Budget & Policy

Carbon pricing, often hailed as a means to support low-carbon technology innovation, will not be enough to spur the development of new nuclear projects or support existing nuclear projects, according to an editorial published last week by World Nuclear News. By placing a price on carbon, fossil fuels become more expensive to use, making nuclear […]

The slow-moving fiscal 2017 Interior and Environment Appropriations process is kicking into overdrive this week with three markups on the congressional schedule. Both the Senate and the House will be making up their versions of the bill, which sets funding levels for the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other related agencies. The Senate […]

A federal carbon tax is a win-win, reducing emissions while having a minimal effect on the national economy, according to a policy brief released Monday by Resources for the Future. “A carbon tax can substantially reduce carbon emissions at a relatively low cost. How the carbon tax revenue is used matters. Using the revenues to […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will not consider legislation that would transfer cleanup authority at Missouri’s West Lake Landfill Superfund site from the Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Army Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), a committee aide told RadWaste Monitor Monday. Residents near the Bridgeton, Mo., landfill have been calling […]

A House resolution stating that Congress does not support the establishment of a carbon tax passed Friday by a largely party-line vote of 237-163. The resolution has no effect other than to express the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the nation’s economy. The resolution says a carbon tax would […]

It is sometimes difficult to feel the ripple of a $10 million tweak to a $30-billion appropriations bill, but at a citizens-group meeting near the Savannah River Site (SRS) this week, an executive with the Department of Energy’s prime liquid-waste contractor there painted a clear picture of how such a seemingly small change could spell […]

The Senate at press time Friday had not voted on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2017 but voted 68-23 during its morning session to end debate on the bill. Consideration has been slowed by disagreements over amendments, over 600 of which have been filed. The $602 billion Senate bill […]

The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday approved legislation requiring the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) to prepare documentation laying out the rationale for its research and development spending. The DHS branch is tasked with working with domestic and international partners to strengthen global capacities to detect, prevent, respond to, and identify the culprits […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday issued a proposal to amend regulations for its Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program, which covers DOE and contractor employees who have been exposed to beryllium while working at DOE sites. Beryllium metal is used in nuclear reactors at various DOE facilities, including the Y-12 National Security Complex in […]

If newly declared presumptive Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, the United States can look forward to a new, more stringent version of the Clean Power Plan, David Bookbinder, a partner at Element VI Consulting and former Sierra Club chief climate counsel, said Thursday at a briefing hosted by the United States Energy […]

A Thursday hearing of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee concerning the Supreme Court stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan featured many questions and few definitive answers. The hearing, which featured legal experts and stakeholders from both sides of the argument, focused largely on two topics: whether the EPA should have […]

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has found a new forum to contest the United States’ involvement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. The senator, who takes issue with monetary contributions the U.S. has pledged under the UNFCCC, grabbed on to the organization’s inclusion of the “State […]

The 48 percent of American households with annual pre-tax incomes of $50,000 or less devote an average of 17 percent of their take-home income to energy expenses, according to a report issued Wednesday by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. “American consumers have benefitted in recent months from lower gasoline prices, but rising oil […]

Claims that implementing the Clean Power Plan during judicial review would cause irreparable harm to states are unsubstantiated, according to a discussion paper released Wednesday by Resources for the Future. Opponents of the Clean Power Plan, which requires states to develop action plans to meet federally set greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, have suggested that […]

A bill that would eliminate the Chevron deference, a judiciary practice by which courts defer to the interpretation of a government agency in cases of ambiguous statutory meaning, Wednesday cleared the House Judiciary Committee. The Chevron deference has become a cornerstone of the Environmental Protection Agency’s defense in an ongoing lawsuit against its Clean Power […]

The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday approved legislation requiring the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) to prepare documentation laying out the rationale for its research and development spending. The DHS branch is tasked with working with domestic and international partners to strengthen detect, prevent, respond to, and identify the culprits in an attack […]

Correction: The story “Construction Complete on Salt Waste Processing Facility at SRS, DOE Says” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing Volume 1, No. 65] should have said the facility is designed to treat about 95 million gallons of salt waste. Clarification: The same story should have attributed SWPF’s $2.3 billion total cost to the rebaseline DOE, not the […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday issued a proposal to amend regulations for its Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program, which covers DOE and contractor employees who have been exposed to beryllium while working at DOE sites. Beryllium metal is used in nuclear reactors at various DOE facilities, including the Y-12 National Security Complex in […]

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday was declared by the Associated Press the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate after taking 36 of the available 56 delegates up for grabs in Sunday’s Puerto Rico primary. Clinton had the 2,383 necessary delegates even before key primaries Tuesday in California, New Jersey, and several other states. Clinton’s […]

A disparate coalition of nongovernmental organizations announced Monday they would join together to promote a three-pronged “Clean Energy Commitment.” The initiative aims to support energy policy reform in the following areas: Making companies responsible for the effects of carbon pollution they produce; freeing taxpayers from subsidizing coal and other “energy sources of the past”; and […]

The White House’s nominee for Energy Department inspector general has replied to a long list of concerns raised by senators at her confirmation hearing last month, but with a busy legislative session ahead and a backlog of would-be government executives awaiting confirmation, it was not immediately clear how, or if, the development would hasten the […]

A proposed bureaucracy shake-up that would have the nine field-office heads at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) reporting to a new Washington-based manager remained ongoing at press time Friday, a DOE spokesperson said this week. The proposed reorganization, which would be the second for EM since 2014, seeks to streamline the agency’s roughly […]

It remained unclear at press time Friday whether the Department of Energy had delivered by its Monday deadline new details about the agency’s cost and schedule estimates for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility to the Senate Armed Services Committee. In early May, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) requested more details […]

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is dangerously unequal to the job of commander-in-chief, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. Clinton, who is still battling Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for her party’s nomination, focused on Trump during a national security policy speech in San Diego. “I believe the person the Republicans have nominated for president […]

Republican state attorneys general who have joined a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan have received more than $4.7 million from “polluters and energy interests,” according to a report issued Thursday by the left-wing nonprofit Americans United for Change. The report outlines donations made by fossil fuel companies both to […]

Meeting alongside energy ministers from 17 nations in San Francisco this week, a group of West Coast governors, mayors, and other subnational officials signed the Pacific North America Climate Leadership Agreement, an update to a similar pledge signed in 2013. “The Action Plan of 2016 has a stronger emphasis than in the past on issues […]

The Energy Department wants to reshuffle the bureaucracy of its Environmental Management office to have its nine field offices report to a new central office, according to an official DOE proposal obtained by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Currently, the directors of the nine field offices report directly to the office of the Assistant Secretary for Environmental […]

The ambition of Maryland’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard will not increase after Governor Larry Hogan (R) vetoed a bill Friday which would have ramped up the state’s current standard from a requirement of 20 percent renewable energy generation by 2022 to 25 percent by 2020. The bill, had it been signed into law, would have […]

Undoing any of President Barack Obama’s climate actions will be difficult for any incoming president, Secretary of State Ernest Moniz said Sunday during a National Public Radio interview. Asked about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s recent statement that if elected he would “cancel” the international Paris climate change agreement, Moniz stated that while the targets […]

The NRDC Action Fund Tuesday endorsed Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, marking its first ever endorsement. “Hillary Clinton understands the environmental challenges America faces, and her approach to solving them is grounded in the possibility and promise our democracy affords us,” the organization, which is affiliated with but separate from the […]