If the House appropriators who write the Department of Energy's budget had their druthers, they'd send more money to the agency's science office, they said during a hearing yesterday.

But the agency will likely be forced to deal with the same amount of money it received last year, Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) said. That raises tough questions about whether to fund the cutting-edge nuclear projects he favors or the other clean sources that President Obama has made the centerpiece of his energy plan.

"There is a strong probability it may be flat funding," Frelinghuysen said. "I wish it wasn't, but in reality, that may be where we're going."

During the subcommittee's hearing on the Obama administration's budget plan for fiscal 2013, it quickly became clear that no lawmaker in attendance -- not Frelinghuysen, nor ranking Democrat Pete Visclosky of Indiana, nor anyone else on the dais -- was particularly happy with how DOE wants to parcel out money next year.

The proposal released last month would boost the budget for DOE's Office of Science by $127.5 million to $5 billion, a 2.6 percent increase from current levels. It would slash funding for nuclear physics, high-energy physics and fusion energy programs by $20.5 million, $14.3 million and $2.7 million, respectively.

Funding for basic energy sciences would increase $111.5 million to $1.8 billion, with renewable energy as the biggest beneficiary. For example, the budget would renew funding for three bioenergy research centers that were created five years ago to come up with new plant-based fuels.

Frelinghuysen has asked DOE to submit a proposed budget that includes flat funding for the fiscal year that begins in October, but the agency has not yet responded. William Brinkman, the acting director of the Office of Science, said although DOE will work on the request, it's hesitant because such a budget would have to eliminate programs the administration wants to keep and worry the people who depend on the funding.

Even with the overall increase sought by Obama, proposed cuts to specific programs have sent scientists running to Congress for help.

DOE has said it would decrease funding to a set of U.S. fusion research projects to make up for a proposed $45 million increase for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, a project led by the European Union that is under construction in the south of France. Rep. John Olver (D-Mass.) spoke up for one program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to advance those sorts of fusion reactors, which he called the "holy grail of clean energy."

"Fusion comes out as a loser here," agreed Frelinghuysen, a longtime backer of nuclear power.

ITER would turn two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, into plasma at temperatures above 150 million degrees Celsius and create 500 megawatts of electricity from 50 MW of input power (E&E Daily, March 9).

Olver said it would be dangerous to terminate any projects that help lay the technical groundwork for the international project, and could leave the United States lagging behind Europe. "It's kind of like a gun to the head, the way this is working out," he said.

Brinkman said that he agrees fusion would be a momentous advance, but that the federal government doesn't expect it to occur for decades.

"The rationale for the administration is that we need to push hard on clean energy," Brinkman said. "Fusion is not likely to occur for more than 50 years -- around 2050, maybe -- and so, from the administration's point of view, it has less priority than the other clean energy programs."

Within the fusion program, DOE has decided ITER is the most promising place to send money at the moment, Brinkman said.

While the United States is paying for one-ninth of the project, the administration hasn't said exactly what it owes the project in fiscal 2013. The United States seems to have committed roughly $250 million, based on the amount that Japan has publicly said it will give, said Stephen Dean, president of Fusion Power Associates, in a comment last month to a DOE advisory committee on fusion.

DOE has agreed to spend about $250 million on the project in fiscal 2014 and another $300 million the following year, Olver said, meaning lawmakers will have to do plenty more thinking about the agency's science budget.

"We do not want ITER to fail because of the United States," Brinkman said.