Budget & Policy

While nothing is certain in Congress, particularly in an election year, both houses have moved relatively swiftly during the current appropriations process. For the Energy Department, the House got things moving April 12, when its Appropriations energy and water subcommittee marked up a first draft of the fiscal 2017 spending legislation covering DOE. Since then, both the […]

The Senate’s proposal to pile more funding into the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site cleanup program has set the stage for a parochial tug-of-war over the agency’s fiscal 2017 legacy waste-cleanup budget, once House and Senate lawmakers gather to reconcile the differing spending bills they produced this month. The Senate’s proposed increase is for DOE’s Richland […]

The $37.4 billion House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for fiscal 2017 prohibits the use of funds allocated for the Mixed-Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility to place the plant in “cold standby,” a clear departure from the Obama administration’s proposal to terminate the project. The spending legislation in total grants the Department of Energy […]

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee is proposing a requirement for the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility continue unless the secretary of energy reports to Congress on activities meant to address major points of contention on the project. The subcommittee on Thursday […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday erased the $16.5 million sought for Savannah River Site infrastructure upgrades that was included in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget request. The committee approved the bill after the Senate Appropriations Committee last week approved its version of the energy and water spending bill, which sustained SRS infrastructure funding […]

Another senior official has departed the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as of this week. John Tapia, LANL’s acquisition service management deputy division leader, according to his LinkedIn profile, managed a staff of 150 people with an annual operating budget of $16 million. He is no longer employed by the laboratory after a […]

Environmentalists are suing the state of North Dakota, asking officials to vacate newly adopted landfill rules because the North Dakota Health Council violated state law during the approval process. The Dakota Resource Council and the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition filed suit in North Dakota South Central District Court last week, nearly a month after […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill for fiscal 2017 calls on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to “proceed expeditiously” with a record of decision at the former Sylvania nuclear fuel site in Hicksville, N.Y., where residents have been awaiting cleanup. A record of decision is a public document that outlines cleanup options for […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved its $37.4 billion energy and water spending bill for fiscal 2017, which denies the Department of Energy any funding for its consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage. The spending bill also called for the resumption of licensing a national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according […]

Canada can meet its climate goal under the Paris Agreement by adopting a carbon price without significantly affecting its economy, according to a report Wednesday from the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s Office. The Canadian government has committed to reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. “Using carbon dioxide pricing […]

Working in collaboration with Harris Corp. and Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a new laser-based technique for monitoring carbon dioxide emissions from sequestration sites, according to a NIST release. “NIST developed a mathematical model that considers the change in shape of a gas leakage plume […]

Representatives from more than 160 countries will gather this morning at United Nations headquarters in New York to sign the Paris Agreement, taking a significant step toward bringing the climate change accord into force. Secretary of State John Kerry will sign the agreement for the U.S. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December during the […]

The Senate’s version of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill reached the floor this week. The upper chamber has been slowly wading through amendments and a vote on the bill, which funds Department of Energy fossil energy research and development at $632 million, is expected next week. Fossil energy R&D funding in the bill, […]

The Paris Agreement was a “big first step” in the global battle against climate change, but another major advance will be needed in a decade, and then heightened ambitions in the years after, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Wednesday. As many as 155 nations are set to ink the accord on Friday, the […]

The United States will have to take additional actions beyond the policies already implemented or expected to meet its commitment under the Paris Agreement, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) said Wednesday. The U.S. has pledged to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. “To get all […]

Regardless of the current Supreme Court-ordered stay of the Clean Power Plan, the Environmental Protection Agency has requested funds to help states develop compliance in its fiscal 2017 budget request, much to the chagrin of Republican lawmakers. Appearing Wednesday for a budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, EPA Administrator […]

The Senate’s until recently endangered Energy Policy Modernization Act was overwhelmingly approved Wednesday in an 85-12 vote after more than two months on the floor. “It is true we were a little bit delayed in reaching the point where we are today as we are processing these final amendments, but I thank the Senate and […]

An amendment to the energy modernization bill passed Wednesday by the Senate seeks to boost funding for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) laboratory-directed research and development (LDRD) program, which involves basic science and exploratory research at DOE labs. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) highlighted his amendment in the Energy Policy Modernization Act that eliminates a requirement […]

House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) laid into Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns on Wednesday, demanding to know why his agency did not request any funding in fiscal 2017 for Yucca Mountain licensing activities. “I would be remiss if I didn’t express my dissatisfaction that once more the commission failed […]

NEW ORLEANS – In developing action plans for compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, states are not going to be able to make everybody happy, as was made clear by the varied opinions voiced by utility executives speaking on a panel here Wednesday. The Clean Power Plan sets state-specific emissions reduction targets […]

March 2016 was the hottest March in the 137–year record, with the globally averaged temperature across land and ocean surfaces 1.22 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 12.7 degrees, according to new data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “This surpassed the previous record set […]

The ill-fated White Rose carbon capture and storage project has another nail in its coffin after the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change last week denied developer Capture Power’s application for development consent, which is required for large infrastructure projects. To add insult to injury, the decision justification cites a lack of funding, which […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is looking for guidance from the courts regarding the schedule for state compliance with the Clean Power Plan, the carbon emissions rule for existing coal-fired power plants that was frozen by the Supreme Court in February, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told lawmakers on Tuesday. The high-court stay will remain in place […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday advanced its $37.4 billion fiscal 2017 energy and water budget bill without making any changes to the proposed amount for Department of Energy fossil energy research and development. Following the panel’s voice vote, the bill goes to the full House for consideration. Appropriators in the lower chamber last week […]

The House Appropriations Committee late Tuesday afternoon brought Congress one step closer to a bicameral confrontation over whether to keep the mostly abandoned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal facility in Nevada on life support, and how strongly to protect the Mixed-Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility now under construction at Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site […]

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee is proposing a requirement for the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility continue unless the secretary of energy reports to Congress on activities meant to address major points of contention on the project. According to the subcommittee’s […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, scheduled for full Appropriations Committee markup this morning, would increase funding for fossil energy research and development by $13 million from fiscal 2016. The House report released alongside the bill Monday morning emphasizes a need to continue to support fossil fuel energy generation and […]

The federal and state governments should take a page out of industry’s playbook and adopt a “proxy” or “shadow” price on carbon, the Center for American Progress said in a report issued Monday. “This practice would apply to decision-making with respect to both direct government action, such as investment in transportation infrastructure, and indirect government […]

More than 155 of the 197 member states to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change will have representatives in New York on Friday for the signing ceremony of the Paris climate change agreement, the UNFCCC confirmed Monday. The RSVP list, which is subject to change, also indicates which countries will sign the agreement and […]

The recent inclusion of the “State of Palestine” into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change precludes the United States from providing any funding to the body or any of its related entities, a group of 28 Republican senators said Monday in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry. Palestine was inducted in […]