Secretary Federico Pena outlined four priorities in the U.S. Department of Energy's proposed FY1998 fossil fuel R&D budget: enhancing energy security, ensuring our nuclear weapons stockpile safety/reliability, cleaning up former weapons sites, and leveraging science and technology to advance fundamental knowledge. Energy is to be re-elevated as DOE's dominant mission, increasing domestic energy production through smarter regulations and technological advances that expand natural gas usage. This will reduce U.S. dependence on insecure oil supplies, maintain nuclear power reactor safety, and ensure a strategic petroleum reserve. The continuing oil import increase is unacceptable, so DOE is raising the public's energy awareness. DOE is communicating how its research benefits citizens directly, because DOE?s R&D budget is in jeopardy. The Administration, as microcosm of the nation, has Defense as the largest electricity consumer and Agriculture as among the largest bondholders financing electric power.