Implementation of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

“We cannot overstate the importance of this effort. We are asking the American people to trust their government with an unprecedented level of funding to address the economic emergency. In return, we must prove to them that their dollars are being invested in initiatives and strategies that make a difference in their communities and across the country.” Memorandum to Head of Departments and Agencies February 9, 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009. It is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century.

The Office of Fossil Energy has received $3.4 billion from the Recovery Act. Initiatives will focus on research, development and deployment of technologies to use coal more cleanly and efficiently. Investments will go
toward finding and testing new ways to produce energy from coal - such as gasification - and improving techniques to clean or capture and store the emissions from coal-fired power plants. Funds include:

• $1.0 billion for fossil energy research and development programs;
  
  
• $800 million for additional amounts for the Clean Coal Power Initiative Round III Funding Opportunity Announcement
  (Read the Funding Opportunity Announcement - Issued June 9, 2009)
  
  
• $1.52 billion for a competitive solicitation for a range of industrial carbon capture and energy efficiency improvement projects, including a small allocation for innovative concepts for beneficial reuse of carbon dioxide (CO₂);
  (Learn more about Industrial CCS projects)  
  
  
• $50 million for a competitive solicitation for site characterization activities in geologic formations (in the context of CO₂ sequestration in geologic formations);
  (Learn more about CCS Site Characterization projects) 
  
  
• $20 million for geologic CO₂ sequestration training and research grants; and
  (Learn more about Regional Sequestration Training projects)
  (Learn more about Geologic Sequestration Training and Research projects)
  
  
• 10 million for program direction funding.