Energy R&D

Conservation Planning and Management Should Be Strengthened Gao ID: RCED-90-195 July 30, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) energy conservation research and development (R&D) program, focusing on planning and management improvements that would increase program effectiveness.

GAO found that: (1) energy conservation R&D funding and staff declined substantially in 1980, reflecting the administration's view that conservation research should be conducted primarily by the private sector; (2) the 1991 budget request reflects a 9-percent funding reduction; (3) the DOE multi-year conservation R&D plan did not provide detailed information on proposed individual projects and milestones; (4) DOE has not steadily promoted technology transfer activities that effectively promote the commercialization of R&D efforts; (5) independent peer reviews of R&D activities could help ensure the continuing relevance of ongoing research activities and sharpen management decisionmaking; and (6) DOE may inadvertently overlook some relevant critical review recommendations or fail to implement them in a timely manner.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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