This article further proves to extent to which Pres. Obama and his staff (Dr. Chu) are attempting to distribute more money to the energy movement. In fact, the author states that Obama's new budget proposal has increased the spending for the Department of Energy by 3 billion dollars. The administration is focusing on wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass energy. Furthermore, the proposed budget asks for more funding of energy innovation hubs. According to Secretary Chu, these small labs are the equivalent to the Apollo Project. Dr. Chu believes that in these labs the leading innovations will take place for energy, his only concern is that in the last proposed budget he asked for 6 labs, but Congress only agreed to 3. Thus, he is attempting to increase the number of labs.
I am very proud to see that the administration is sticking to their word and really pushing for energy development. Interestingly enough, Yucca Mountain was not mentioned within the proposal. But what it did mention was a push to find new ways of disposing of waste - one such method was to decrease the half-life. A problem I see is that this is the type of news which doesn't get coverage. I doubt that a majority of Americans know to what extent Obama is pushing for energy development. So if Congress doesn't approve it then Americans are only going to see that "Obama failed because he did not do what he said he was going to do during the State of the Union Address about energy" when in fact, it is Congress who is hindering the President's actions.
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