ORNL director to staff: energy stimulus will move fast; "Manhattan Project" scale

[bananas]

ORNL director to staff: energy stimulus will move fast

Here is ORNL Director Thom Mason's message to lab staff today, telling them the scale of the stimulus package for energy is Manhattan Project-like and that things will probably move more quickly than people had thought.

Here's his message:

I would like to share some thoughts about recent events in Washington that are going to rapidly change our world here at ORNL. The Stimulus package enacted last week contains approximately $39 billion in energy-related programs. To put this number in context, the Stimulus portion for energy is about 50 percent larger than the Department of Energy's entire budget in FY 08. This funding is in addition to the Omnibus FY 09 Budget that we anticipate will be enacted in the next two weeks. The FY 09 budget and the preliminary outline for the FY 10 budget also contain substantial increases for many of the research programs and infrastructure needs at the Laboratory. The funding contained in these three budgets, and the comments from the White House and leading members of Congress about future budgets, indicate that America is making a dramatic long term investment in science.

It is difficult to overstate what this funding trajectory will mean for ORNL and for DOE. The recent budgets represent the kind of "Manhattan Project" scale commitment to sustainable energy that we have talked about for nearly two years. The President and the Congress have heard this message and are calling upon the national labs to help lead the response to a critical national priority. The scope and scale of the energy investments in the Stimulus package present what may be the largest opportunity, and also the greatest responsibility, in DOE's history.

I learned at meetings this week with Secretary Chu that the process of moving this historic level of resources from DOE to the labs will take place at a pace that will be faster than any of us probably imagined.

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[Fledermaus]

1. From what I understand,

all of March will be blacked out while the DOE works on how to award and distribute the money. It wont be until April or May until the money starts flowing from the DOE.

Many companies, that believe they are on the short list, are doing their best to be shovel ready. Projects that can start this year are believed to have preference with the DOE.