Energy Department labs as analysts claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Claimant | Eric W. Davis, physicist, EarthTech consultant and former AAWSAP/AATIP contractor scientist |
|---|---|
| Made | In a Facebook comment, circulated by the researcher Joe Murgia on X on 2 October 2021 |
| Claim | The DoE does not own UFO material; its labs analysed some of it for the "owner", which paid through interagency contracts |
| Subcontractors | Defense-industry labs also did some of the analysis, under subcontract to DoE labs |
| Rebutting | Suggestions that the Energy Department was the place to look for crash-retrieval material |
| Evidence | None published |
| Date | 2 October 2021 |
| Topics | Government programs (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | Eric W. Davis, David Grusch |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 202 |
| Year | 2021 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2021 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 3 |
In 2021 the physicist Eric Davis said the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) does not own any UFO material. He said its national laboratories had carried out some analysis of such material for its "owner", which paid for the work through interagency contracts.[2] He was rejecting a then-popular idea that the Energy Department was where crash-retrieval material was held.[2] The claim implies that any such material belongs to another agency or a contractor, with the DoE laboratories acting only as analysts. Davis gave no documents to support it.[2]
The statement
On 2 October 2021 the researcher Joe Murgia posted a thread on X under the heading "Eric Davis History 101". He paraphrased the idea Davis was answering: that the "mysterious DoE" was where crash-retrieval materials should be sought. He then quoted a Facebook comment by Davis.[2] In it Davis said:[2]
- His verdict. The DoE theory was "Not...even...close...to the truth".
- His briefings. He had briefed two Senate committee staffs, "a certain combatant command" and the UAP Task Force on his findings.
- Ownership. The Energy Department did not own any of the material.
- Analysis. Its labs did some of the materials analysis. But they owned neither the materials nor their own analysis reports. The "owner" of the materials had paid for those reports through interagency project contracts.
- Industry labs. The same applied to defense-industry laboratories, which did some of the analysis under subcontract to the DoE labs.
Murgia's post quoted an earlier one, dated 16 May 2021, from Bob McGwier. Replying to the journalist Bryan Bender, McGwier wrote that Davis had told a private gathering of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) the previous day that "the DoE suggestions were wrong". McGwier added that this was all he felt he could say.[2]
What it implies
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As Davis described it, the Energy Department's laboratories acted as paid analysts, not custodians.[2] Interagency contracts of this kind let one agency pay another for technical services. That arrangement would leave the reports, as well as the material, with the paying agency. Defense contractors would form a further subcontracted tier.[2] Davis did not name the owner. He did not say what the material was, when the analysis was done, or what it found.[2]
Replies to Murgia's thread show how readers took it. One asked how Davis could discuss such briefings at all if they were classified. Another reasoned that whoever held the material would need military security at a protected site.[2]
Davis's earlier remarks
Davis had spoken about crash retrievals before. On Coast to Coast AM on 24 June 2018, hosted by George Knapp, he was introduced as having worked on the Pentagon's UFO study and, earlier, on Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science, including at Skinwalker Ranch.[1] His main points on that show:[1]
- The programs. Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) and the Pentagon program were legitimate efforts to test whether UFOs' observed properties could be "back-engineered".
- The white papers. He and others wrote "white papers" on whether humans could build aircraft with those abilities within 50 or more years. He said the observed objects seemed to be "tech that is not made on Earth by humans".
- Pilots. He defended pilots as observers.
- Poltergeists. He stressed that "poltergeist or psychic phenomena" were a major aspect of UFO encounters.
An archived excerpt of that broadcast has Davis saying that "the crash retrieval program, it's still there". The program, he said, would have used legal authorizations to gain access, which would have greatly increased its knowledge, because "we're not in possession of" a Tic Tac.[1] The 2021 statement extended these remarks. It placed the analysis, though not the ownership, of retrieved material in the DoE laboratory system.[1][2]
Assessment
Davis gave no documents, and no laboratory, contract or report has been identified.[2] The claim fits the broader pattern of his statements, and of the claims aired at the July 2023 congressional hearing with David Grusch that crashed craft are held by the government and private industry.[3] It contrasts with the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). In its March 2024 historical review AARO found no evidence that the government holds crashed or reverse-engineered alien technology, or that hidden "UAP reverse-engineering programs" exist in government or private industry. It attributed such claims largely to "circular reporting".[3]
People and topics
- Eric W. Davis — Physicist who worked on AAWSAP and has said the U.S. holds recovered craft.
- Department of Energy — The U.S. department that runs the nuclear weapons laboratories.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- David Grusch — Former intelligence officer who testified in 2023 that the U.S. has recovered non-human craft.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
- Non-human intelligence — A term for intelligent beings of non-human origin, used in UAP legislation.
On the Timeline
- Alaska pyramid claim (28 September 2021) — DeLonge says he was told of a large pyramid beneath Alaska.
- Elizondo on unfair corporate advantage (21 October 2021) — Elizondo says alien technology could give one company an unfair advantage over another.
See every 2021 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Eric Davis on Coast to Coast AM (transcript) — UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- twitter.com · twitter.com · archived copy
- Pentagon UFO office finds 'no empirical evidence' for alien technology in new report · space.com
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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