Budget & Policy

GHG Daily 2/3/2016 Jim Carr, Canada’s minister of natural resources, will host U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Mexican Energy Minister Pedro Joaquín Coldwell next week in Winnipeg, Manitoba, “to build a foundation for greater continental focus on climate change and energy collaboration,” according to a Canadian government press release. “Working collaboratively with the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/2/2016 The variance of commitments pledged by developed and developing nations in the Paris climate agreement took center stage Tuesday during a hearing of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Republican members of the committee and their witnesses argued the commitments made by developed countries are far more […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/2/2016 Progress so far on the Senate’s Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015 has been mostly congenial, with 31 largely bipartisan amendments brought to the floor and agreed to by Wednesday morning. As the week drags on, however, more controversial amendments are popping up, potentially threatening the future of the […]

GHG Daily 2/2/2016 The sweeping energy package making its way through the Senate this week has earned a nod of approval from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The trade organization sent a letter to the Senate urging adoption of the bill. “America’s energy landscape has changed dramatically since Congress last passed a multi-title energy bill […]

New York lawmakers have initiated another effort to save the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant, despite power provider Entergy’s insistence that the plant will close in early 2017 or sooner. New York state Assemblyman Will Barclay (R), whose district includes the facility, recently introduced two bills meant to incentivize operation at the plant, one […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 2/2/2016 Ardent climate change denier Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday evening won the Republican Iowa Caucus, the starting gun of primary season. Cruz, who has taken to referring to environmentalists as “global warming alarmists,” took 28 percent of the vote, beating out Donald Trump at 24 percent and Sen. […]

GHG Daily 2/2/2016 The State of North Dakota Friday filed an application with Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court calling for a stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. The state joins a coalition of 25 other states, led by West Virginia, 16 trade organizations, including the […]

GHG Daily 2/1/2016 In order to build confidence in the commitments made under the Paris climate agreement to limit or reduce annual emissions of greenhouse gases, countries, especially those in the Group of 20, should establish domestic policy frameworks in line with those commitments, according to a report published Monday. “Governments have the opportunity to […]

GHG Daily 2/1/2016 A scenario in which sufficient steps are taken to increase clean energy development to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius represents an investment opportunity of $12.1 trillion over 25 years, according to a new report developed by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Ceres. “A world working to achieve the […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is preparing to take legal action against the Department of Energy for unkept multimillion-dollar promises made to the state for disposal of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium now stored at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Under a 2003 agreement with the state, DOE was supposed to […]

Chris Schneidmiller RW Monitor 1/29/2016 Power provider Entergy this week dismissed New York’s new proposed strategy to keep nuclear power plants in the state solvent and operating, saying it is proceeding with the planned closure of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant. In December, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the state Department of Public Service […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/29/2016 Debate began this week on the Senate’s Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, a bipartisan legislative update to the nation’s energy policy. The package aims to save energy, expand domestic energy supplies, enable infrastructure investment, protect the electric grid, boost energy trade, improve the performance of federal agencies, and […]

GHG Daily 1/29/2016 A slew of new petitioners has joined West Virginia and its coalition of 25 states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. Additional stay applications have been filed by 16 trade organizations, including the U.S. Chamber […]

GHG Daily 1/29/2016 Environmental-related risks could strand thermal-coal assets worldwide, a recent analysis conducted by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford has found. These risks, including air pollution, the effects of climate change, and the policies being implemented to address these issues, spell uncertainly for the global thermal […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/28/2016 Last week’s court order denying a request to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants is two pages and less than 400 words long, but the document opens a lot up to speculation, Kyle Danish, a partner at the law firm of Van […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/28/2016 The Clean Air Act, while a wonderful piece of legislation, has a fatal flaw, according to Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law. That flaw is the inherent “grandfathering” of existing emitting sources. “This is a typical move in […]

GHG Daily 1/28/2016 The bipartisan energy package being considered by the Senate this week is lacking in a crucial area, according to Environmental Defense Fund Action President Elizabeth Thompson. “The Senate is pursuing energy legislation without the benefit of a congressional plan to reduce climate pollution. Coal, oil and natural gas emissions are responsible for […]

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is preparing to take legal action against the Department of Energy for unkept multimillion-dollar promises made to the state for disposal of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium now stored at the Savannah River Site. Under a 2003 agreement with the state, DOE was supposed to process at least 1 metric ton […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/27/2016 Late Tuesday afternoon, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with officials from 29 other states and state agencies, filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. The U.S. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/27/2016 Late Tuesday afternoon, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with officials from 29 other states and state agencies, filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. The U.S. […]

GHG Daily 1/27/2016 Without ratification by the Senate, the global climate deal struck in Paris last month “has no means of enforcement, sustainability or legal significance,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) argued again this week. “President Obama can sign the Paris Agreement if he pleases. … However, he knows as well as anyone that his signature […]

GHG Daily 1/26/16 Internationally, the rate at which the planet’s fossil fuel reserves are being harvested is not in line with global goals to limit temperature rise, according to a report issued Monday by green groups the Sierra Club, 350.org, and Greenpeace. “To reach a four-in-five chance of preventing catastrophe, we have approximately 565 Gt […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/25/2016 Climate change denial has been hot on the tongue of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with the first caucuses looming. On Sunday morning Sanders doubled down on a statement he made during the Jan. 17 Democratic debate that Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican primary campaign, […]

Capping a nine-month stalemate, the Energy Department and New Mexico formally agreed to terms on a pair of settlements under which under which DOE will fund about $74 million worth of infrastructure improvements in the state as a penalty for two 2014 incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and nuclear waste management failures […]

The Department of Labor responded to requests, including those by the Alliance for Nuclear Worker Advocacy Groups (ANWAG), and extended the comment period on proposed rule changes for compensation claims under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness and Compensation Program.   Despite the monthlong extension of the comment period, from Jan. 19 to Feb. 18, sick […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 Congressional advocates of the nation’s MOX program this week denounced one of the alternatives to the project because it includes the use of a facility that has been shut down since 2014 due to safety incidents. On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson (R–S.C.) and Rick Allen (R–Ga.) toured the Mixed […]

GHG Daily 1/22/2016 In their request for a stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, parties to the suit, led by the state of West Virginia, make a faulty claim that the rule does not line up with the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Joel […]

GHG Daily 1/22/2016 The Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, the Clean Power Plan, came into effect in late December, but the agency will continue its outreach efforts to help states meet the new mandate, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told a gathering of U.S. mayors Thursday morning. “We are doubling […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/22/2016 The nation’s energy industry is “over-regulated,” according to several industry officials who spoke this week at the United States Energy Association’s annual State of the Energy Industry Forum in Washington, D.C. Officials took aim at several regulations, though none more so than the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Daily 1/22/2016 The U.S. Court of the Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday denied a request to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. “Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review,” the court wrote in the […]