusing on the small business sector; to identify ways that energy technologies can be applied to aid in addressing community issues; to foster information sharing and encourage training in new energy technologies; and to understand the impacts and opportunities likely to result for local governments from a more competitive electricity industry. The UCETF's 1996 program addresses these and other needs as identified by local governments, and provides an important mechanism to assure that the resources and capabilities of local governments are applied in the effort to enhance our national energy and ́environmental security. TRI WESTERN Research Institute The University of Wyoming Research Corporation March 19, 1996 The Honorable Ralph Regula Chairman Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations U.S. House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: On behalf of the Western Research Institute (WRI), I request that the following statement be submitted as part of the record of proceedings for the subcommittee's consideration of the Department of Energy's Fiscal Year 1997 fossil energy research and development budget request. At the outset, WRI strongly requests that you support the cooperative agreement program that provides both basic and jointly sponsored research funding assistance to WRI. As we submit this statement, the fiscal year 1996 appropriations remain to be finalized. However, we hope that the conference report funding level will be enacted into law, providing at least $3,000,000 for WRI programs. This agreement represents a substantial reduction, but we recognize the severe constraints Congress was under as it developed the 1996 energy research budget. As you begin the 1997 appropriations process, we urge you to support the cooperative research program at a total level of $11 million and to the maximum extent possible avoid further budgetary erosion of the WRI cooperative agreement. Although we have not had the benefit of reviewing the Administration's fiscal year 1997 budget request, we take this opportunity to urge you to support a fossil energy research and development budget that has as a central component the cooperative research program, which relies on cost-shared and noncost-shared research assistance. Since its inception several years ago, this program has proven to be an unqualified success. WRI employs 90 people. Our scientists are involved with energy and environmentally related research and development issues. Over the past several years, we have also focused on serving as an incubator of new technologies that address the needs of the energy industry. At a time of diminishing federal resources for research and development, the cooperative agreement program has leveraged available federal resources with industry partnerships to maintain progress in developing new fossil energy-related technologies and processes. The availability of this program has also permitted our basic, noncost-shared research program to continue in areas that carry too high a risk for industry, but hold the potential of attracting partners once additional research findings have been evaluated. PO Box 3395, University Station. Laramie, WY 82071-3395 • Phone (307) 721-2011. Fax: (307) 721-2345 The Honorable Ralph Regula The success of this program can be recognized through our goals. Specifically, WRI uses the cooperative research program to: Increase the production of U.S. energy resources including petroleum, coal, natural gas and renewable energy resources. · Decrease the environmental consequences associated with energy exploration, recovery and utilization. Respond to energy sector's research needs to enhance energy recovery, production and utilization activities. Conduct high risk fundamental research that holds the potential for future costshared research. Address the country's dependence upon foreign energy supplies and provide energy production alternatives to relieve unforeseen disruptions to our energy supplies. WRI uses the cooperative research program by melding the base and Jointly Sponsored Research Program activities. Recognizing that research must meet industry needs, as well as addressing issues that remain to be fully developed, the base program explores innovative concepts that ultimately promise to attract industrial participation. This approach is vital to the long-term relevance of our nation's fossil energy research priorities. Research for research sake is a luxury that we cannot afford. At the same time, the nation's energy security is grounded in advancing technologies that enhance recovery, production, and utilization. The public consensus on the importance of being good stewards of our natural resources while producing energy supplies requires the development of technologies that either mitigate adverse consequences associated with production or that can be used to minimize, reuse or recycle waste by-products. This approach guarantees that our initiatives meet two objectives. First, research is focused in areas that can quickly evolve into the development and demonstration phase that will lead to full scale commercialization. Second, that research is directly tied to industry priorities. This ensures that when research priorities evolve into the technology development and demonstration phase a cost-sharing partner will be there to follow through on the commercialization requirements. Since the inception of this program, WRI's cooperative research program has been a success. All available funding has been obligated with more than eighteen projects underway. Each project has at least fifty percent cost-sharing with some projects supported by a sixty percent industry cost share. This is above the congressional mandate of fifty percent. WRI believes that given current level of industry interest and demand, we could easily match at least another $5 million in jointly sponsored research projects if Congress were to appropriate additional resources to this program. In fact, since 1993 when The Honorable Ralph Regula WRI entered into a cooperative agreement with DOE, we have matched $8.811 million of DOE assistance with $12.291 million in industrial funding. It is important to highlight that this program is not a one way street. It provides several benefits to the government. First, it requires industry to share the financial risk of research and development that is of direct benefit to the industry. Second, with the oversight of DOE staff, WRI's management of the program is able to stretch limited fossil energy research funding beyond traditional purchasing capability. While this program will never substitute for a comprehensive fossil energy research program, it provides critical seed money to new technologies that would otherwise be precluded from an opportunity to be developed and moved toward commercialization. Third, it demonstrates that meaningful cost-sharing is a realistic approach to promote technology development. And fourth, it helps to maintain our competitiveness in the international fossil energy sector. In Fiscal Year 1996, WRI intends to move aggressively to transfer technology into the commercial sector. At this writing we have seven technologies that have gone through the incubation and research and development phases of the program and are being readied for full scale development. One technology has entered the marketplace and is, commercially speaking, a success. Following on these successes, we hope to start a new cycle of projects that will address the energy and environmental needs of industry and meet our rigorous technical, scientific and commercial value criteria. However, the recent history of the cooperative research program has been one of significantly declining budgets even as other programs within the Office of Fossil Energy have held steady with the rate of inflation. In the event that Congress is unable to foster increased industry partnerships through increased support, WRI will be forced to perform project triage. Since many of our projects are multi year efforts, simply stated, we will continue to support our ongoing projects, but will be unable to accept a number of worthy projects that could enhance our nation's energy recovery, production and environmental priorities. To this end, we strongly encourage the subcommittee to reverse course and provide increased levels of funding of the cooperative research program that will support both basic and jointly sponsored research programs under the Cooperative Research Program account. We believe that increased program funding should be viewed as an effort to support a program that has borne a disproportionate share of the deficit reduction efforts over the past several years but that has nonetheless produced important results. Our request for this program is based on proven results. Our accomplishments are numerous and we are especially proud of our ability to meet the congressional mandate to transfer several technologies to the demonstration phase that will in turn lead to commercialization of the technologies. These activities will mean jobs creation and enhanced competitiveness for energy recovery, production and |