Budget & Policy

The agreed-upon fiscal 2016 federal omnibus budget would provide nearly $6 billion for remediation of legacy Department of Energy defense nuclear facilities.   House lawmakers are expected to vote Friday on the spending package, followed by a Senate decision. The White House has indicated President Barack Obama would sign the bill, which would keep the […]

A group of seven Democratic senators on Tuesday called on the president to cancel the Air Force’s nuclear air-launched cruise missile program, the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) weapon.   In a Dec. 14 letter, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and […]

Washington state and the Department of Energy have filed what should be their final documents in federal court in their dispute over the cleanup of the Hanford Site, the state Attorney General’s Office said on Tuesday.   The state and DOE are in a legal battle over the court-enforced 2010 consent decree that set milestones […]

The state of South Carolina threatened to sue the federal government if the Department of Energy doesn’t pay $1 million a day to the state for missing a key deadline at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). The facility is a critical part of the nation’s MOX project, which the U.S. […]

Congress prevented a government shutdown Friday afternoon, as the House agreed in a voice vote on a continuing resolution that gives lawmakers until Wednesday to hammer out an omnibus appropriations bill that includes defense. Government funding was slated to expire at midnight Friday, but has been extended at current levels until the end of Dec. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/11/2015 PARIS – Without clean energy innovation, countries will be unlikely to increase their ambition in future climate mitigation efforts, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Monday. Moniz, speaking to reporters at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), highlighted […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/11/2015 PARIS – The United States, as the world’s largest economy and second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, plays a key role in the ongoing negotiations toward a global climate agreement in Paris. The administration has made clear its view on the proceedings at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/11/2015 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday released a climate change plan that would commit the U.S. to reducing its carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030 and more than 80 percent by 2050 below 1990 levels. To do so, the plan says, Sanders would place a […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/11/2015 PARIS – Regardless of political statements from Republican lawmakers asserting that the U.S. Congress does not support the Obama administration’s efforts to address climate change, the administration has the support of the American people, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said Thursday. “If you’re worried about rhetoric you hear […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/11/2015 The Department of Energy’s (DOE) internal estimates for the long-term cost of nuclear weapons modernization operations exceed by over $4 billion President Barack Obama’s projections in the fiscal 2016 annual DOE and Department of Defense (DoD) joint report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released Thursday. The […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/11/2015 The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday introduced a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government for five days beyond the Dec. 11 expiration of the current CR. The newly introduced bill maintains government funding at the fiscal 2015 funding levels of the current CR – passed at […]

Valerie Insinna Defense Daily 12/11/2015 The Navy anticipates building its top priority—the Ohio replacement submarine—during a fiscally austere period where the shipbuilding account will be strapped for cash, but using a special, Defense Department-wide account would give the service new funding mechanisms that could save anywhere from 5 to 10 percent per ship, the Congressional Budget Office […]

The Navy anticipates building its top priority—the Ohio replacement submarine—during a fiscally austere period where the shipbuilding account will be strapped for cash, but using a special, Defense Department-wide account would give the service new funding mechanisms that could save anywhere from 5 to 10 percent per ship, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.   Congress created the […]

Karl Herchenroeder RadWaste Monitor 12/4/2015 Congress should establish and oversee an independent body to manage the multibillion-dollar Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF), a Montana state official told a congressional panel on Thursday. The NWF was created to fund radioactive waste disposal activities authorized by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, a federal law that established […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 A group of more than 600 state and local Democratic officials in a Nov. 24 letter to President Barack Obama called for increased government support for carbon capture and storage technology. “If we are to be serious about addressing the climate challenge, we must get serious about CCS, making […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 If companies continue investing in a way that supports fossil fuel development, they could end up wasting $2 trillion, buried in fossil fuel projects that cannot go forward if nations are to get on track to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, according to a report published […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 One week into the two-week global climate negotiations in Paris, Republican lawmakers have yet to head to the French capital, though they continue to decry President Barack Obama’s efforts to clinch a deal from Capitol Hill. GOP arguments against U.S. involvement in the agreement include assertions that national efforts […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 The 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change saw a large focus placed on money in its first days, with several significant funding announcements made this week in Paris. Several governments, as well as private sector entities, have indicated their intentions to commit […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 The House this week approved two Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions disapproving of the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants, sending the measures to President Barack Obama for an almost certain veto. The measures passed in the Senate on Nov. 17 and […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 It is technically feasible, in four unique scenarios, for the United States to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, according to the latest Deep Decarbonization Project U.S. Pathways report. “Four distinct scenarios employing substantially different decarbonization strategies —High Renewable, High Nuclear, High CCS, […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 Investigations by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Inspector General’s Office (IG) from an April 1 to Sept. 30 reporting period resulted in nine criminal convictions, the recovery of $30.2 million in fines, and 12 suspensions and debarments, according to the IG’s semiannual report to Congress released this week. The IG’s […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/4/2015 Congress is pushing for an updated cost assessment of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility following a congressionally mandated independent review this summer that priced the project’s life-cycle expense at $51 billion. Despite controversial hearings in Congress and indications from the Department of Energy that the project is too expensive, […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 Congress is pushing for an updated cost assessment of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility following a congressionally mandated independent review this summer that priced the project’s life-cycle expense at $51 billion. Despite controversial hearings in Congress and indications from the Department of Energy that the project is too expensive, […]

Staff Reports Defense Daily 12/4/2015 Some major modernization programs, including the Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) and Ohio-class nuclear submarine replacement, will be slowed as the Defense Department absorbs a $15 billion cut after fiscal year 2017, the Pentagon’s chief accountant said Nov. 30. Pentagon bean counters are not thrilled with the budget deal passed at the […]

Alissa Tabirian and Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 President Barack Obama last week signed the new fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that authorizes $607 billion in defense spending, following a previous veto of the bill over objections to the use of overseas contingency operations funds. The new deal passed the House and Senate […]

Congress is pushing for an updated cost assessment of the MOX project following a congressionally mandated independent review this summer that priced the project’s life-cycle expense at $51 billion. Despite controversial hearings in Congress and indications from the Department of Energy that the project is too expensive, President Barack Obama on Nov. 25 signed the […]

Some major Defense Department modernization programs, including the Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) and Ohio-class nuclear submarine replacement, will be slowed as the Defense Department absorbs a $15 billion cut after fiscal year 2017, the Pentagon’s chief accountant said Nov. 30. Pentagon bean counters are not thrilled with the budget deal passed at the 11th hour, but […]

President Barack Obama last Wednesday signed the new fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that authorizes $607 billion in defense spending, following a previous veto of the bill over objections to the use of overseas contingency operations funds. The new deal passed the House and Senate after an agreement between Congress and the White […]

Members of Missouri’s congressional delegation on Thursday introduced legislation 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.   The EPA’s 25-year effort to clean the landfill, which contains radioactive waste, is “stagnant” and “unacceptable,” according […]

Members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) identified reviews of quality assurance, emergency preparedness and response, and Department of Energy (DOE) directives as fiscal 2016 priorities at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) labs. Speaking at a public business meeting yesterday about DNFSB’s work plan for the fiscal year, DNFSB group leads noted that conducting […]