When some pundit asked President Reagan about the need for an Energy Department, he said, “We have an energy department. It’s called the free market.”
Reagan did his best to abolish Carter’s creation, but as you see, it is still with us.
I did some joint R&D work with the DOE about 20 years ago. The people I worked with were, how shall I put this...er, just dumb. What a colossal waste of money!