Several of you may find this of interest.
Mark
Mark Goldes
Co-founder, Chava Energy
CEO, Aesop Institute
301A North Main Street
Sebastopol, CA 95472
www.chavaenergy.com
www.aesopinstitute.org
_________________________
From: Cold Fusion Now [donotre...@wordpress.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 4:45 PM
To: Mark Goldes
Subject: [New post] ARPA-E answers questions about fullfilling their mission
New post on Cold Fusion Now
by Ruby Carat<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/author/rubycarat/>
The House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology's Subcommittee on
Investigations and Oversight held a hearing on January 24, 2012 to review the
efforts of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), a
Department of Energy (DOE) agency tasked with funding cutting-edge energy
research “in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because
of technical and financial uncertainty.”
According to the Subcommittee press
release<http://science.house.gov/press-release/members-question-oversight-and-administration-arpa-e>,
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department of Energy
Inspector General's (IG) office both issued reports that found ARPA-E funding
practices and procedures appearing to veer from this mission.
In particular, the GAO's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Benefit
from Information on Applicants’ Prior Funding reported that
12 of the 18 companies it identified as having received private sector funding
prior to their ARPA-E award planned to use ARPA-E funding to either advance or
accelerate prior-funded work. Further, Chairman Broun noted, “Similarly, a
review of GAO work papers and publicly available information indicates numerous
instances of overlap and duplication between ARPA-E and both public and private
sector funding.”
In addition, DOE’s Office of the Inspector General (IG) released its own audit
in August 2011 that focused on “whether ARPA-E implemented safeguards necessary
to achieve its goals and objectives and to effectively deploy associated
Recovery Act resources.”
Two of the three awards examined in detail by the IG had questionable costs of
$280,387. Included among these costs were “meetings with bankers to raise
capital” and a “fee to appear on a local television show.” Despite concerns
regarding these uses of taxpayer dollars, the DOE IG noted in its report that
such activities were cited as an allowable cost by ARPA-E under its Technology
Transfer and Outreach policy.
[http://coldfusionnow.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/arun-maj-012412_arpe-13.jpg?w=150&h=112]<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=13306>
ARPA-E, DOE IG, and GAO each testified.
Testifying were Dr. Arun Majumdar, Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency
– Energy, U.S., Gregory Friedman, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Energy
and Mr. Frank Rusco, Director, Energy and Science Issues, U.S. Government
Accountability Office.
[http://coldfusionnow.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/roscoe-bartlett-012412_arpe-18.jpg?w=150&h=112]<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=13286>
Roscoe Bartlett
[http://coldfusionnow.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/dana-rohrabaher-012412_arpe-19_0.jpg?w=150&h=112]<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=13287>
Dana Rohrabacher
This particular Sub-committee has members such as Representatives Roscoe
Bartlett, who has championed the Peak Oil issue in the House for years, though
to deaf ears, and Dana Rohrabacher, who spoke out in support of Drs.
Fleischmann and
Pons<http://articles.latimes.com/1989-06-17/local/me-1471_1_cold-fusion-chemists-science>
twenty-three years ago.
The Chairman of the Subcommittee, Paul Broun said in his statement that
“while it is clear many ARPA-E projects are pursuing high-quality, potentially
transformative research that is too risky for private investment, reviews of
GAO work papers and publicly available information reveal many exceptions to
this practice, and raise questions regarding ARPA-E’s commitment to ‘carefully
structure its projects to avoid any overlap with public and private sources of
funding.’”
Specifically, the reports detail information showing that:
Numerous awardees indicated to GAO they would use ARPA-E funding to accelerate
work they were already pursuing.
Numerous awardees’ proposals overlap and even duplicate efforts supported
elsewhere in DOE and other Federal agencies.
The Administration touted ARPA-E awardees that received private sector funding
after their ARPA-E award as proof that ARPA-E is working and successful;
however, ten of these eleven recipients had also received significant private
sector funding prior to receiving their award, raising questions regarding the
degree to which the ARPA-E award itself was the driver of the follow-on funding.
Of the 44 identified small- and medium-size companies that received ARPA-E
awards, a review of USASpending.gov shows that 26, or 59 percent, of these
companies received other funding from the Federal government.
Over 60 percent of proposals funded by ARPA-E sought to advance technology to
Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 and beyond—the late stage technology
demonstration and system commissioning and operation that is regularly
supported by the private sector.
ARPA-E's response, included in the GAO report, rationalized the actions.
[http://coldfusionnow.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/arpa-e-response-to-gao.jpg]<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=13277>
The full Staff Report to Chairman Broun’s statement
HERE<http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/HHRG-112-SY21-WState-PBroun-GA-20120124_0.pdf>
The GAO's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Benefit from
Information on Applicants’ Prior Funding report is available
HERE<http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/587667.pdf>
The DOE IG's Audit report is available
HERE<http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/2011%2008%20DOE%20IG%20ARPA-E%20Audit.pdf>
The IG report states "The goals of ARPA-E are to enhance domestic economic
security through the development of energy technologies and to ensure that the
United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying
advanced energy technologies."
The small amount of federal funding for cold fusion research has come largely
from Department of Defense agencies. Civilian funding would come from the
Department of Energy's ARPA-E office, but so far they have refused to even
acknowledge the two-decades long body of science, violating their stated
mission.
At this point, it appears private sector funding will carry the development of
this revolutionary new energy technology into the future - only after the first
steps in commercial products begin appear on the market. Till then, the small,
self-funded companies will continue to struggle in their effort to bring forth
the answer to many of our energy problems.
And at that point, the DOE will realize they've been playing in Bonanzaland
instead of readying for the Space Age.
Cold Fusion Now!
Related Links
Members Question Oversight and Administration of ARPA-E House Science, Space
and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight Press
Release<http://science.house.gov/press-release/members-question-oversight-and-administration-arpa-e>
January 24, 2012
"Suburbia lives imaginatively in Bonanza-land." -- Marshall McLuhan The Man,
His Message CBC
Archives<http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/media/topics/342-1835/>
Reviewing DoD Interest in Cold Fusion by Ruby Carat Cold Fusion Now November
25,
2011<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/reviewing-dod-interest-in-cold-fusion/>
Letters to Congressional Sub-committees repeat hearings request by Ruby Carat
November 13,
2011<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/letters-to-congressional-energy-sub-committees-repeat-hearings-request/>
Letter to the Secretary of Energy and others by Ruby Carat October 14,
2010<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/letter-to-the-secretary-of-energy-and-others/>
Letter to ARPA-E by Ruby Carat August 17,
2010<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/letter-to-arpa-e/> - one of
our early efforts at contacting DOE.
Ruby Carat<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/author/rubycarat/> | February 9,
2012 at 4:44 PM | Categories:
Politics<http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/?cat=398> | URL:
http://wp.me/pYQbF-3s1
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