One of the most intriguing cabinet appointments in the Obama administration was the choice of Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy. What could possibly result from mixing a Nobel Laureate with a sprawling federal agency? That question has gained added significance as Obama's stimulus package was structured to provide funding for energy efficiency, renewable power, and electric grid improvements. A partial answer was given on Thursday, as Chu announced a wholesale revamping of the DOE's protocol for disbursing funding, one that's designed to get agency-supported projects started sooner rather than later.

The Department has existing programs that include direct funding, direct loans, and loan guarantees, and applications for these programs had been organized in a manner analogous to most research grants, where there is an application deadline followed by a review period. That's gone—there will no longer be any deadlines, and evaluation will start when the application is received, an approach the DOE is calling "rolling appraisals." A review of the process has also resulted in a significant reduction in the paperwork required for an application; Chu is also adding staff to the evaluation process in order to reduce the time needed before funding decisions can be made.

The changes will mean that applications currently in the loan guarantee pipeline will start seeing money as early as the end of April. New applications that are looking for a piece of stimulus money, should they be approved, will begin seeing the cash flow early in the summer, if all goes as planned. "These changes will bring a new urgency to investments that will put Americans back to work, reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and improve the environment." Secretary Chu said in a statement announcing the changes. "We need to start this work in a matter of months, not years—while insisting on the highest standard of accountability."

The Department is also revising how some of the funding programs are structured in order to avoid up-front fees as much as possible. Some of the costs will now be distributed across the life of the guaranteed loans, and applicants will be given the opportunity to shift the fees to when the loan is closed.

Most of these changes will only require Chu to consult with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, but a few will require legislative approval. It's difficult to imagine a lack of support for paperwork reduction, but it remains possible that political interests could make approval more challenging than it probably should be. Given the aggressive schedule for getting the money flowing, there's probably not much room for error, though. If all goes as planned, the DOE estimates that 70 percent of the stimulus money can be disbursed by the end of next year.

Both the reforms and allocation of the stimulus money will be overseen by a newly appointed Senior Advisor, Matt Rogers. Rogers focused on petroleum when employed as a consultant in the private sector, but joined the Obama transition team in a role that saw him focus on the use of renewable energy.

To actually function as a stimulus, the money needs to be spent sooner rather than later, and the proposed changes appear designed to do just that; Chu appears confident that the process can be streamlined while still remaining sufficiently rigorous to avoid questionable projects. The true test of his administrative abilities will be whether he can get the employees of the agency to feel the same sense of urgency that he apparently does.