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Federal budget · FY2024

Where does federal energy spending go?

$51 billionin FY2024 · 0.8% of all federal spending

The Energy function covers the Department of Energy's non-weapons work — about $51 billion in FY2024. The biggest buckets are energy programs (renewables, grid modernization, nuclear power R&D — ~$25B), environmental management (cleanup of Cold War-era nuclear weapons sites like Hanford and Savannah River — ~$9B), and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve operations.

DOE runs almost all of its 17 national labs through Management & Operations contracts with non-profit, university, and industry consortia. Battelle Memorial Institute is the largest single operator (Pacific Northwest, Idaho, co-ops Oak Ridge and Brookhaven). Bechtel National runs the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant and partners on Lawrence Livermore. The University of California operates Berkeley Lab and co-operates LLNL. UChicago runs Argonne. UT-Battelle runs Oak Ridge.

A growing slice (~$5B+) flows as loans and grants to private clean-energy manufacturers under the Inflation Reduction Act and the DOE Loan Programs Office — Ford BlueOval City, Tesla Nevada, GM Ultium battery joint ventures, plus utility-scale solar, offshore wind, and hydrogen hub awards.

Where the money goes inside energy

Agency- and program-level breakdown for FY2024.

  • DoE — Energy Programs$25 billion

    Renewables (solar, wind, hydro), grid modernization, nuclear power R&D, fossil energy programs.

  • DoE — Environmental Management$9 billion

    Cleanup of Cold War-era nuclear weapons production sites (Hanford, Savannah River, etc.).

  • Strategic Petroleum Reserve & related$5 billion

    Operating + refilling the SPR, energy security programs.

  • Other DoE & energy agencies$12 billion

    DOE departmental admin, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, energy info programs.

Top recipients — who actually got the money

Largest contractors, grantees, and direct payees within energy. The remainder covers personnel, facilities, and the long tail of smaller recipients.

  • Battelle Memorial Institute (lab operator consortium)$4 billion

    Operates Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) + Idaho National Lab (INL) and co-operates Oak Ridge and Brookhaven. Largest single non-profit federal lab operator.

  • Bechtel National$3.5 billion

    Hanford Waste Treatment Plant (vitrifying Cold War nuclear waste — $1B+/yr) and partner in the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos lab consortia.

  • UT-Battelle (Oak Ridge National Lab)$2.5 billion

    Joint Battelle / University of Tennessee consortium operating Oak Ridge — Frontier exascale supercomputer, materials science, neutron scattering source.

  • University of California (LLNL co-op + Berkeley Lab)$1.8 billion

    Co-operates Lawrence Livermore National Lab (with Bechtel, BWX, Amentum) and operates Lawrence Berkeley National Lab — basic science, supercomputing, materials chemistry.

  • Jacobs / Amentum (DOE cleanup contracting)$1.5 billion

    Environmental remediation and demolition at Oak Ridge, Portsmouth, Paducah, and Idaho sites; lab support services across the complex.

  • UChicago Argonne LLC$1 billion

    Operates Argonne National Lab outside Chicago — Advanced Photon Source, leadership computing, materials and chemistry research.

  • Tesla, Ford, GM (DOE Loan Programs Office)$5 billion

    Loan disbursements and IRA Section 48C grants to EV manufacturers and battery plants — Ford BlueOval City, Stellantis joint ventures, GM Ultium, Tesla Nevada.

  • Solar / wind / clean-energy grant recipients$5.5 billion

    Inflation Reduction Act manufacturing tax credits and grants administered through DOE programs — utility-scale solar, offshore wind, transmission, hydrogen hubs.

  • Stanford (SLAC) + Fermi Research Alliance (Fermilab)$800 million

    Stanford operates the SLAC National Accelerator Lab; UChicago/URA operate Fermilab in Illinois — high-energy physics, particle accelerators.

  • Centerra Group + Triad National Security (security + LANL non-defense)$1 billion

    Centerra provides armed protective services at major DOE sites; Triad runs LANL's non-defense science portion.

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