Lawmakers seek $2M for US-Israel energy projects

A bipartisan House coalition of more than 100 lawmakers is seeking $2 million to fund energy projects between the U.S. and Israel.

The lawmakers are asking the Appropriations Committee to provide fresh support to the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Program.

{mosads}The effort from the 106 lawmakers marks the largest support for the energy program since its start in 2008 and comes amid renewed tensions between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Program continues to spur and advance new and innovative energy projects,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) in a statement. 

“This tremendous bipartisan support is a clear indication that Congress supports funding for this program from both sides of the aisle,” he added.

Sherman spearheaded the program’s latest funding push in a March 18 letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.  

In it, he urged subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and ranking member Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) to pledge $2 million or more to the program during the next fiscal year.

“Collaboration between the American and Israeli private sector and academia will significantly enhance U.S. efforts to develop new technologies to the benefit of our economic and national security,” Sherman wrote.

The program funds research and development in energy efficiency and technology for both countries.

Some projects it has previously supported include wind energy storage and reducing energy consumption for water treatment.

The initiative utilizes a three-tiered fundraising system for generating resources. Every dollar Congress appropriates is matched twice, once by Israel and again by the private sector. 

Israel and the U.S. have donated $11.7 million apiece since the program’s inception for a combined total of $23.4 million. Private groups raised an additional $27 million during the same time period.

Sherman first drafted the program in 2005. Congress ultimately approved the program in Section 917 of the Energy Independence and Security Act, a larger energy-reform bill passed in December 2007.

Five other lawmakers were listed as co-leaders on the funding request.

Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel (N.Y.) and Ted Deutch (Fla.) also signed the measure.

They were joined by three Republicans: Reps. Bill Johnson (Ohio), Pete King (N.Y.) and Peter Roskam (Ill.).