Budget & Policy

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested a budget of $6.65 billion for fiscal 2017, which compares to current funding of $6.71 billion through fiscal 2016. The request would include $103 million for the Corps’ formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), which was initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate, and clean up or […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested $970.2 million in funding for fiscal 2017, which would represent a roughly 2 percent decrease from the current funding level of about $990 million. The proposed budget encompasses $757.4 million for nuclear reactor safety operations and $212.8 million for nuclear materials and waste safety, which, respectively, are currently funded […]

The Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal lays out an aggressive funding plan to enact a nuclear waste management program to replace the Yucca Mountain deep geologic repository in Nevada.   The money is to be used for the department’s phased, adaptive, consent-based approach to finding permanent storage for tens of thousands of tons of […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/9/2016 The Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal lays out an aggressive funding plan to enact a nuclear waste management program to replace the Yucca Mountain deep geologic repository in Nevada.   The money is to be used for the department’s phased, adaptive, consent-based approach to finding permanent storage for tens […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/9/2016 The future of the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) is uncertain again as President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal calls for shutting down the facility in lieu of another method of disposing of surplus nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. After more than a year of speculation, the proposal confirms that Obama and the Department […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 2/9/2016 The White House’s fiscal 2017 budget request released today increases proposed funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to $12.9 billion. The $4.15 trillion budget boosts NNSA funding from the currently appropriated $12.5 billion and projects a total request of $131.9 billion for fiscal years 2017-2026. The agency’s increased […]

Pat Host Defense Daily 2/9/2016 The Air Force requested 2.4 percent more funding for fiscal year 2017 than the $163.1 billion it was appropriated for last fiscal year. As part of the $166.9 billion it requested for FY ’17, the Air Force wants $12.3 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO) wartime spending, 22 percent more […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 2/9/2016 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested $970.2 million in funding for fiscal 2017, which would represent a roughly 2 percent decrease from the current funding level of about $990 million. The proposed budget encompasses $757.4 million for nuclear reactor safety operations and $212.8 million for nuclear materials and waste safety, […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 2/9/2016 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested a budget of $6.65 billion for fiscal 2017, which compares to current funding of $6.71 billion through fiscal 2016. The budget request, released Tuesday, would cover 97.9 percent discretionary and 2.4 percent mandatory spending. The request would include funding for the Corps’ […]

The future of the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) is uncertain again as President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal calls for shutting down the facility in lieu of another method of disposing of surplus nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. After more than a year of speculation, the proposal confirms that Obama and the Department of Energy want to ice […]

The White House’s fiscal 2017 budget request released today increases proposed funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to $12.9 billion.   The $4.15 trillion budget boosts NNSA funding from the currently appropriated $12.5 billion and projects a total request of $131.9 billion for fiscal years 2017-2026. The agency’s increased funding level to maintain […]

GHG Daily 2/9/2016 The principles decision-makers must follow to make the regulatory and market structure updates needed to prepare utilities for a changing marketplace can also be applied to the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s program of carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, one expert said in a new discussion paper. “There […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/9/2016 While the Environmental Protection Agency did not specifically identify carbon capture and storage as a "best system of emissions reduction" (BSER) in its carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants, states are likely to look to the technology as they seek to comply with the federal […]

GHG Daily 2/9/2016 The amount of carbon emitted from burning of fossils fuels could produce climate impacts that extend for tens of thousands of years, researchers said in a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. “Much of the carbon we are putting in the air from burning fossil fuels will stay there […]

Legislation that would allow the Department of Energy to spend annual interest from the $34 billion Nuclear Waste Fund on the storage of spent nuclear waste is likely a nonstarter, an inside source told the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Monday. According to a GOP aide, who requested anonymity, the House Energy and Commerce Committee does […]

Dan Leone NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 As part of a policy blitz aimed at paving the way to send some 40 tons of diluted plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the White House’s fiscal 2017 budget request will slash funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Aiken, S.C., according to […]

As part of a policy blitz aimed at paving the way to send some 40 tons of diluted plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the White House’s fiscal 2017 budget request will slash funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Aiken, S.C., according to an informed source. The Mixed […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 2/5/2016 The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would transfer remediation authority over the mixed-use West Lake Landfill from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Missouri Sens. Roy Blunt (R) and Claire McCaskill (D), who have criticized the EPA’s […]

WC Monitor 2/05/2016 Lawmaker Seeks Full FY17 Funding for Hanford Richland Operations Office Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) is urging President Barack Obama to request full funding for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office when the administration’s fiscal 2017 appropriations request is released on Feb. 9. Last year the administration proposed a $93 million funding cut […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 Significant cuts to the U.S. nuclear modernization program, including the cancellation of the B61 gravity bomb consolidation and new cruise missile programs, could save the U.S. $120 billion over the next 30 years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress. The report noted that the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/5/2016 A sweeping energy package containing several amendments related to carbon capture and storage has been held up on the Senate floor due to ongoing debate about relief funds for Flint, Mich., where an ongoing water crisis has left thousands without safe drinking water. The bill was put up for […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/5/2016 Deployment of carbon capture and storage technology must not be limited to politically motivated discussions but acknowledged as an economic and environmental necessity, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said yesterday at the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute’s annual Americas forum. “We’ve got to get over [the idea that] we […]

GHG Daily 2/5/2016 Requests filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by 26 states, 16 trade organizations, 61 power utilities, and others to immediately stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants are without merit, according to a document filed with the high court Wednesday. “Applicants seek a stay before any […]

GHG Daily 2/5/2016 A large group of fossil energy companies, environmental groups, and utilities on Wednesday sent a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee urging support for a permanent extension of the section 45Q tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration. “Section 45Q, will expire the year in which the currently authorized 75 million […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/4/2016 The Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project is now slated for full operation in the third quarter of this year, not the first half as project owner Mississippi Power previously had stated. The delay announced in a Feb. 3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission […]

Jeff Erikson has been appointed general manager of the Americas division of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, the organization announced today. “Jeff’s vast knowledge of sustainability issues across a broad range of industries, coupled with his expertise in the business implications of global climate change, will be a valuable asset to the Institute, […]

The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute on Wednesday launched a new fellowship program, appointing Meredith Gibbs, a prominent Australian environmental and climate change lawyer, as the first participant. "I am delighted and honoured to have been awarded the first Legal Fellowship with the Global CCS Institute,” Gibbs said in a press release. "My research […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) is urging President Barack Obama to request full funding for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office when the administration’s fiscal 2017 appropriations request is released on Feb. 9. Last year the administration proposed a $93 million funding cut for the Richland Operations Office, “which would have resulted in cleanup delays, increased […]

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would transfer remediation authority over the mixed-use West Lake Landfill from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Missouri Sens. Roy Blunt (R) and Claire McCaskill (D), who have criticized the EPA’s 25-year effort in cleaning up […]

Significant cuts to the U.S. nuclear modernization program, including the cancellation of the B61 gravity bomb consolidation and new cruise missile programs, could save the U.S. $120 billion over the next 30 years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress. The report noted that the cost of the U.S. nuclear deterrent […]