Congressional News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) welcomed Monday the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) first-ever agency-related Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation (FESI).
During the 117th Congress, Luján and Stansbury introduced the Partnerships for Energy Security and Innovation Act, bipartisan legislation to establish a nonprofit foundation for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that would channel private-sector investments to support DOE’s mission and to accelerate the commercialization of innovative technologies in energy, like next-generation batteries, low-carbon fuels, and advanced materials. This legislation was included in the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that passed last Congress.
The FESI will ensure America continues transformative science and technology solutions by engaging in the commercialization of private and public sectors. Luján and Stansbury have a longstanding history of supporting scientific research and development for New Mexico’s Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories.
“The U.S. must remain competitive with transformative scientific research and development by harnessing the work done at New Mexico’s Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs,” Luján said. “I’m proud to have championed the DOE’s first foundation that prioritizes just that. FESI will promote partnerships between the public and private sectors, train the workforce, and drive innovation both in New Mexico and across the country.”
“Last year, my first bill – the bipartisan Partnerships for Energy Security and Innovation Act – was signed into law as part of the CHIPS and Science Act to authorize the creation of the Department of Energy’s Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation,” Stansbury said. “At our leading research laboratories across New Mexico and the nation, our scientists push the envelope of innovation in science and technology every day. As a former STEM educator, I’m proud that this first-of-its-kind foundation that the Department of Energy is announcing today will help boost our STEM economy, give students the tools to succeed in STEM, and bring next-generation science and technologies to the market.”
“FESI will help ensure that the breakthroughs in science and innovation at DOE are used to their fullest capacity in maintaining America’s edge as a global energy powerhouse throughout the 21st Century and beyond,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said. “This first-of-its-kind foundation will serve as a critical new partner to the Department in our efforts to strengthen American ingenuity and deliver the technologies of the future so critical to an equitable clean energy economy.”
Since 1959, 12 agency-related independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations have been created, which have averaged a return of $67 for every dollar in federal contributions. Once established, FESI will bring the potential for greater flexibility and efficiency to how the Department supports a broad portfolio of energy research, commercialization, coordination. and support to a variety of stakeholder groups.
FESI will help foster public-private partnerships, invest in companies commercializing critical energy technologies, support underrepresented groups and regions responding to DOE funding opportunities, and tackle a wide variety of systemic and distributed federal, state and local deployment challenges.