Budget & Policy

GHG Daily Monitor will not be published Monday in observance of Labor Day. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

Submissions for the 2017 Climate Leadership Awards, organized by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and The Climate Registry (TCR), are due by Sept. 26. The awards recognize climate leadership in several categories: organizational leadership; individual leadership; supply chain leadership; excellence in greenhouse gas management (goal achievement award and […]

President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced new national initiatives to boost conservation and climate change-related innovation. “Private and philanthropic investment is an important tool in the conservation toolbox. By increasing innovation across three areas – policy, finance, and technology – more of this capital can be brought off the sidelines and into the game,” according […]

Coal consumption by U.S. colleges and universities dropped 64 percent from 2008 to 2015, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Tuesday. “Coal consumption by educational institutions such as colleges and universities in the United States fell from 2 million short tons in 2008 to 700,000 short tons in 2015. Consumption declined in each of the […]

The National Coal Council voted Tuesday to accept a draft white paper on carbon dioxide utilization drafted by its Coal Policy Committee. Committee members are now invited to provide supplemental comments on the report by Sept. 9. The comments will then be considered and any needed updates to the draft made before it is sent […]

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) said Monday he expects Congress to restore funding for the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) when lawmakers return to Washington next week. Members of the House and Senate entered into conference committee in July to hash out details of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA); Wilson, one of the conferees, […]

The United States will join the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016, White House senior climate adviser Brian Deese told reporters Monday, declining to pinpoint when exactly that would happen. “We have made the commitment that we will join in 2016 and we have made the commitment to do that as soon as possible […]

Those interested in voicing their opinions about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Energy Incentive Program will have 60 more days to do so, the agency announced Thursday. The comment period on the program, which rewards early action under the Clean Power Plan, was initially set to end Sept. 2. Comments will now be accepted until […]

Groundbreaking last week on a key facility for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee demonstrates the importance of oversight of such projects from Capitol Hill, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Saturday. “For several years, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy & Water Development, which I now chair, has worked with the Department of […]

WASHINGTON — There might be some adjustments to the recently completed shakeup of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in Washington, D.C., the agency’s No. 2 nuclear cleanup official said Wednesday. “There’s going to be tweaks that need to be made at some point,” Mark Whitney, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental […]

Harry Reid, who is set to retire in January, will exit the U.S. Senate as arguably the most powerful party leader in the chamber since Lyndon B. Johnson. And with his departure comes a new political landscape concerning the future of Yucca Mountain in his state of Nevada. Reid has made the fight against using […]

There has been no lack of debate over whether the United States should change its policy allowing for first use of nuclear weapons during a conflict in the wake of fresh reports that President Barack Obama is considering doing just that in the waning months of his administration. The question now is whether the chatter will […]

Nearly 30 economic and workforce development projects in coal communities nationwide have been awarded a total of $38.8 million in federal funding through the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative, the White House announced Wednesday. “The POWER initiative is one example of a new approach to federal engagement with communities that […]

California Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday he looks forward to signing a bill updating the state’s climate change law, following approvals by the state’s Assembly and Senate earlier this week. The bill updates the state’s emissions goal set in the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which called for California to reduce its greenhouse gas […]

Stopping energy production on federal lands and waters would result directly in massive job losses nationwide, according to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. “The impact would be immediate and severe to the U.S. economy, leading to the loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs, […]

There might be some adjustments to the recently completed shakeup of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) in Washington, D.C., the agency’s No. 2 nuclear cleanup official said Wednesday. “There’s going to be tweaks that need to be made at some point,” Mark Whitney, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental management, said in prepared […]

The legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, will be heard before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for just three-and-a-half hours on Sept. 27, according to an order from the court. “The parties are advised that the Court’s limitation of […]

Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been appointed chair of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s transition team, much to the chagrin of the nation’s environmentalists. Salazar’s track record when it comes to fossil fuels is not exactly what green groups had hoped for. In 2011, right in the middle of Salazar’s term in the Interior […]

If you’ve been holding your breath for finalization of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan model trading rules, you probably should stop doing that. The rule was expected to be completed this month, but an updated timeline posted on the EPA’s website now lists the projected finalization for December. The agency adjusts timelines like these […]

Carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas in the United States are expected this year to surpass those from coal for the first time in more than four decades, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Even though natural gas is less carbon-intensive than coal, increases in natural gas consumption and decreases […]

It is well past time for conservatives to meet liberal environmentalism with alternative policies based on their fundamental beliefs, according to a new paper from the R Street Institute. “For years, the left has claimed the high ground of environmental debates, dominating the discussion about how to address … environmental concerns. Despite the failure of […]

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has yet to use a special authority given to the position two years ago by Congress to prohibit procurements from potentially risky nuclear-weapon component suppliers, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released last Thursday. The fiscal 2014 National Defense Authorization Act outlined an enhanced procurement authority allowing the energy […]

Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrators William Ruckelshaus and William Reilly, who both served in Republican administrations, on Tuesday endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, turning their backs on Republican candidate Donald Trump. “Donald Trump has shown a profound ignorance of science and of the public health issues embodied in our environmental laws,” they wrote in […]

Green Scissors, a coalition of green groups Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and the R Street Institute, on Tuesday filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Internal Revenue Service seeking information on the 45Q carbon sequestration tax credit. The coalition has been a vocal opponent of the credit and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) may have overstated the cost savings of its updated plutonium analysis strategy, which may not meet the agency’s planned rates of plutonium pit production for nuclear weapons life-extension programs, the Government Accountability Office determined in a report released Tuesday. The NNSA approved the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Chemistry […]

AECOM reported Tuesday $4.4 billion in revenue for the third quarter of its fiscal 2016, down 3 percent from $4.5 billion the same period last year. It also reported net income of $67.4 million and earnings per share of $0.43 for the period ending June 30, an 11 percent and 10 percent increase, respectively, from […]

The National Coal Council, an advisory board to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, has set its annual fall meeting for Oct. 4-5 at the Hilton City Center in Milwaukee. The scheduled speakers include Tom Metcalfe, executive vice president for We Energies & Wisconsin Public Service; Peter Kirk, head of digital coal solutions for GE Power; […]

Presenting his economic plan Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reaffirmed his support for the coal industry. During a speech in Detroit, Trump offered much of the same language he has used throughout his campaign, decrying the Obama administration’s “war on coal” and again noting comments made by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton regarding the impact […]

About a month after three senators publicly took the Energy Department to task for allegedly allowing its contractors to browbeat and fire employees for raising safety concerns, the agency is proposing what it says are clearer, stricter rules to protect whistleblowers across the complex. In a notice of planned rulemaking posted online late last week, DOE proposed […]

Senate-staffer-turned-nuclear-industry-lobbyist Alex Flint is leaving the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) after 10 years as the advocacy group’s top policy man in Washington, the trade association announced Friday. Flint’s departure as head of the group’s governmental affairs office is part of a larger shakeup at NEI, which is cutting senior management positions as part of a […]