Budget & Policy

Congress successfully passed yesterday a Continuing Resolution that will fund the federal government through Dec. 11 at Fiscal Year 2015 enacted levels and avoids a government shutdown. The CR enables Congress an additional 10 weeks to work towards a budget solution, but with uncertainty in the House following Speaker John Boehner’s recent planned resignation announcement, […]

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to re-evaluate the benefits package at the heart of the strike at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant and calling for special attention toward the facility’s deferred maintenance issues. Unionized workers at the Pantex Plant have been on strike for more […]

Funding for both an interim storage pilot program and the Yucca Mountain licensing process should be included in a possible omnibus appropriations bill in December, House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said yesterday at the Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop in Arlington, Va. Simpson, a longtime Yucca supporter, pointed to […]

Texas U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway (R) yesterday introduced his bill that would enable private companies like Waste Control Specialists to host a consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility. The “Interim Consolidated Storage Act of 2015” would amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to allow the Department of Energy to enter into interim storage contracts with […]

Setting the stage for an expected House vote tomorrow on the reconciled National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) yesterday released the report drafted alongside the conference version of that bill, which would authorize an additional $50 million to reduce the $3.6 million backlog of crumbling […]

A continuing resolution or government shutdown to start fiscal 2016 could mean furloughs for employees of the roughly 110-employee Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, according to DNFSB’s “Shutdown Plan in the Event of a Lapse in Appropriation (2015)” released on Friday. If such a situation occurs, board members would prioritize keeping DNFSB site representatives stationed […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 9/25/2015 As world leaders prepare to negotiate a new global climate deal in December, it has become clear that meeting the commitments embedded in such an accord will be delegated largely to the world’s cities, Shelley Poticha, director of the Urban Solutions program with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 9/25/2015 A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) this week released an energy bill that includes a provision that would add carbon utilization and storage efforts to a section of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) that prioritizes fossil energy research and development efforts within […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 9/25/2015 Summit Power, developer of the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP), will not meet the Sept. 30 spending deadline for $104 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, a company executive acknowledged this week. TCEP was awarded a grand total of $211 million in ARRA funding and was able […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 9/25/2015 On the surface, adopting a price on carbon might seem like a costly and potentially risky move economically. However, when examining the possibilities presented by a significant new source of revenue, a carbon price becomes an economically viable option, Mark Reynolds, executive director of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby said […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 9/25/2015 What once seemed a very promising future for carbon capture and storage has fallen by the wayside due to a lack of market development, but all is not lost, according to MIT Senior Research Engineer Howard Herzog. “The number one reason for CCS not meeting the expectations of 2009 […]

IN THE STATES Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) this week dropped his appeal of a 10th Circuit Court dismissal of a lawsuit filed in June challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants. The rule, which was finalized in early August, requires states to develop action plans to meet […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case files required to be shared between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the White House at times lack “pertinent” documentation, the DOE Inspector General‘s Office (IG) found in a report released this week that reviewed samples of FOIA requests from DOE branches including the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/25/2015 A continuing budget resolution set for three months or longer would likely affect the early acquisition stages for the $62.3 billion Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, even though the program is not a new start, Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick said by email on Monday. Continuing resolutions freeze federal funding at the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/25/2015 Former Energy Secretary and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson this week said he plans to ask political leaders from Idaho and Washington state to join him in pushing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The MOX plant is to be used to process 34 metric […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 9/25/2015 A proposed three-month federal continuing resolution released this week could head off hundreds of layoffs among workers on the cleanup project at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Piketon, Ohio. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday issued the federal funding plan to keep the federal government open when fiscal 2016 […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 Former Energy Secretary and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson this week said he plans to ask political leaders from Idaho and Washington state to join him in pushing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The MOX plant is to be used to process 34 metric […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 9/25/2015 A U.S. lawmaker from Texas plans by the end of September to introduce legislation that would enable private companies like Waste Control Specialists to host a consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility, RW Monitor learned this week. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, will introduce […]

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case files required to be shared between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the White House at times lack “pertinent” documentation, the DOE Inspector General‘s Office (IG) found in a report released yesterday that reviewed samples of FOIA requests from DOE branches including the Office of Environmental Management and National […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) yesterday proposed funding the federal government through a three-month continuing resolution to start fiscal 2016, which could authorize the Energy Department to advance ongoing defense nuclear cleanup programs, “particularly at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant” in Piketon, Ohio. That could prevent the hundreds of pending layoffs that site contractor Fluor-BWXT announced […]

Former Energy Secretary and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is asking political leaders from Idaho and Washington state to join him in pushing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. During a speech yesterday at the National Press Club in Washington, Richardson argued that ”downblending,” or diluting and disposing, of 34 […]

A Texas U.S. representative plans to introduce by the end of the month a bill that would enable private companies like Waste Control Specialists to host a consolidated interim storage facility, WC Morning Briefing has learned. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, will introduce the “Interim Consolidated Storage Act of 2015,” […]

A continuing budget resolution set for three months or longer would likely affect the early acquisition stages for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, even though the program is not a new start, Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick said by email yesterday. Continuing resolutions freeze federal funding at the previous year’s spending levels, and do not allow […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Friday released the names of the members of its Senior Executive Service Performance Review Board (PRB). The five-member panel “shall review and evaluate the initial summary rating of a senior executive’s performance, the executive’s response, and the higher level official’s comments on the initial summary rating,” according to […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 9/18/2015 The Department of Energy will no longer provide funding for Centrus’ American Centrifuge project operations at its Piketon, Ohio facility, the company confirmed late last week. The announcement also noted a one-year extension funding for the American Centrifuge project’s research and development contract with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory […]

GHG Monitor 9/18/2015 IN DOE The National Coal Council, an advisory committee to the secretary of energy, will hold its next meeting on Nov. 5 at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pa., according to a notice published this week in the Federal Register. Speakers will include Grace Bochenek, director of DOE’s National Energy […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 9/18/2015 To take advantage of the United Kingdom’s shale gas resources while also addressing the need to lower carbon emissions, revenue from a potential shale gas industry in the nation should be invested in the development of a carbon capture and storage industry, according to a report published this week […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The Department of Energy (DOE) is questioning millions of dollars in “unresolved costs” at Sandia Corp. in fiscal 2013 and several years prior, according to a DOE Inspector General’s Office (IG) report released this week. Sandia Corp., a Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMC) subsidiary that has managed and operated Sandia National […]

Jeremy L. Dillon NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The Department of Energy will no longer provide funding for Centrus’ American Centrifuge project operations at its Piketon, Ohio facility, the company confirmed late last week. The announcement also noted a one-year extension funding for the American Centrifuge project’s research and development contract with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 9/18/2015 The Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, dubbed the Clean Power Plan, picks winners and losers, leaving many states in a lurch while others will have do very little, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) said during a recent hearing of the House Science, […]