Budget & Policy

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would get a small funding boost in fiscal 2017 under a bill approved Wednesday by the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. The Senate bill was not available at press time, but the proposal would give EM $6.4 billion in 2017, according to a subcommittee press release. That […]

Senate appropriators have asked the chamber’s Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing about the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel approach that President Barack Obama nixed in his fiscal 2017 budget request in order to guide the Appropriations Committee on a path forward for a project that, for now, it plans to fund. Senate Appropriations energy and […]

The U.S. signature on the Paris climate change agreement will be no more than an empty promise, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “It is important for the 196 countries involved in the Paris climate agreement to understand what I am saying today – Congress, the courts, climate experts, industry are […]

Construction is set to begin April 27 on the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, kicking off with a ceremony led by Gov. Matt Mead (R). “Wyoming leads the nation in coal production and the ITC allows us to show the same leadership in research. We are investing in the future of coal – so the industry […]

The longer it takes for the Paris climate change agreement to come into force, the easier it will be for the next U.S. presidential administration to duck out, according to David Waskow, international climate director for the World Resources Institute. However, that doesn’t mean pulling out would be a good move, he said Tuesday. The […]

The U.K. government has withdrawn funding to the International Energy Agency’s London-based Clean Coal Center, a Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman confirmed to GHG Daily this week. “The department has decided to focus available resources on promoting the use of alternative and cleaner forms of energy rather than seeking to reduce the impact […]

Disregarding the Obama administration’s requested funding cut to the Department of Energy‘s fossil energy research and development, House appropriators Tuesday released a subcommittee draft budget bill increasing that funding by $13 million above the fiscal 2016 level. “The bill reflects the national importance of these projects, and rejects the Administration’s proposal to reduce new funding […]

Despite lawmakers’ request that appropriators fund the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Site Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) at $150 million or more in fiscal 2017, the House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, released Tuesday, calls for $103 million in funding for the program. House lawmakers from Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland in a […]

The fiscal 2017 House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, released on Tuesday, calls for $150 million for the Nuclear Waste Disposal program and $20 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to continue adjudication of the Yucca Mountain license application. The Obama administration’s 2017 budget proposal did not include any new funding for the Nuclear Waste Disposal program, instead laying […]

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 […]

A draft spending bill released Tuesday afternoon would keep the Department of Energy’s legacy nuclear cleanup budget about even with current levels and quash the White House’s plan to change the way DOE pays for cleanup of former uranium enrichment sites. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would get about $6.15 billion in fiscal 2017 under the […]

The fiscal 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill released Tuesday meets the Obama administration’s $12.9 billion funding request for the National Nuclear Security Administration, but aims to cut off the Department of Energy’s plan to cancel the project to turn surplus plutonium into mixed-oxide reactor fuel. The $37.4 billion bill in total provides $259 million […]

The Paris climate change agreement is likely to come into force years earlier than anticipated, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Monday. “I think that we will have the Paris Agreement in effect by 2018, two years before it was originally intended to go into [effect],” Figueres […]

In light of the looming entry into force of the Paris climate change agreement, the World Bank Group last week released its new Climate Change Action Plan, laying out a strategy to help countries deliver on their commitments under the agreement. “The World Bank is in a unique position to work with countries to develop […]

Belgium’s last coal-fired power plant, the Langerlo power station, burned its last ton of coal on March 30, according to Climate Action Network Europe. “Ending coal power use in Belgium marks a significant step in the inevitable transition away from fossil fuels,” Joanna Flisowska, CAN Europe coal policy coordinator, said in a press release. “Belgium […]

A group of 21 youths led by climate scientist and father to one of the children James Hansen, tasted victory Friday when U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of U.S. District Court for Oregon recommended that motions to dismiss their case against the federal government be denied. The group, known under the name “Our Children’s Trust,” […]

The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) on Thursday announced that subsidiary GTI International had acquired BKi, an energy consulting firm specializing in carbon capture and storage, energy efficiency, alternative transportation, and water efficiency. “Our team has delivered hundreds of successful projects tailored to the distinctive needs of our clients: governments, utilities, industries, and nonprofit research organizations,” […]

Comments made last week by Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy regarding emissions reductions should be taken with a grain of salt, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and the Coal Association of Canada said Friday. “Our neighbors to the north would be well […]

The pace at which carbon capture and storage technology is developing is not adequate given its importance in battling climate change, David Crane, former CEO of NRG Energy, said during The Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., last week. “The world needs post-combustion carbon capture, and what I would tell you [is] […]

Following successful testing at AES’s coal fired utility in Oklahoma, New York-based Clean Coal Technologies Inc. announced Friday that it will move its test plant to a yet-to-be-determined permanent location. CCTI’s technology, “Pristine” coal, is designed to remove moisture and volatile matter from coal, resulting in a cleaner-burning fuel. “The results of the testing have […]

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 […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week he disapproves of the Obama administration’s proposal to nix the MOX program and move forward with a downblending alternative for disposal of surplus plutonium. Putin said the switch, which was part of President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget, violates a bilateral 2000 agreement that requires each country to […]

President Barack Obama this week submitted amendments to the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2017 budget request that are intended to provide millions of dollars to help pay for a nuclear waste management settlement with the state of New Mexico. Under a deal formalized in January, DOE will fund $74 million worth of infrastructure, emergency operations, […]

A group of mostly Republican lawmakers wants to make it illegal to use federal funds to close down the unfinished, mothballed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to a letter the legislators mailed to colleagues on a crucial appropriations subcommittee in March. The letter was dated March 15 and addressed to Reps. Mike […]

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Wednesday charged that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not done enough to improve American nuclear power plants while implementing lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi facility disaster in Japan. During a hearing on the commission’s fiscal 2017 budget plan, Boxer listed a […]

U.S. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on April 1 signed legislation lifting the state’s 33-year ban on building new nuclear power plants. The state Senate, in a 23-9 vote, approved Rep. Kevin Petersen’s (R-Waupaca) legislation in December. Wisconsin previously prohibited construction of new plants on the basis that the federal government has not established a capable national […]

The Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (GP) will provide assistance to the international community on the conversion of plutonium to mixed oxide (MOX) fuel despite a recent shift in White House policy away from MOX and toward alternative plutonium disposition methods. The action plan for the Global Partnership, […]

The U.S. Department of Labor is reopening and extending the comment period on proposed changes to the government’s nuclear workers compensation program. The comment period has been extended through May 9, apparently as a result of a strong request from U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.). The senators urged Labor Secretary Thomas […]

The United Kingdom will not replace Gregory Barker, who resigned his post as the nation’s climate envoy in March 2015. “There are no plans to appoint a new envoy on climate change at this time,” Prime Minister David Cameron announced in a written statement in March. Cameron noted that the U.K. had a role in […]

More than 130 countries and 60 world leaders have confirmed their attendance for the April 22 signing ceremony in New York for the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change announced Thursday. The agreement, struck in Decembers at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, is the […]