Budget & Policy

A group of 14 Democratic senators Friday offered Interior Secretary Sally Jewell their two cents on a programmatic review of the federal coal leasing program. Led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the group laid out three priorities for the review. “As the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) works to implement your order, consider new leasing […]

The Senate will consider its version of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on June 6, but a provision in both the Senate and House versions of the bill calling for continuation of Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility construction is expected to pose problems in light of the Obama administration’s proposal to terminate the program. […]

Against a backdrop of controversial amendments, a looming White House veto threat and the impending U.S. Memorial Day holiday, House lawmakers failed Thursday to pass the spending bill that contained the chamber’s proposed 2017 budget for the Energy Department. House members now will leave town for a week-long Memorial Day recess, after which the Republican […]

Against a backdrop of controversial amendments, a looming White House veto threat and the impending U.S. Memorial Day holiday, House lawmakers failed Thursday to pass the spending bill that contained the chamber’s proposed 2017 budget for the Energy Department. House members now will leave town for a week-long Memorial Day recess, after which the Republican […]

Against a backdrop of controversial amendments, a looming White House veto threat and the impending U.S. Memorial Day holiday, House lawmakers failed Thursday to pass the spending bill that contained the chamber’s proposed 2017 budget for the Energy Department. House members now will leave town for a week-long Memorial Day recess, after which the Republican […]

Exelon defended a controversial piece of energy legislation proposed in Illinois this week, after state Attorney General Lisa Madigan blasted it as an unnecessary bailout for profitable companies. Exelon announced earlier this month that it would close two of its Illinois nuclear power plants, the Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station, if […]

Against a backdrop of controversial amendments, a looming White House veto threat and the impending U.S. Memorial Day holiday, House lawmakers failed Thursday to pass the spending bill that contained the chamber’s proposed 2017 budget for the Energy Department. House members now will leave town for a week-long Memorial Day recess, after which the Republican […]

Becoming the first major university to do so, the University of Massachusetts announced Wednesday that it will divest from fossil fuels. The university’s endowment totals $770 million. The movement for divestment was started by UMass students. “Important societal change often begins on college campuses and it often begins with students. I’m proud of the students […]

A seven-week cooperative agreement extension granted by the Department of Energy to Summit Power Group for its Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) earlier this month is not sitting well with the Green Scissors coalition. The coalition, comprised of Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and The R Street Institute, Thursday sent a letter […]

The Environmental Protection Agency cannot implement the Clean Power Plan while a Supreme Court-issued stay of the rule is in place, on that much everyone can agree. When it comes to what else the EPA can or cannot be under the stay, opinions are varied. Those opposed to the rule argue that EPA and states […]

Donald Trump loves fossil energy and hates regulations. That was the message at the core of the Republican presidential candidate’s energy policy speech Thursday in Bismarck, N.D. The billionaire real estate mogul’s energy plan centers on a desire to make the United States completely energy independent. Trump noted several times that the U.S. has vast […]

It’s the moment the energy community has been waiting for: we are about to get a glimpse at Donald Trump’s energy plan. The presumed Republican presidential candidate will be speaking this afternoon at 2 p.m. (EST) in Bismarck, N.D. on his vision for America’s energy future. Until now, hints at what Trump’s energy plan will […]

The annual tug of war over funding for the Department of Energy’s fossil energy research and development programs commenced this week on the floor of the House as several amendments to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill shifting funding to or from the program came to a vote, and all failed, Wednesday. The full bill […]

The House’s response to the Senate’s Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 was approved by the lower chamber Wednesday, sending it back to the Senate for Conference. The House version, an amendment overlaying the Senate’s bill with its own North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015 (H.R.-8), is more partisan and has been […]

Democratic House appropriators are up in arms over the subcommittee draft of the House Interior and Related Agency’s funding bill, which cuts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and includes several policy riders. “There are serious shortcomings throughout this bill,” Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said during Wednesday’s subcommittee markup. “Once again the […]

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute will divest entirely from fossil fuels by December 2016, the organization announced Wednesday. “Making investment decisions on the basis of environmental, social, and governance criteria helps EESI continue its work advancing clean energy and addressing climate change,” EESI board member and former Rep. Claudine Schneider (R-R.I.) said in a […]

The House on Wednesday killed proposals from a California congressman that would have curtailed plutonium pit-production at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) PF-4 facility, and allowed the Energy Department to close the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) introduced both proposals late Tuesday as amendments to the 2017 […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee wants an update by May 31 on the Energy Department’s latest cost and schedule estimates for the multi billion-dollar Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) — which the White House wants to close down, despite the facility’s prominent role in a major U.S. arms-reduction pact with Russia. “To better inform […]

Dear readers, In observance of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, Exchange Monitor will not publish Weapons Complex Morning Briefing Monday. Your daily briefing from across the Department of Energy complex resumes Tuesday. Sincerely, The Exchange Monitor Editorial Staff

The Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which was brought to the floor of the House Tuesday, garnered a veto threat from the White House, due in part to a lack of sufficient funding to meet the administration’s pledge to double clean energy research and development. “While the bill increases certain energy research and development activities, […]

The more than 200 regulations imposed since the beginning of the Obama administration bear a price tag of more than $100 billion according to an analysis released by the Heritage Foundation Monday. “The actual costs are far greater, both because costs have not been fully quantified for a significant number of rules, and because many […]

The White House threatened late Monday to veto the House’s version of the Energy Department’s 2017 budget over $170 million the bill would provide to begin licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository — something the Obama administration unequivocally opposes. “The Administration objects to the funding provided in the bill for Yucca Mountain and is […]

The test may not be over, but it’s time to put your pencils down, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) wants states to know. The AG is at the head of a lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan, the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. The rule itself has […]

A congressional aide said the House will begin floor debate Tuesday on a $37.4-billion 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, which includes controversial policy riders unrelated to DOE spending that Democrats have opposed along party lines. The House’s proposal includes slightly less funding overall than a rider-free companion bill the Senate passed May 12. The […]

Coal capacity will decline by up to 27 gigawatts as a direct result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), according to a new report published Thursday by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). The EPA rule, currently in the midst of an enormous legal battle, requires states to develop action plans to […]

Following two days of debate and consideration of scores of amendments, the House of Representatives late Thursday voted 277-147 to approve its National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017. However, that vote count would not be sufficient to override a veto threatened by the White House over various measures in the legislation, including funding for […]

The Department of Energy has been without a permanent inspector general for nearly eight months, and it will be even longer before Susan Beard, nominated for the post by the Obama administration in April, gets her chance to be approved by the full Senate. At press time Friday, it had been more than a week since […]

Following two days of debate and consideration of scores of amendments, the House of Representatives late Thursday voted 277-147 to approve its National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017. However, that vote count would not be sufficient to override a veto threatened by the White House over various measures in the legislation, including funding for […]

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Combustion Systems (ACS) program is offering up to $1.5 million for two to six oxy-combustion or chemical looping applied research projects, the department said this week in a funding opportunity announcement. “Awards resulting from this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will improve the overall economics for these two pathways ensuring that […]

The administration is not waging a war on coal, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Wednesday morning. “Quite the contrary,” Moniz said, the administration and the Department of Energy have launched several programs and invested billions of dollars aimed at keeping coal country thriving. “We invest billions of dollars in programs around carbon capture and […]