Budget & Policy

ExchangeMonitor Publications & Forums is proud to announce the release of the agenda for the 2016 Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage Conference, taking place June 14-16, 2016, at the Sheraton Tysons Corner in Tysons, Va. Hundreds attend this program to get updates from experts, hear case studies on emerging technologies and research in the industry, […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2017 energy and water spending proposal would provide more money than requested for the Department of Energy’s Hanford, Idaho, and Savannah River sites, plus additional funds for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a bill report released Monday. All told, the House bill would provide $6.15 billion […]

The House Armed Services Committee is set to begin working on the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week, starting with several subcommittee markups on Wednesday and Thursday. The fiscal 2016 NDAA that President Barack Obama signed last December authorized $607 billion in defense spending, including $12.5 billion for the National Nuclear Security […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill 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 a location. That’s […]

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 bill in total grants the Department of Energy $30 […]

The Republican-led House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee has included in its fiscal 2017 spending bill language that denies the Department of Energy any funding for its consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage, while calling for the resumption of licensing a national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according to the bill report […]

Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit against 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 […]

Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna plans to visit the Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project in Saskatchewan. Speaking with Bloomberg, the minister said she would head to the province as early as next month. Boundary Dam is a first-of-its-kind commercial-scale carbon capture and storage retrofit on an existing coal-fired […]

The back and forth at the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit over the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan continued last week as challengers to the rule filed their responses to the EPA’s response to their initial brief. Three reply briefs were filed Friday, two by petitioners in the case and […]

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global announced late last week the exclusion of 52 coal-linked companies following analysis by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the sovereign wealth fund. “Norges Bank’s Executive Board made the exclusion decision based on recommendations from Norges Bank Investment Management. The Executive Board has found that the recommendations [satisfy] the […]

Senate appropriators on Thursday passed their fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, including funding for the controversial mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. But they have asked the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing about the MOX approach that President Barack Obama nixed in his latest […]

The Senate and House fiscal 2017 energy and water appropriations bills meet President Barack Obama’s budget request to fund the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at $12.9 billion, agreeing on most major funding items with the exception of the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel facility construction project. The House and Senate subcommittees moved their bills to full […]

Two professional nuclear societies are asking Congress to confirm as U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a senior National Security Council official whose nomination has been blocked due to Senate disagreements over the Iran nuclear deal. The American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) said Tuesday they […]

The Analytical Chemistry Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex is reportedly in good shape for the near future, thanks to a $10 million, yearlong facelift. The National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday the project was completed ahead of schedule and according to budget. Building 9995, which houses the plant’s chemistry labs, was built in […]

House and Senate spending bills produced this week would provide more money for legacy nuclear waste cleanup in fiscal 2017 than the White House requested, but quash administration proposals to dispose of weapon-grade plutonium in New Mexico and change the way the Department of Energy funds cleanup of former uranium enrichment sites. DOE’s Office of […]

Spending bills unveiled this week unambiguously torpedoed the White House’s plan to pay for cleanup of former uranium enrichment facilities with new mandatory spending and new fees on commercial nuclear power. The House and Senate proposals differ on how much to spend on these activities in fiscal 2017, but both chambers agreed the White House’s […]

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson wants a faster resolution and no trial in the state’s pursuit of $100 million and the removal of plutonium from the Savannah River Site – both of which are stipulations dating to 2003 when South Carolina agreed to house the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Department […]

House and Senate energy and water appropriations bills for fiscal 2017, released this week, both propose to fund the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Site Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) at $103 million, which is in line with the Obama administration’s request. The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee approved the $37.4 billion spending legislation on […]

House and Senate fiscal 2017 energy and water appropriations bills released this week include similar funding requests for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The House version calls for $936.1 million in NRC funding. The agency recovers about 90 percent of its budget from license fees, so the net appropriation is $149.3 million. Meanwhile, the Senate billl calls for $939 […]

While the fiscal 2017 House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill proposes $170 million for U.S. nuclear waste activities, including $20 million for Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing of the Yucca Mountain storage site, the Senate version  does not include any funding for the national repository project. The House spending bill, released on Tuesday, calls for $150 million to carry […]

Senate appropriators approved their version of the fiscal 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill Thursday, keeping funding for the Department of Energy’s fossil energy research and development flat at $632 million, $32 million above the Obama administration’s request. The bill is expected to reach the Senate floor next week. “The Committee notes that the Department […]

The Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015 is headed back to the Senate floor after weeks out of commission due to contentious amendments related to the Flint, Mich., water crisis and offshore drilling. Two holds placed on the bill, one by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and another by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) were lifted this […]

The U.K. government should not have backed out of a £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition, Paul Goodfellow, head of Shell’s U.K. and Ireland operations, said Thursday at the University of Aberdeen’s 2016 U.K. Oil & Gas Collaboration Conference, the BBC reported. “I do think it is a viable technology that should be […]

There is something to be learned from all carbon capture and storage endeavors, even those that tanked. Those lessons learned have now been compiled by the Coal Utilization Research Council (CURC) and Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in a white paper released Wednesday. The report is available to CURC members online. […]

Abdalah Mokssit, third vice president of the World Meteorological Organization, has been named the new secretary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organization announced this week while meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. Mokssit replaces Mannava Sivakumar, who has been serving as acting secretary since January. “I welcome the selection of Mr. Mokssit as the […]

Two branches of Kyushu University in Japan are developing an advanced method for analyzing the permeability of rock in underground reservoirs that could be used to store captured CO2, the university said in a press release. Emptied oil and gas fields or deep aquifers have been identified as potential storage sites for captured carbon dioxide, […]

The takeaway message of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s latest hearing on U.S. environmental policies boils down to this dilemma: the federal government is too involved in the energy industry, and the energy industry is too involved in the government. Admittedly, discerning a core message from the hearing, which featured testimony from a […]

Appropriators in the House and Senate agree that the administration’s fiscal 2017 budget request underfunds fossil energy research and development, though they don’t appear to be on the same page regarding by exactly how much. Appropriations subcommittees in both chambers Wednesday reported out spending bills rejecting the administration’s proposed cut of $32 million to Department […]

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande are scheduled to offer opening remarks at the April 22 daylong signing celebration for the Paris climate change agreement. Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, will also offer comments when the opening ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m. at U.N. […]

The fiscal 2017 Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill includes language allowing the Department of Energy to contract Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed private facilities to store nuclear waste. The Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee on Wednesday signed off on the $37.5 billion bill that primarily would fund the Department of Energy for the budget year beginning Oct. […]