The Environmental Management program has a mission to manage and direct focused, solution-oriented technology development. The Office of Science and Technology formed teams for each of the five areas to concentrate technical efforts. In addition, the Office of Science and Technology formed three discipline-oriented, crosscutting technology programs that provide technology systems to the five focus areas.
Budgetary constraints make cost reduction critical.
Potential cost savings are a key factor in allocating technology development funds to the focus areas and the crosscutting programs. Potential savings also give regulators and stakeholders information useful for evaluating the value of a new technology. The Office of Science and Technology is currently supporting the development of approximately 170 technology systems. Of these, approximately 120 have cost savings as a primary objective. Thirty-seven of these 120 technology systems serve as the basis for estimating cost savings in the analysis of the 1996 Base Case.