Budget & Policy

Tthe Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 would limit bonuses for National Nuclear Security Administration employees who engage in "improper" program management. “If the Secretary of Energy or the Administrator determines that a senior employee of the Administration committed improper program management, the Secretary and the […]

Members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation asked the Department of Energy how it plans to avoid layoffs at the Portsmouth site in 2016 given planned funding levels and cuts in the uranium transfers used to help pay for cleanup at the site. The Department recently released a new Secretarial Determination governing those transfers, cutting them from […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 Cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office at Hanford as well as Oak Ridge would see the biggest increases from DOE’s FY 2016 budget request in the Senate version of the FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that cleared the full committee this week. Overall, DOE’s […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 Senate appropriators this week matched the Department of Energy’s proposed funding cut for D&D activities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant next year, raising concerns of major layoffs at the site. The Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of committee, would provide […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 Following ongoing controversy about the Department of Energy’s excess uranium transfers, lawmakers in both the Senate and the House this week introduced legislation that would put a firm cap on the transfers and require them to go through the full rulemaking and public comment process. The bills would cap the […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 5/22/2015 To aid nonproliferation efforts, the National Nuclear Security Administration would be directed to establish a new “Uranium Science Institute” under the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of committee this week. The bill would provide a total of $426.8 million for the […]

Sen. Feinstein Calls MOX Project ‘Apex of Problems’ Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/22/2015 While construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility is supported at a $345 million funding level in the Senate’s version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations legislation that was reported out of committee this week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 The Department of Energy will look to ramp up funding starting in fiscal year 2016 for developing new technologies to address cleanup challenges, according to DOE’s recently released response to recommendations by a Secretary of Energy Advisory Board task force. Advances in science and technology will be key to successfully […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 5/22/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration would receive a total of $8.9 billion for weapons activities under the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of committee this week. The bill would provide a $35.4 million increase from the NNSA’s budget request and $670 […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 5/22/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration this month submitted to Congress its response to a set of recommendations laid out by the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise. While NNSA agreed with much of the language and reforms outlined in the panel’s report, “A New Foundation […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) pushed back last week against calls by opponents of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission standards for coal-fired power plants for states to not comply with the regulations once finalized. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), an ardent opponent […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 5/22/2015 In contrast to their colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee, House appropriators have proposed blocking funding from being transferred into the Sea-Based Deterrent Fund in their version of the FY 2016 defense appropriations bill, reported out of subcommittee this week. The fund is seen as a potential source of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Canada has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) submitted to the U.N.  Framework Convention on Climate Change late last week. The INDCs are public commitments made by countries stating what they intend to do […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Senate appropriators approved their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill this week, providing an increase of $39 million above the Obama Administration’s request for the Department of Energy’s fossil energy research and development program. The bill, which would fund fossil energy R&D at $610 […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 President Barack Obama stressed this week the importance of addressing climate change as a national security issue and noted the progress the United States has made on the issue. Obama specifically cited the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standard for new and existing coal-fired power plants that would […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 The National Association of Clean Air Agencies, an organization comprised of the state air regulators who will be tasked with developing state action plans to come into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, this week released an in-depth encyclopedia of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Mississippi Power last week filed three proposed rate plans with the Mississippi Public Service Commission to recover eligible costs for the construction of the Kemper County Energy Facility, a new build coal plant that will employ carbon capture, utilization and storage technology. The proposals, which could raise customer costs […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could assist with the application of a reliability safety valve and reliability monitoring as the Environmental Protection Agency implements proposed carbon emission standards for existing coal fired power plants, FERC commissioners said in a letter sent late last week to the EPA. Under the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Supporting clean coal technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, will allow the United States to address the threat of climate change without sacrificing the nation’s economy, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) said this week at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to consider a set of pending […]

GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Energy efficiency measures will be key to implementing the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants at a manageable cost, according to a report released this week by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. The proposed regulations would set state-specific carbon emission targets and […]

Senate Bill Funds Interim Storage, But Not Yucca Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/22/2015 While the Senate’s version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill this week included language that would enable interim storage at both a pilot plant and private facility, Sen. Tom Udall’s  (D-N.M.) public opposition to interim storage may […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/22/2015 House lawmakers and industry representatives agreed late last week that the Department of Energy is bound by the law to pursue Yucca Mountain as the nation’s repository for spent fuel, during a hearing in front of the House Environment and the Economy Subcommittee. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), one of […]

Mike Nartker RW Monitor 5/22/2015 Senate appropriators are looking to have the National Nuclear Security Administration come up with a plan to have new domestic sources of molybdenum-99 up and running in the next 18 months. In the report accompanying the Senate version of the FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/22/2105 Congress should prioritize the disposal of defense waste before commercial waste, the Energy Community Alliance said in a letter late last week to House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders. The letter comes in response to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz’s announcement earlier this year that the Department of Energy […]

The Senate’s version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill would pave the way for the Department of Energy to consolidate spent nuclear fuel at interim storage sites, including the construction of a DOE pilot facility as well as the use of proposed private facilities in Texas and New Mexico. However, the bill […]

Funding for the Department of Energy’s cleanup programs would see a boost in the Senate Energy and Water Fiscal Year 2016 Appropriations legislation that cleared the subcommittee yesterday, but would be slightly cut for the National Nuclear Security Administration. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would receive $6 billion under the bill, compared to DOE’s FY’16 […]

Calling the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility the “apex of problems,” Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is opposing the $345 million in MOX funding included in legislation that cleared the subcommittee yesterday. That funding level would allow construction to continue at the beleaguered project, and matches the House level. […]

The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee yesterday released its draft of the Fiscal Year 2016 Defense Appropriations bill, which the subcommittee will mark up today. Notably, the draft would prohibit any money from being transferred into the Sea-Based Deterrent Fund. “None of the funds provided in this or any other Act may be transferred to the […]

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Congress should prioritize the disposal of defense waste before commercial waste, the Energy Community Alliance said in a letter late last week to House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders. The letter comes in response to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz’s announcement earlier this year that the Department of Energy would seek a separate track for […]