Budget & Policy

President Barack Obama this week reminded the nation of the reality of climate change and urged continued work in both the public and private domains to address the issue under the incoming administration of President-elect (and sometimes climate change denier) Donald Trump. “Without some common baseline of facts, without a willingness to admit new information […]

Refusing to provide President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team with a requested list of Department of Energy employees who worked on climate change issues wasn’t just the right thing to do for employees, but also for Rick Perry, Trump’s pick to lead the agency, outgoing Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday. Addressing the press for the […]

Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson on Wednesday doubled down on his belief that climate change is real and that the United States should remain a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change regardless of President-elect Donald Trump’s publicly stated stance that climate change is a hoax. “I came to the conclusion […]

Jonathan Pershing, U.S. special envoy for climate change, is no longer looking down the barrel of unemployment. On Tuesday, he will start his new job as the director of the Environment Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. S. coal production fell in 2016, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced this week. Production in […]

Nevada lawmakers and a Republican congressman this week introduced dueling bills concerning federal plans for permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste. Two other Republican congressman also introduced a bill that would allow the Energy Department to contract private nuclear waste storage companies. The Obama administration in 2009 canceled the planned Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada, […]

John Kotek, a key leader in the Energy Department’s consent-based siting process for nuclear waste storage, has left his post to join the Nuclear Energy Institute as vice president for policy development and public affairs, the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm announced on Jan. 6. Kotek started in his new position on Monday. “I couldn’t be more […]

Up on Capitol Hill, a few congressional committees with jurisdiction over the Energy Department’s legacy nuclear cleanup and nuclear arsenal programs officially got new leaders for the new Congress this week. Most of the changes announced so far are in the Republican-controlled House, where the GOP has instituted term limits for chairs of standing committees such […]

The entire Washington state congressional delegation on Monday urged President-elect Donald Trump to make environmental cleanup, worker health, and the safety of nearby communities at the Hanford Site a priority in his administration. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) organized the letter sent to Trump, which was also signed by Sen. Patty Murray (D) and the state’s […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Jan. 17.

Nevada lawmakers and a Republican congressman have introduced dueling bills concerning federal plans for permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste. The Obama administration in 2009 canceled the planned Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada, pursuing instead a plan for separate storage facilities for commercial and defense waste. The administration in December unveiled a draft plan […]

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has reportedly denied it is dismissing the National Nuclear Security Administration’s top two officials, following reports earlier this week that the agency itself refuted. Gizmodo reported Monday that NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz and Principal Deputy Administrator Madelyn Creedon were being dismissed from their current roles come Jan. 20, the day […]

The entire Washington state congressional delegation on Monday urged President-elect Donald Trump to make environmental cleanup, worker health, and the safety of nearby communities at the Hanford Site a priority in his administration. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) organized the letter sent to Trump, which was also signed by Sen. Patty Murray (D) and the state’s […]

A National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official said Monday that reports that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is already dismissing the agency’s top two leaders are “not accurate.” In an article posted Monday, Gizmodo reported that NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz and Principal Deputy Administrator Madelyn Creedon were being dismissed from their current roles come Jan. 20, […]

John Kotek, a key leader in the Energy Department’s consent-based siting process for nuclear waste storage, has left his post to join the Nuclear Energy Institute as vice president for policy development and public affairs, the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm announced Friday. Kotek starts in his new position today. “I couldn’t be more pleased to announce […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) has wasted no time in inviting President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for energy secretary to visit the Hanford Site. Newhouse issued an invitation to former Texas governor Rick Perry in a letter Thursday. Perry, also a former two-time presidential candidate, famously forgot the Department of Energy during a 2011 debate as one […]

The next head of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management could be a New York attorney who last served DOE in the Office of the General Counsel. Two sources this week said the incoming Donald Trump administration is considering Gary Lavine to head DOE’s $6-billion-a-year Cold War nuclear-cleanup program as assistant secretary for environmental […]

Jeffrey Carswell has been promoted to deputy manager of the Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, putting an end to talk that one of the leading figures in the agency’s years-long drive to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was headed up the road to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Carswell — one […]

The Energy Department may assess civil penalties against contractors that retaliate against whistleblowers within their ranks, under a new agency rule that goes into effect Jan. 26. The agency released a summary of the final rule late last year in the Federal Register. Senate Democrats from Washington state and Oregon, major stakeholders in the cleanup of the […]

Donald Trump’s impending presidency will not delay the court-ordered schedule for a federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for new-build coal-fired power plants, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered Wednesday. The current schedule gives petitioners until Jan. 19 to respond to the EPA and its intervenors’ briefs […]

Carbon Capture and Storage got a bit of attention in the mainstream media Tuesday with a lengthy article in the science section of The New York Times. Reporter John Schwartz questioned if the technology can prosper under the incoming Trump administration. Resources for the Future has a new blog post exploring the potential for CCS […]

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are not about to let Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt be confirmed as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency without a fight. Pruitt, who has fought the EPA tooth and nail for several years against regulating the fossil fuel industries, is one of President-elect Donald […]

After just one week in session, the Republicans of the 115th Congress have made clear their intentions to come down hard on executive branch regulation. Three bills introduced this week, the Regulatory Accountability Act, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, and the Midnight Rules Relief Act, aim to limit the power […]

South Carolina has hit the restart button on a multimillion-dollar fine over a missed plutonium disposition deadline at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS). A 2003 agreement between the state and DOE requires the federal government to process 1 metric ton of plutonium at SRS through the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), or remove […]

President Barack Obama on Dec. 23 signed the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law, following Congress’ approval of the conference version of the bill earlier in the month. The bill authorizes nearly $619 billion in spending through the end of the budget year on Sept. 30, though the actual funding the Defense […]

An article in Tuesday’s edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing incorrectly stated that Southern California Edison has requested an $84 million withdrawal from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station trust funds. The request was made by site minority owner San Diego Gas & Electric Co. for tax purposes.

Jeffrey Carswell has been promoted to deputy manager of the Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, putting an end to talk that one of the leading figures in the agency’s years-long drive to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was headed up the road to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Carswell — one […]

The Energy Department may assess civil penalties against contractors that retaliate against whistleblowers within their ranks, under a new agency rule that goes into effect Jan. 26. The agency released a summary of the final rule last week in the Federal Register. Senate Democrats from Washington state and Oregon, major stakeholders in the cleanup of the Hanford […]

Veolia Nuclear Solutions’ technology demonstration for disposal of radioactive contaminated reactive metal waste at the Idaho National Laboratory. as reported in the Dec. 19 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, involved material separate from 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing waste stored underground at the facility.

GHG Monitor is happy to announce the launch of a new, restructured publication in early January. GHG Weekly will offer detailed coverage of carbon capture, utilization, and storage development around the world, as well as exhaustive analysis of government actions at all levels affecting the advancement of this important technology. You won’t find this in-depth […]

Donald Trump’s presidency is no reason to delay the court-ordered schedule for a federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for new-build coal fired power plants, the EPA said in a Wednesday court filing. The current schedule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sets a Jan. 19 deadline […]