Budget & Policy

Cleanup of former uranium enrichment plants at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth and Paducah sites would be spared the ax under the short-term budget bill Congress is working to pass before Sept. 30, a draft of the legislation released by the Senate Appropriations Committee shows. Legally binding language in the draft continuing resolution stipulates that funding […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should uphold all emergency preparedness and response requirements at shuttered nuclear power plants until spent fuel is moved into dry storage, a host of lawmakers suggested in a recent letter to the agency. The NRC’s issuing of safety exemptions has drawn criticism from lawmakers and residents near closed nuclear power plants. […]

Congress adjourned for the week without passing a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded at 2016 levels until Dec. 9, leaving lawmakers only another week to put finishing touches on the bill or risk another government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) began the week with hopes that the upper chamber by […]

Congress adjourned for the week without passing a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded at 2016 levels until Dec. 9, leaving lawmakers only another week to put finishing touches on the bill or risk another government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) began the week with hopes that the upper chamber by […]

In a letter Thursday to President Barack Obama, 29 Republican senators argued against enactment of a “no first use” policy for the U.S. nuclear deterrent. “While no American wishes to employ nuclear weapons in conflict, establishing a no first use policy would weaken the nation’s security and make the world less safe by crippling America’s nuclear deterrence posture—a stabilizing […]

Congress adjourned for the week without passing a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded at fiscal 2016 levels until Dec. 9, leaving lawmakers only another week to put finishing touches on the bill or risk another government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) began the week with hopes that the upper chamber […]

Cleanup of a former gaseous diffusion plant in Ohio would be underfunded by nearly $80 million on an annualized basis and layoffs will be imminent if Congress does not increase funding for the project next week, an Energy Department contractor said Thursday. The cleanup, funded under a 10-year, $2.6 billion contract with Fluor-BWXT, depends not only […]

Attorneys on both sides of the lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan will have an additional judge to win over during oral arguments next week, following a court order released Wednesday. In May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the case be heard “un banc” by the full […]

If not for the energy renaissance of the last decade, which launched the United States into an era of energy abundance driven largely by the advent of fracking, the nation would look very different, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. Had there been no […]

The carbon emissions that would result solely form using fossil fuels from today’s fields and mines would send the world past 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, according to a study issued Thursday by Oil Change International. “The potential carbon emissions from the oil, gas, and coal in the world’s currently operating fields and mines […]

The overregulation the fossil energy industries have endured through the Obama administration will look like child’s play compared to what would happen during a Hillary Clinton presidency, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday during a keynote speech at the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh. “She’s not only declared war on the miners but on […]

Conferees working on the Energy Policy Modernization Act on Tuesday received a letter from 13 environmental groups calling for a bill that supports environmental causes. “[W]e urge you to only report an energy bill if it will facilitate our nation’s transition to cleaner sources of energy and doesn’t have provisions that would further climate disruption […]

All national security doctrine, policies, and plans must now consider potential climate change-related impacts, a presidential memorandum released by the White House on Wednesday dictates. “Climate change and its associated impacts affect economic prosperity, public health and safety, and international stability. Extended drought, more frequent and severe weather events, heat waves, warming and acidifying ocean […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should uphold all emergency preparedness and response requirements at shuttered nuclear power plants until spent fuel is moved into dry storage, a host of lawmakers suggested in a recent letter to the agency. The NRC’s issuing of safety exemptions has drawn criticism from lawmakers and residents near closed nuclear power plants. In […]

On Monday, two more members of Ohio’s congressional delegation asked high-ranking appropriators to ensure cleanup work at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio, is not interrupted because of the short-term spending bill slowly working its way across the Hill. The Senate is working this week on a so-called continuing resolution that will […]

The Senate on Wednesday formally began consideration of what will become the short-term spending bill that would avert a government shutdown after Sept. 30 and freeze the budget for federal agencies at fiscal 2016 levels until Dec. 9. Closed-door negotiations over the exact levels in the spending bill “are ongoing,” Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell […]

Fossil fuel subsidy peer reviews from the United States and China released Monday by China’s Group of 20 presidency reveal billions of dollars in inefficient subsidies. According to the reports, 16 inefficient fossil fuel subsidies in the U.S. total more than $8 billion, while China’s nine inefficient fossil fuel subsidies are valued at $14.5 billion […]

The Senate completed a procedural step Tuesday that brings the chamber one step closer to voting on a short-term spending bill that would keep the Energy Department funded at an annualized level of about $29.5 billion through Dec. 9. After a false start Monday, when partisan politics unrelated to DOE spending delayed the vote, senators […]

Republicans in the House and Senate on Tuesday filed bills that would prohibit U.S. funding in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty if the U.N. Security Council adopts any resolution imposing binding measures on the United States regarding nuclear testing. The Obama administration has said it is working with its fellow Security Council […]

Focusing only on the innovation or the deployment of clean energy technology will not be enough to meet the world’s climate goals, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Monday at a Climate Week presentation in New York. “The way we look at it is deployment and innovation are actually completely synergistic and complementary,” he […]

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has less than a year to finalize regulations to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions under an executive order issued by Gov. Charlie Baker (R) Friday. “Combating and preparing for the impacts of climate change will require a holistic approach across state and local government and collaboration with stakeholders […]

The Department of Energy said Monday it would provide more than $10 million in funding to eight projects for advanced combustion systems research. The projects, funded by the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, encompass research in oxy-combustion and chemical looping–based power systems. “By developing efficient and economically viable combustion systems that generate […]

The Senate on Monday postponed a procedural step that would have brought the chamber closer to averting a government shutdown after Sept. 30, and funding the Energy Department and the rest of the federal government at current levels until early December. Senators were set Monday evening for a vote that would have curtailed debate on H.R.5325: […]

The job of scrutinizing the work of the United Kingdom’s Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on matters including energy and climate change will fall to the House of Commons’ newly named Select Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Committee, the panel announced on Twitter Friday. The BEIS was formed following the U.K.’s vote […]

The majority of states are already heading toward compliance with their targets under the Clean Power Plan, Reuters reported Sunday. Twenty-seven states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency over the rule, which requires states to develop action plans to meet federally set emissions reduction goals. The states argue that the rule will drive up electricity […]

California’s recently completed implementation plan for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan illustrates how easily a cap-and-trade system can be used to comply with the regulations, Dallas Burtraw, Darius Gaskins senior fellow at Resources for the Future, said during an RFF event Friday. “The way they imagine complying with the federal Clean Power Plan […]

Congress’ rush to pass a spending bill to avert a government shutdown raises questions about National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) funding needs – particularly those for infrastructure and operations – that may or may not be met should the agency’s spending levels be frozen at the currently enacted $12.5 billion, in light of its fiscal […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has not fully implemented its Enhanced Surveillance Program, in part due to decreased funding over the years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released Wednesday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency’s 2007 Surveillance Transformation Project, an effort to address the growing backlog of required surveillance weapons […]

The Department of the Interior would be required to report the amounts and sources of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production on federal lands under a bipartisan bill introduced Thursday in the House of Representatives. The Transparency in Energy Production Act of 2016 specifically requires Interior to publish online how much of each type […]

A coalition of environmental groups, including 350.org, Friends of the Earth, and NextGen Climate, on Thursday led a rally at the White House to deliver a petition calling for an end to fossil fuel extraction on federal lands. The petition has more than 1 million signatures, according to The Nation. The group is calling for […]