Letter to Senator Lamar Alexander, and Senator Dianne Feinstein - Schumer, Gillibrand Lead Push In Senate To Secure Millions In Federal Funding For RIT-Led Remade Manufacturing Institute To Support High-Tech Jobs And Clean Energy Innovation In Rochester

Letter

Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Feinstein:

I write to ask for your support of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI) institutes program as you develop the fiscal year (FY) 2020 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. Specifically, I request that you include $56 million in DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) for the CEMI program.

CEMI is part of the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation, now known as Manufacturing USA. Focused on improving competitiveness and job creation in the U.S. manufacturing sector, CEMI is a network of hundreds of the nation's leading universities, companies, national laboratories, and associations. The overall goal of these R&D consortia is to advance clean-energy solutions that will help reduce pollution, greenhouse-gas emissions, and dependence on oil while launching new businesses and creating high-wage, highly-skilled clean-energy jobs. CEMI's efforts to improve the efficiency, sustainability, and cost effectiveness of transportation and to improve energy efficiency in industry, buildings, and manufacturing are helping the U.S. to maintain a position of global leadership in clean-energy technology.

Through Manufacturing USA, each CEMI institute is authorized to receive $70 million from DOE over five years, and they are required to secure from their partners a dollar for dollar match for all federal funds received. There are currently three CEMI institutes that have not received their full funding: the Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute led by the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) led by UCLA, and the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. DOE is also preparing to issue a funding opportunity announcement for a new institute that will concentrate on cybersecurity in clean energy manufacturing.

I believe the CEMI institutes support transformative innovation in American manufacturing and strongly encourage you to maintain the federal government's role in these important private-public partnerships. I thank you for your past support and respectfully request that you include $56 million for the CEMI program in FY 2020 to ensure all CEMI institutes receive their full funding.

Sincerely,

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