Budget & Policy

Quebec-based carbon capture technology developer CO2 Solutions said Thursday it has received $255,000 (CAD) in additional funding through Natural Resources Canada’s ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative. The new funding brings the total support CO2 Solutions has received from the Canadian government to $5,305,000. “We are grateful for the continued support from the Canadian Government in the development […]

The United States and 20 other nations have demonstrated in recent years that a country can grow its economy even while cutting greenhouse gas emissions, according to analysis from the World Resources Institute. From 2000-2014, U.S. emissions dropped 6 percent while the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 28 percent. Other countries that have […]

Executive actions taken under the Obama administration to address climate change are unlikely to be undone by future presidents, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said Thursday. “Those leaps forward will not be undone by a new president coming in because they are not just promises or policies, they’re going to be the law,” McCarthy […]

Using a hybrid system combining fuel cells with coal gasification, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say they can achieve a 50 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. The system works by increasing the efficacy of the plant to reach as much as twice the fuel-to-electricity efficiency of current conventional coal plants. “If […]

Massive amounts of capital are being funneled into renewables and energy efficacy to address climate change, but this may be putting the cart before the horse, a new study from Oxford University geosystem science professor Myles Allen suggests. “Discussion of backstop mitigation options, such as CO2 removal, is often dismissed as a distraction from the […]

The U.S. transition to a low-carbon economy will hit coal country harder than anywhere else in the nation and the needs of these communities need to be acknowledged in efforts to address climate change, according to a group of experts presenting during an Environmental and Energy Study Institute webinar Tuesday. “Can coal country thrive in […]

Carbon emissions reductions resulting from the application of national standards for appliances such as ceiling fans and air conditioners can cover more than cover more than 11 percent of nation’s international commitment under the Paris Agreement, according to new data from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. Appliance standards rank as the No. 2 energy-saving tool […]

Senate Environment and Public Works 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 number of NRC decisions […]

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, […]

Former President Bill Clinton, speaking Monday in Cheyenne, Wyo., at a campaign stop for his wife, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, sought to assure the residents of the nation’s top coal producing state that they wouldn’t be forgotten in a low-carbon future. “In the end, we’re going to be phasing into a new energy future,” the […]

The U.K.’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has awarded £2.8 Million to scientists from Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage to investigate methods of reducing CO2 from industrial sources, SCCS announced Tuesday. “[SCCS] is well placed to lead the field in research into industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS). For several years, it has stressed […]

Coal has played a significant role in China’s economic growth, but that growth has not come without consequence, and it is now time for the nation to deal with its coal problem, Xiaojie Xu, chief fellow at the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), suggested […]

The world must transition away from fossil fuels for energy generation, and fast, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday in New York. “If we’re going to stave off the worst impacts of climate change we have to accelerate this transition. We need to get to the point where clean energy sources are generating most […]

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 […]

When the potential extraction of North Sea oil is tied to decreasing carbon emissions through carbon capture utilization and storage activities, members of U.K. focus groups are more likely to support the action, according to a study conducted by Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage. The researchers assessed how stakeholders […]

If the global mean temperature rises by 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100, an average of $2.5 trillion, or 1.8 percent, of the world’s financial assets would be at risk, according to a report issued Monday by Vivid Economics and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London […]

Climate change increases the risks of allergies and asthma, heat-related deaths, Lyme disease, waterborne illness, and food contamination by pathogens and toxins, according to a report issued Monday by the Obama administration on the impacts of climate change on human health in the U.S. “Current and future climate impacts expose more people in more places […]

India has joined the U.S. and China in pledging to sign the Paris Agreement at the first possible moment, on April 22 during a formal signing ceremony. The three counties are the top three greenhouse gas emitters in the world. “The COP 21 agreement would be ratified at a high-level signing ceremony to be convened […]

Greenhouse gas emissions covered by the European Union’s Emissions Trading System decreased last year, according to preliminary data from the European Commission. The exact reduction is uncertain, however, with several analysts reaching different conclusions based on the raw data. Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that emissions from all regulated sources but airlines fell by 0.8 […]

Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) continue to clash over allegations by the Sanders campaign that the Clinton campaign has received substantial funding from the fossil fuel industry. When a Greenpeace climate activist asked Clinton Thursday if she would pledge to refuse donations from the fossil fuel industry, the front-runner and […]

The recent announcement by the U.S. and Chinese presidents that their countries will sign the Paris climate change agreement at the April 22 signing ceremony drew praise from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “He further welcomes the announcement that both countries commit to taking steps in their respective countries to join the Agreement as early […]

The cost of Southern Co.’s Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project in Mississippi continues to climb. The project, originally billed at $2.4 billion, now has a projected price tag of $6.66 billion after a new budget overage of $18 million, the company reported Friday in a monthly filing with the Securities and […]

Proponents of the Clean Power Plan ended their week to plead their case to the federal court with a strong show. A total of 16 amicus briefs were filed Friday, the last day to do so. The briefs, including one filed by a group of more than 200 current and former members of Congress, argue […]

Nations participating in last week’s Nuclear Security Summit, the last of four under the Obama administration, issued joint pledges – known as “gift baskets” – on various aspects of nuclear security, some of which are set to be discussed at international conferences well after the conclusion of the summit process. While the White House announced […]

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Friday 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 nuclear waste storage […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security, the managing contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plant, is scrambling to get its funding accounts back in order after a series of events created what has been described as an “imbalance.” Even though CNS is reportedly within its budget and meeting production goals for the National Nuclear Security Administration, […]

U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) sent a letter Thursday to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez urging him to postpone the implementation of more than 70 proposed rule changes to the government’s compensation program for sick nuclear workers. The senators said some of the changes to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness and Compensation […]

The White House on Thursday released a specific accounting of U.S. highly enriched uranium holdings as of Sept. 30, 2013. This was the first such release in 15 years, according to a fact sheet issued on the first day of the Obama administration’s fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit. The possibility that terrorists might access […]

The White House on Thursday forcefully dismissed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s suggestion that it might be better to have Japan and South Korea develop nuclear weapons than to continue covering them under the U.S. military umbrella. The “entire premise of American foreign policy, as it relates to nuclear weapons for the last 70 years, […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official will discuss the transition of DOE nuclear facilities from active missions to cleanup with the bipartisan House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus April 20, one of the caucus’ chairmen said in a press release. The event will be hosted by the East Tennessee Environmental Business Association (ETEBA), the Energy Facility […]