Budget & Policy

Renegotiating the Paris climate change agreement can only be done logistically if it can be done politically, which is not likely, Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), told GHG Daily on Wednesday following comments by assumed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that he intends to do just […]

Susan Beard, the White House’s nominee for Department of Energy inspector general, on Wednesday was still drafting a list of actions she would take to improve safety and whistleblower culture at the agency’s Hanford Site, as requested by a senator on the committee that is the first gatekeeper in her confirmation process. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), whose […]

If the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan is implemented, coal will make up only 18 percent of the nation’s energy mix in 2040, down from 33 percent in 2015, according to a truncated early of the Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2016. The early release looks at only two of the full reports […]

The House of Representatives began floor debate Tuesday on its fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), considering passage of 61 of the 378 amendments filed for the bill. The $610.5 billion legislation would authorize $13.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration and includes amendments tying funding restrictions to mandates for periodic reports on […]

The Clean Power Plan will have its day in court, just not when everyone thought it would. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Monday ordered oral arguments in the lawsuit challenging the rule be heard by the full court of 11 judges, assuming none choose not to participate, on Sept. 27. […]

April was a scorcher, and so were March, February, January, December, November and October according to data out Monday by NASA. According to the new figures from the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the global average temperature for April was 1.11-degrees Celsius (1.998-degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1951-1980 baseline, making it the warmest April […]

While any pollution control policy is likely to put a strain on the industry to which it applies, and will likely result in a loss of jobs in that industry, those cuts would be largely offset by increased employment opportunities in the unregulated economy, according to a new report from Resources for the Future. For […]

Due in part to the many cost overages and delays in the Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project, developer Mississippi Power and parent company Southern Co. have received downgrades to their debt rating from Fitch Ratings, the Associated Press reported Friday. Southern Co.’s rating dropped from A to A-. Mississippi Power’s rating […]

Although a self-described climate change “skeptic” himself, Donald Trump’s newly tapped energy adviser, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), intends to tell the likely Republican presidential nominee not to dwell on the idea that it is a hoax. “He can do all that if he wants,” Cramer said in an interview with ClimateWire. “But my advice would […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has not yet completed its physical security infrastructure plan, despite a nearly decade-old requirement by Congress for it to do so, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Friday. The report said physical security infrastructure, or the protection and accounting of nuclear materials, has been an area of […]

The Senate on Thursday at last united to pass a fiscal 2017 spending bill with $31 billion for the Department of Energy, but the House cannot even begin floor votes on its own backlog of spending bills until Monday because Congress still has not agreed on overall spending levels for the next budget year. It […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 23-3 Thursday to report its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to the full chamber following the panel’s closed markup this week. A summary released Thursday notes that the $602 billion bill, which authorizes funding at the level of President Obama’s budget request, includes $543 billion for […]

The Senate on Thursday at last united to pass a fiscal 2017 spending bill with $31 billion for the Department of Energy, but the House cannot even begin floor votes on its own backlog of spending bills until Monday because Congress still has not agreed on overall spending levels for the next budget year. It […]

The Senate on Thursday at last united to pass a fiscal 2017 spending bill with $31 billion for the Department of Energy, but the House cannot even begin floor votes on its own backlog of spending bills until Monday because Congress still has not agreed on overall spending levels for the next budget year. It […]

Susan Beard, a Department of Energy attorney of more than 25 years nominated in April to become the agency’s next inspector general, had her day in the Senate Thursday, where lawmakers who must consent to her nomination pressed her about the DOE’s Hanford Site: regarded by many as the most challenging cleanup in the entire […]

The Senate on Thursday at last united to pass a fiscal 2017 spending bill with $31 billion for the Department of Energy, but the House cannot even begin floor votes its own backlog of spending bills until Monday because Congress still has not agreed on overall spending levels for the next budget year. It took […]

Coal, currently the world’s No. 2 energy source after liquid fuels, is projected to be surpassed by natural gas by 2030, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday in its annual International Energy Outlook. “Coal is the world’s slowest-growing energy source, rising by 0.6 [percent] per year through 2040,” according to the report. Coal also […]

Having successfully dealt with a controversial amendment, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday successfully voted to end debate on the fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, setting it up for a vote as early as Thursday. The $37.5 billion legislation passed smoothly through the committee process, as Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy has run into problems getting commercial-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects off the ground, indicating it shouldn’t be involved in the business of commercialization at all, several Republican members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Energy said Wednesday. “DOE does not have adequate […]

The Nevada Department of Environmental Protection will provide oversight of the Energy Department’s waste management operations at the Nevada National Security Site for five years, under a $13 million DOE grant announced Tuesday. Under the grant for “Programmatic and Regulatory Oversight, Monitoring and Analysis at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and Surrounding Locations,” the […]

Barring any more last-minute surprises, the Senate’s version of the Energy Department’s fiscal 2017 budget appears set to cruise to a vote as soon as Thursday, after lawmakers on Wednesday stripped the measure of a controversial amendment that prompted Democrats to filibuster the proposal three times in as many weeks. The fourth time, however, may […]

Adapting to a changing climate in the future could cost the world up to $500 billion a year if not enough is done to mitigate the effects of climate change now, according to a report issued Tuesday by the United Nations Environmental Program. “The national and sector literature surveyed in this report indicates that the […]

Kansas will stop all work on the development of a compliance plan for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan under a law signed by Gov. Sam Brownback (R). The law “suspends all state agency activities, studies, and investigations that are in furtherance of the preparation of an initial submittal, or the evaluation of any […]

The U.S. Senate on Monday again failed to end debate and make possible a vote on its fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, the first appropriations legislation to come to the floor during the current budget process. A largely party line dispute regarding an amendment to the bill has divided the Senate, with Democrats […]

Although the Senate’s version of the fiscal 2017 energy and water budget remains mired in procedural partisan gridlock, lawmakers on Monday inched closer to a solution that could shear a controversial amendment off the otherwise bipartisan proposal and clear the way for a vote in the coming weeks. While senators returning to Washington from a weeklong […]

The Obama administration’s treatment of the coal industry will hit North Dakota hard, according to Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) who pledged this weekend to fight back. “Many of the administration’s latest moves threaten mining in our part of the world—and a threat to coal is a threat to North Dakota jobs, our economy and our […]

Donald Trump, the final candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, made some big promises Thursday evening to West Virginia coal miners who will head to the polls Tuesday for their state’s primary election. “I’m thinking about the miners all over this country. We’re going to put the miners back to work,” Trump […]

When lawmakers return to Capitol Hill next week, yet another report proclaiming the fundamental unsoundness of the Energy Department’s proposal to store surplus plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. will greet them. Delivered to the Hill on Thursday, the latest report by Greensboro, Ga.-based High Bridge Associates — the consulting firm […]

When lawmakers return to Capitol Hill next week, yet another report proclaiming the fundamental unsoundness of the Energy Department’s proposal to store surplus plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. will greet them. Delivered to the Hill on Thursday, the latest report by Greensboro, Ga.-based High Bridge Associates — the consulting firm […]

Several U.S. nuclear organizations this week urged the White House to retain the National Security Council’s director of nuclear energy policy position, which is said to be on the chopping block. In a May 3 letter to National Security Adviser Susan Rice, four groups cited “deep concern” over reports that the job might be eliminated […]