Budget & Policy

The $25 billion in support for clean energy technology provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has “built a platform for a private investment boom in new clean energy projects that continues to propel their growth,” Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz wrote Friday in a Department of Energy blog post. The Recovery Act was […]

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that he will champion a change in law that would allow the Department of Energy to contract private companies in storing nuclear waste. The move would clear the way for DOE’s search for consent-based interim sites that would house spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste now stored […]

South Carolina’s senior senator exploded at Energy Department officials on Tuesday, demanding to know why nobody has been fired for the White House’s apparent flip-flop on turning 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear plants. “This is what’s wrong with the government!” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) shouted at National Nuclear […]

Remaining Hanford Costs Tagged at $107.7B The remaining cleanup costs at the Hanford Site plus some limited long-term stewardship come to $107.7 billion, according to the 2016 Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost Report. The estimate a year ago was $110.2 billion. The report has been a requirement of the Tri-Party Agreement for the last […]

South Carolina’s senior senator exploded at Energy Department officials on Tuesday, demanding to know why nobody has been fired for the White House’s apparent flip-flop on turning 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear plants. “This is what’s wrong with the government!” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) shouted at National Nuclear Security […]

Members of Congress and the chairmen of a congressional advisory panel on governance of the nuclear security enterprise on Wednesday mulled reintegrating the operations of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) fully into the Department of Energy (DOE). Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said at […]

Valerie Insinna Defense Daily  2/26/2016 Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday he would not authorize funding for the Long Range Strike Bomber as long as the program remains under a cost-plus contracting structure. McCain has not yet been briefed by the Air Force on the contract award to Northrop Grumman […]

The United States cannot meet its nationally determined pledge under the Paris climate agreement with current policy measures alone, making additional action by states, cities, and business action key, experts said Wednesday during an event hosted by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and New America. Analysis of the greenhouse gas reductions possible […]

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) on Thursday introduced legislation making permanent the section 45Q tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration. As written, the credit would expire as soon as the currently authorized 75 million tons of CO2 was stored. Roughly half of those credits have already been claimed. Conaway’s bill would remove the 75-million ton cap. […]

States that meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s with a mass-based market-based system should avoid doing so under a historical allocation approach, according to a report issued Thursday by Advanced Energy Economy. Under such an approach emissions allowances are awarded to affected sources on the basis of historical generation. A historical allocation system would cause affected […]

Nevada, until Tuesday one of only five neutral states in the ongoing legal battle surrounding the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, has thrown its hat into the ring, kind of. The state filed an amicus brief with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, officially picking the side of those suing the EPA against the […]

Members of Congress and the chairmen of a congressional advisory panel on the governance of the nuclear security enterprise on Wednesday mulled reintegrating the operations of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) fully into the Department of Energy (DOE). Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said […]

The Oregon Senate Business and Transportation Committee on Tuesday voted 3-2 in favor of legislation 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, there is only one […]

A bipartisan group of 34 senators and 171 representatives Tuesday filed an amicus brief in a current legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. At the head of the group stand Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), […]

Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States increased .9 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to the Draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks released Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The report also says emissions have increased 7.7 percent from 1990-2014. The 2014 increase can be attributed to a number of factors, […]

The current moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands could conclude well before or well after the three years estimated by the Interior Department, Secretary Sally Jewell told lawmakers Tuesday. “Three years is not a fixed timeline, [the moratorium] is tied to the programmatic [environmental impact statement]. The more cooperation we get, the quicker we’ll […]

South Carolina’s senior senator exploded at Energy Department officials on Tuesday, demanding to know why nobody has been fired for the White House’s apparent flip-flop on turning 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear plants. “This is what’s wrong with the government!” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) shouted at National Nuclear Security […]

Email messages exchanged by the Environmental Protection Agency and various nongovernmental environmental groups, during the drafting of the agency’s carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants, “damningly illustrate” that the EPA was a “captured body allowing green pressure groups improper influence,” according to a report issued Monday by the Energy and Environmental […]

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead’s administration is exploring any “legal avenues” that exist to challenge the Obama administration moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands. “We started looking at [a formal] challenge the day that we learned this was going to take place to see whether or not there’s a legal avenue there,” Mead (R) said […]

The extent to which ecosystems react to climate change varies significantly throughout the world, with areas proving to be more sensitive to the changing climate than others, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Norway and the United Kingdom. “The Arctic tundra, parts of the boreal forest belt, the wet tropical forests of […]

GHG Daily 2/22/2016 Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz last week applauded the Obama administration’s commitment to increasing energy innovation funding. “Last week, President Obama released the administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2017, which makes good on the U.S. Mission Innovation commitment with $7.7 billion across 12 agencies for clean energy research and development, including […]

GHG Daily 2/21/2016 The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), at its winter meeting in Washington, D.C., last week passed a resolution calling on the federal government to support the use of carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). “NARUC urges Congress and the Administration to support legislation and budget measures that provide assistance […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/22/2016 Petitioners submitted initial briefs to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday at the first deadline in a court-ordered expedited schedule for the massive legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan. An immense group of 156 petitioners comprised of states, utilities, fossil fuel companies, and […]

At $189 million, the $4 million requested increase for Los Alamos National Laboratory environmental management operations for fiscal 2017 is smaller than some in the state hoped to see. Stakeholders for the Department of Energy facility, including Ryan Flynn, New Mexico environment secretary and the nuclear weapons laboratory’s principal state regulator, were hoping for a […]

The Wisconsin State Senate in 23-9 vote Tuesday approved legislation that would lift the state’s 33-year ban on building new nuclear power plants, advancing the bill to Gov. Scott Walker for final approval. Wisconsin currently prohibits the construction of new plants because the federal government has not established a storage facility capable of taking nuclear […]

Three Republican presidential candidates advocated for construction funding for the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) during campaign stops this week in Aiken, S.C. – a town less than 20 miles from the site. President Barack Obama’s 2017 budget request calls for shuttering the MFFF and the entire MOX project, the nation’s […]

A group of 17 U.S. governors this week pledged to take steps to secure a clean energy future. Under the Governors’ Accord for a New Energy Future, within their states the governors committed to diversify energy generation and expand clean energy sources; modernize energy infrastructure; encourage clean transportation options; develop energy plans and strategies to […]

January 2016 surpassed all other Januarys in the 137–year record as hottest, with globally averaged temperature across land and ocean surfaces 1.04 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 12.0 degrees, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “This departure from average is the second highest among all months in […]

The news of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just days after he voted in favor of a stay to the centerpiece regulation of the Obama administration’s climate efforts has left the international community reeling. Norwegian environmental group Bellona this week postulated on the uncertain future of the high court and, in turn, […]

The recent Supreme Court ruling to halt implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan pending judicial review has thrust the utility industry into a state of uncertainty, according to commentary from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Whatever the ultimate fate of the rule, the stay increases the level of regulatory uncertainty […]