The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United Statesgovernment responsible for energy policy and nuclear safety. Its purview includes the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production, many of which are funded through its system of national laboratories.
Many federal agencies have been established to handle various aspects of U.S. energy policy, dating back to the creation of the Manhattan Project and the subsequent Atomic Energy Commission. The impetus for putting them all under the auspices of a single department was the 1973 energy crisis, in response to which President Jimmy Carter proposed creation of the department. The enabling legislation was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Carter on August 4, 1977. The department began operations on October 1, 1977. The agency is administered by the United States Secretary of Energy.
The Department of Energy is a cabinet-level agency whose mission it is to foster a secure and reliable energy system that is environmentally and economically sustainable, to be a responsible steward of the Nation's nuclear weapons, and to support continued United States leadership in science and technology.
The Department of Energys Office of Intelligence (IN) is the Intelligence Community's premier technical intelligence resource in four core areas: nuclear weapons and nonproliferation; energy security; science and technology; and nuclear energy, safety, and waste.
DOE's intelligence program traces its origins to the days of the Manhattan Project, when the former Atomic Energy Commission was tasked to provide specialized analysis of the nascent atomic weapons program of the Soviet Union.
The DOE is administered by a secretary who is appointed by the president, with the approval of the Senate, and who is a member of the cabinet.
The Department of Energy was established by Congress to deal with what were felt to be urgent national problems of dwindling supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas and the increasing dependence of the U.S. economy on foreign sources of fuel, particularly petroleum.
The Department of Energy has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and eight operations offices throughout the U.S. It has assumed control of the facilities and personnel of five regional administrations for the transmission and marketing of electric power and of strategic reserves of oil, shale, and uranium.
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