While praising President Joe Biden's proposed budget for its energy investments, a key lawmaker noted that the proposal would not fully fund the massive energy bill Congress passed in December 2020.

U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the budget request does not "appear to include full funding for the Energy Act," though it does offer strong support for "some vitally important" entities. For example, the president's budget did not include all the funding Congress allocated for an advanced nuclear demonstration program, the chairman said during a June 15 committee hearing.

Congress passed the Energy Act of 2020, the first major piece of energy legislation to be signed into law in more than a decade, as part of a bipartisan stimulus package and government funding bill.

Biden released his proposed fiscal year 2022 budget in May, but Congress will ultimately draft its own version to negotiate and vote on in the coming weeks and months. Manchin, a key moderate Democratic vote, holds considerable power in the evenly divided Senate.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the committee that the Energy Act was an "amazing example of bipartisanship," noting that the U.S. Energy Department has invested $1.5 billion to strengthen national security and move toward a net-zero economy since Biden assumed office. Much of that funding helped deploy market-ready energy technologies, while some aided projects that could deliver "game-changing breakthroughs," Granholm said.

"It is the country's first comprehensive, energy-focused legislation … since 2007, and it really did lay out a road map for research and development and deployment" of various energy technologies, including advanced nuclear and carbon capture, Granholm said. "Our budget request would allow us to make great progress in these areas, and I'm proud to report that we've actually already taken steps since Jan. 20."

The Biden administration proposed increasing the budget for the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management by 19% from fiscal year 2021 levels and recommended a 23% increase in the Office of Nuclear Energy's budget, Granholm said. Advanced nuclear energy and carbon capture technologies are "included in a very big way in the American Jobs Plan," she added.

Granholm repeatedly touted the American Jobs Plan — a 10-year, $2 trillion proposal that includes $100 billion to strengthen energy infrastructure — as a solution to help the U.S. transition to a cleaner-energy economy. That plan includes a significant commitment for carbon capture and hydrogen demonstration projects and would invest in the domestic critical mineral supply chain necessary to support the buildout of clean energy technologies, Granholm said.

The U.S. depends on other nations, namely China, for many critical minerals needed for green technologies such as solar panels, energy storage systems and electric vehicles. Biden is "obsessed" with reducing the nation's dependence on foreign sources for such materials, Granholm said.

Critical minerals are "part and parcel of how we are going to be able to electrify the vehicle supply" and produce solar panels, Granholm said.

"We want to be able to show that we can mine in a responsible way" in the U.S., she said. "We want to take a look at the coal that is mined and break that open and see if there are critical minerals there that we can then use to decarbonize. There's a whole circular economy around those minerals as well, which includes recycling."

Responding to criticisms over the short timeline for Biden's climate targets, Granholm said the Biden administration recognizes that the country needs to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources. Biden set a 2035 target for the nation to run on clean energy and a 2050 goal to decarbonize the U.S. economy.

"The technologies that will help us to transition are really supported by this administration," she said. "What we want to do is to assist natural gas, for example, in removing greenhouse gas emissions … so that they can still function but in a zero-carbon environment."