What is the Department of Energy?

The Department of Energy is the federal department responsible for energy policy, nuclear weapons stewardship, nuclear safety, and scientific research. Created by Congress in 1977 in response to the energy crises of the 1970s, the department merged several earlier agencies including the Atomic Energy Commission and the Federal Energy Administration. James R. Schlesinger served as the first Secretary of Energy. The department's headquarters is the James V. Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Energy has about 13,000 federal employees and oversees a network of 17 national laboratories operated by contractors, including Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (where the first atomic bomb was developed during the Manhattan Project), Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. These labs employ tens of thousands of additional researchers and conduct cutting-edge work in physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, energy, and computing.

The department's three main mission areas are national nuclear security, energy and environment, and science. The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy, maintains the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, oversees naval nuclear propulsion (including aircraft carriers and submarines), and works to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons globally.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy supports research on solar, wind, and other clean energy technologies, as well as energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, and industry. The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management addresses oil, natural gas, and coal, including carbon capture and storage technologies. The Office of Nuclear Energy supports nuclear power research and the next generation of reactors. The Office of Science is the largest funder of physical science research in the United States, supporting major scientific facilities and university research.

The department also manages cleanup of contaminated nuclear weapons production sites such as Hanford in Washington State. The Secretary of Energy advises the President on energy and nuclear matters. Recent Secretaries include Rick Perry, Jennifer Granholm, and Chris Wright.