Holt Announces Restoration of $76 Million for Fusion Research

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ-12) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ-11) announced on Wednesday at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to restore $76 million in funding for fusion energy research.

“Fusion research is key to America’s energy future, and we are proud to have this important work in New Jersey,” said Holt, who was the assistant director of the PPPL before his election to Congress.

Funding that supports PPPL and other energy research laboratories was not included in the President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request, according to Holt. Without that funding, PPPL could face cutbacks of as many as 100 people, including scientists, engineers and lab technicians.

After the president’s announcement, Holt led a bipartisan coatlition of 48 members of Congress to oppose the cuts. The group sent a letter to Felinghuysen, chairman of the U.S. House of Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, asking that the funding be restored.

“Clean energy is an area in which our government can ill-afford to fall behind,” the letter read in part. “We will cede further advantage to countries such as China, South Korea, Japan and the European Union, all of which are pursuing substantially more aggressive fusion programs than our own.”

Frelinghuysen wrote legislation to restore full funding in the FY 2013 Energy and Water appropriations Bill. The bill passed the House on June 6.

The U.S. Senate must still pass the bill.

“Faced with unsustainable budget deficits, we are making difficult funding decisions,” Felinghuysen said. “But I will be working with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that the PPPL’s cutting-edge research to create alternative sources of energy moves forward.”

PPPL Director Stewart Prager and Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman also appeared with Holt and Frelinghuysen on Wednesday.

“I asked Representative Frelinghuysen to join us at PPPL today mostly so that we could say, ‘Thank you,’ Holt said. “His leadership is admirable and deeply appreciated. The Senate still must pass an energy bill that retains this new funding, but thanks to his efforts, the momentum is moving in the right direction.”

Princeton University manages PPPL under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.