Department of Energy

Now is an ideal time to reevaluate the Energy Department (DOE) and its missions. The agency's missions and priorities have changed so dramatically over time that DOE is now very different from what it was in 1977, when it was created in response to the energy crisis. Energy research, conservation, and policy-making were early DOE priorities. Today, weapons production and environmental cleanup dominate its budget, and new missions in science and industrial competitiveness have emerged. Criteria developed by a DOE advisory panel and the National Academy of Public Administration are available for systematically evaluating DOE's missions and for determining if DOE should remain a Cabinet-level department. Because transferring missions and their related statutory requirements from DOE to other agencies would have broad impacts, any proposal to dismantle DOE should be considered as part of an overall governmentwide restructuring effort.