Budget & Policy

Presidential candidate and former Secretary of State and Hillary Clinton provoked a bit of backlash after stating during a town hall Sunday in Ohio that her proposed energy plan would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” The Democratic front-runner went on to state that “we’re going to make it […]

As he released an updated energy policy, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) made clear Monday that the state remains committed to the advancement of carbon utilization technologies. “Wyoming is investing in fossil fuel research and encouraging others to get on board. The development of the Integrated Test Center is a prime example,” the document says. […]

The U.K. government, after facing a backlash for scrapping a carbon capture and storage commercialization program, has pledged to develop an updated CCS plan by the end of 2016, Minister of State at Department of Energy and Climate Change Andrea Leadsom said Monday in the House of Commons. “I recognize that industry and others are […]

A loophole in the European Union Emissions Trading System enabled energy-intensive companies in 19 countries on the continent to rake in €24 billion in profits from the system between 2008 and 2014, according to a report issued by CE Delft on Monday. Under the current EU ETS rules, industrial companies that are believed to be […]

The New Jersey state Senate on Monday voted 23-15 in favor of legislation that would require the state to meet 80 percent of its energy needs with renewable energy by 2050. The bill, which now goes to the state Assembly, is nearly identical to legislation the Senate approved in 2015. Last year’s iteration of the […]

Environmental Defense Fund Europe said Monday that Baroness Bryony Worthington has been selected as the first executive director for the European branch international nonprofit environmental group. “Under Bryony’s leadership, Environmental Defense Fund will bring a fresh voice to the European environmental debate — a voice for practical solutions grounded in science and harnessing the power […]

February 2016 broke the record for the most abnormally warm month on record, according to data from NASA. The month rocketed past former record holder January 2016, which broke the record set in December 2015. February’s global temperature, as measured by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was 2.43 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1951-1980 […]

In the wake of the Paris climate agreement, countries are increasingly focused on using emissions trading systems as a means to achieve the emissions reductions committed to in the deal, according to an ETS handbook issued last week by the World Bank. With the added attention being paid to ETSs, it’s important to ensure that […]

Answering the call of a group of Florida mayors, moderators at Thursday evening’s Republican presidential debate in Miami posed the candidates with a question on climate change. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) fielded a question pitched by Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado regarding whether, as president, he would acknowledge the scientific consensus about climate change and do […]

The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere jumped 3.05 parts per million in 2015, the largest annual growth rate increase ever recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last week. “Carbon dioxide levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years,” Pieter Tans, […]

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Friday signed into law a bill requiring the elimination of coal-fired power generation from the state energy mix. The bill specifically states that “on or before January 1, 2030, an electric company shall eliminate coal-fired resources from its allocation of electricity.” Currently, only one coal-fired power plant is operating in […]

The fear of carbon leakage, high-emitting industries leaving countries with stringent environmental policies in favor of doing business in countries where they can emit more, is somewhat misguided, according a report released last week by the Organization for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD). “An increase in the gap in environmental policy stringency between two trading […]

Dan Parsons Defense Daily 3/11/2016 The Defense Department might need $18 billion added to its budget to keep it afloat once the bow wave of nuclear modernization programs crashes ashore in 2021 and beyond, according to the Pentagon’s director of cost assessment and program evaluation (CAPE). The Defense Department is planning for a substantial increase […]

Nuclear arms life-extension program (LEP) schedule and scope changes drove the largest increase in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) budget estimates from fiscal 2015 to 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released last Friday. In its fiscal 2016 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, the NNSA’s weapons activities budget estimate over 25 years […]

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) corrective actions in response to Inspector General (IG) audit findings over the years have often been “incomplete, ineffective, or untimely,” the IG said in a report released last week. It said that corrective actions identified in 88 percent of 48 IG reports closed in fiscal 2011-2014 had not been completed […]

PHOENIX — Christine Gelles, the Energy Department’s acting associate deputy assistant secretary for waste management, will retire from DOE on March 18 to join consulting and marketing shop Longenecker & Associates. “I will see you next time with just a different name tag, I hope,” Gelles, a 22-year DOE veteran three steps removed in the chain […]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) urged Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Wednesday to move forward with interim storage of nuclear waste, with or without congressional action. According to her, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have testified that private storage facilities in Texas and New Mexico could acquire licenses and operate without additional action from Congress. […]

A senior executive with AREVA TN said Thursday that if the Conaway Bill, which would free up billions of dollars in federal funding for private interim storage of nuclear waste, will be impossible to ignore if it continues gaining co-sponsors. Introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas), House Resolution 3643 would allow the Department […]

A doubling of funding for clean energy research is an effort both Republicans and Democrats could get behind, if only the money to do so was available, Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) told Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz Wednesday at a hearing. “Republicans and Democrats agree that government sponsored […]

Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a few shots at each other on the topic of climate change during the eighth Democratic debate Wednesday evening. Thus far, the two had generally been cordial with each other on the topic, seemingly trying to set themselves apart from […]

President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Thursday committed their countries to increase cooperation on climate and energy activities. Under the U.S.-Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership, “the leaders reaffirm their commitment to working together to strengthen North American energy security, phase out fossil fuel subsidies, accelerate clean energy development […]

States have unfairly been left in the dark by the Environmental Protection Agency regarding how the Supreme Court stay of the Clean Power Plan will affect the compliance deadlines in the rule, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in a Thursday evening letter to EPA Administrator to Gina McCarthy. “Whatever legal and policy differences we have […]

Thousands of activists from around the world are expected to participate in anti-fossil fuel demonstrations in May under the new “Break Free” platform, the Climate Action Network announced Tuesday. The demonstrations will aim “to halt dirty fossil fuel operations and demonstrate support for an accelerated ‘just transition’ to 100 [percent] renewable energy,” the release says. […]

The $500 million check the State Department wrote to the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund Monday should not have been written, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. “I firmly oppose what the president is doing here in this misuse, I believe, of taxpayer dollars. I […]

Northeastern states are paying the price for their upwind neighbors, forced to live with pollution they did not create, lawmakers and officials said Wednesday during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It was argued during the hearing that the role of the Environmental Protection Agency in setting minimum pollution control standards […]

JP Morgan Change & Co. is tightening its standards for coal financing, according to a new Environmental and Social Policy Framework released Tuesday.  Under the new framework, “transactions that involve asset-specific financing where the proceeds will be used to develop a new greenfield coal mine or a new coal-fired power plant in a high income […]

Stan Meiburg, the Environmental Protection Agency’s acting deputy administrator, may be serving in conflict with the Vacancies Reform Act, according to a letter sent by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) to EPA Administration Gina McCarthy Tuesday. “Generally under the Vacancies Reform Act, a vacant position requiring Senate confirmation may be filled on a temporary basis for […]

ClearPath, a conservative clean energy organization moving in on Capitol Hill, wants the right to know that it’s okay to support clean energy technologies. In a new ad campaign launched today, directed at congestive policymakers, the organization pitches a clean energy platform built on six conservative principles: free markets, small government, innovation, energy security, lower […]

The Defense Department might need $18 billion added to its budget to keep it afloat once the bow wave of nuclear modernization programs crashes ashore in 2021 and beyond, according to the Pentagon’s director of cost assessment and program evaluation (CAPE). The Defense Department is planning for a substantial increase in its top-line budget in […]

A story in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, “DOE Seeking Information on Post-2018 Hanford Medical Contract,” should have said HPM Corp. is DOE’s Hanford Site occupational medical services contractor.