The DOE's biggest duties are nuclear defense (2/3 of the budget), and science programs (1/4). Among other things, they're working to "find alternatives to rare

The DOE's biggest duties are nuclear defense (2/3 of the budget), and science programs (1/4). Among other things, they're working to "find alternatives to rare earth elements which we now depend on China for" [0]; they also helped fund the Human Genome Project. The DOE invented "solid state lighting, modern refrigerator compressors and water heaters". The OP (submission) mentions cuts to ARPA-E, which he probably got from 2 of Trump's questionnaire, but cuts to ARPA-E are very unlikely to be significant, since they fund so many commercializable things, which Trump said he supports during the campaign trail. Here [1] is the Trump questionnaire so everyone can read it without speculating about it. Many of the questions are innocuous, the fuss is centered around question 13. [0]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/11/23/republicans-want-to-shut-down-the-department-of-energy-heres-why-thats-a-really-bad-idea/#4b21b885223f http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/11/23/republican... [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/09/us/politics/document-Trump-Transition-Questionnaire-Energy-Dept.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/09/us/politics/do...