Finding and Using U.S. Government Information by Bethany Latham

Author:Bethany Latham [Latham, Bethany]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2018-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Environment

In This Chapter

Energy

Environment

Selected commercial resources

Practical applications

Since the federal government produces policy that regulates industry and a variety of other factors that can affect the environment, government agencies collect information on the topic. The areas where information is collected (sources of energy, weather, etc.) can be influenced by the agendas of a particular administration. For instance, if the current occupant of the Oval Office ran on a platform of helping to slow climate change, detailed studies might be commissioned on the environmental effects of different methods of generating power (e.g., coal). By the same token, if his or her successor ran on a platform of restoring jobs to those devastated by regulating the coal industry, these same studies might be abandoned or their parameters modified since some programs are mandated by statute.

There are two primary agencies responsible for the majority of the information generated regarding the environment: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DoE). Both of these agencies are relatively new, as they were founded in 1970 and 1977, respectively. This is not to say that historical information on environmental topics produced by the government is not available before this time. The DoE, for instance, has its origins in the 1940s with the advent of atomic energy. There are also many other, older agencies that intersect with the missions of the EPA and DoE, such as several entities under the Department of the Interior. It is simply that agencies which have within their remit to systematically produce environmental and energy information on the scale of the DoE and the EPA are limited to the last forty years.

The two agencies have different missions. The EPA is primarily a regulatory agency, but it does produce research intended to further strategies that reduce negative impacts on the environment. By contrast, the DoE is an information-gathering and research agency that is meant to investigate different methods of developing and managing energy production, their effects, and use that information to drive policy. There are other government entities which produce information in these areas (e.g., the aforementioned Department of the Interior) which will also be touched on in this section.

Energy

Department of Energy | www.energy.gov

The DoE website is a portal to an array of resources on energy production under four broad headings: science and innovation, energy economy, security and safety, and energy conservation. Let’s take a look at each.

Science and Innovation: The DoE bills itself as a science agency that funds research projects on a number of levels. One way it does this is through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E; https://arpa-e.energy.gov/). This sub-agency grants funds to nascent projects that are attempting to innovate and find new ways to generate energy—primarily funding research too early in development to garner private-sector investment. When projects are further along, they can seek funding through the DoE Loan Programs Office, which focuses on funding clean energy initiatives, with an eye to speeding their deployment. The DoE also furthers research through its National Laboratories, of which there are currently seventeen.

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