Summary: There has been a significant increase in recent years in research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) funding for fossil energy technologies, with a large proportion of funds directed towards efforts to demonstrate that these techniques will be commercially viable.
The Department of Energy (DOE) lacked some of the tools necessary to properly manage fossil energy RD&D programs. It had not developed a formal system of priorities for developing the most promising approaches, detailed cost and performance milestones to judge progress and determine how best to proceed, nor criteria for determining when a project is ready for the next phase of development. Since GAO's review, DOE initiated actions which should help resolve many of the problems, but further action is needed. DOE should change the following practices in its fossil demonstration program: issuing requests for proposals and relying on industry to propose processes for consideration, issuing or considering contracts for demonstration plants which are either not large enough to obtain needed data or are larger than needed, requiring a rigid 50-50 cost-sharing policy with industry, and fully funding the design phase of project development.
