Budget & Policy

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) reintroduced legislation yesterday in the House and Senate that would cut $100 billion in nuclear weapons spending over the next decade. The lawmakers have previously authored bills similar to the “Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act” since Markey first drafted the legislation in 2012, but […]

Today is the deadline for members of Congress to sign a letter that Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) are sending to House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Pete Visclosky requesting support for procurement of undersea platforms, including the Ohio-class Replacement, according to a notice released by the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/20/2015 As weapon systems in the U.S. nuclear triad age out of their service lives in the next few decades, the full House Armed Services Committee will look more closely at modernization, committee Chair Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said this week. “I’m afraid we have grown somewhat complacent about the importance […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/20/2015 The House and Senate Budget Committees this week released their  versions of the Fiscal Year 2016 budget resolution, creating cautious optimism among nuclear weapons complex observers about how much extra defense money—if any—will be available to lawmakers in Fiscal Year 2016 for nuclear modernization efforts. The Senate Budget Committee adhered […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—In order to limit the impacts of proposed budget cuts to new processing missions at Savannah River’s H-Canyon facility, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Operations Office is working with the National Nuclear Security Administration on H-Canyon funding, DOE Savannah River Manager Dave Moody said here this week. Programs […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/20/2015 PHOENIX, Ariz.—In order to limit the impacts of proposed budget cuts to new processing missions at Savannah River’s H-Canyon facility, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Operations Office is working with the National Nuclear Security Administration on H-Canyon funding, DOE Savannah River Manager Dave Moody said here this week. Programs […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 3/20/2015 As the Department of Energy works on a new Secretarial determination to govern future transfers of excess uranium to help fund cleanup work, among other activities, DOE appears to be considering a potential decrease in the amount of material to be provided, according to information the Department released this week. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/20/2015 Mississippi Power officially filed an application for rehearing with the Mississippi Supreme Court late last week looking for a reversal of a February court decision ordering the utility to return to ratepayers approximately $257 million collected since March 2013 to help pay for construction of the Kemper County Energy […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/20/2015 The Environmental Protection Agency, in its attempt to regulate carbon emissions through its proposed standards for existing coal fire power plants, is “attempting an unconstitutional trifecta, usurping the purgatives of the states, Congress and the federal courts all at once,” Harvard constitutional law professor Lawrence Tribe told lawmakers during […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/20/2015 Coal producers concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal fired power plants will spell disaster for their industry should “embrace” carbon capture and storage technology, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D – Calif.) said during a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/20/2015 A new House caucus, tasked with educating representatives about the benefits of enhanced oil recovery, was launched this week by caucus co-chairs Reps. Michael Conaway (R -Texas), Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) and Marc Veasey (D-Texas.). Veasey, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said he learned […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/20/2015 To take full advantage of the economic and environmental benefits of carbon capture and storage, the United Kingdom should develop 10 GW of CCS capacity no later than 2030, according to a report released this week by the Energy Technologies Institute, a U.K. public-private partnership. “This level of ambition […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/20/2015 Describing carbon capture and storage as integral to combating climate change, Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Jorma Ollila urged increased support for CCS technology in the company’s 2014 Annual Report, released late last week. “It is clear that new technologies will be needed to tackle climate change effectively. For example, […]

The Senate Budget Committee released its version of the Fiscal Year 2016 budget resolution, setting up a battle with the House over disagreements on defense spending. In contrast to the House version of the budget resolution, the Senate adhered to the $523 billion defense cap put in place by the Budget Control Act and maintained […]

National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz, acting DOE cleanup chief Mark Whitney and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Vice Chairman Jesse Roberson will testify before the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee next week. The hearing will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Room 2118 of the Rayburn House office Building. Adm. John Richardson, […]

House Republicans unveiled a Fiscal Year 2016 budget resolution yesterday, and while the plan would increase defense funding over existing budget caps in an effort to appease the chamber’s defense hawks, the impact—if any—on funding for the nation’s strategic forces remains unclear. The budget resolution calls for $94 billion in overseas contingency funds, a $36 […]

In order to limit the impacts of budget cuts to new processing missions at Savannah River’s H-Canyon facility, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Operations Office is working with the National Nuclear Security Administration on H-Canyon funding, DOE Savannah River Manager Dave Moody said yesterday at the Waste Management Conference in Phoenix. Programs that would […]

With the Department of Energy working on a new Secretarial determination concerning transfers of excess uranium to help fund cleanup work and nonproliferation efforts, DOE yesterday launched a new public comment period on a proposed list of factors identified for analysis of the impacts DOE transfers could have on the uranium mining, conversion, and enrichment […]

While the Navy’s annual shipbuilding budget averages about $16 billion yearly, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the service’s 2015 shipbuilding plan would require a $5 billion average yearly plus-up over the next 30 years to support plans to build 12 Ohio-class Replacement (OR) submarines. According to a CBO report released Friday, a $16 billion […]

The House Armed Services Committee plans to spend more time analyzing U.S. strategic forces as debate about the Pentagon’s jam-packed nuclear modernization portfolio are brimming over the Strategic Forces Subcommittee level into full committee discussions, HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) told reporters yesterday. “I am concerned about the nuclear triad…about all of these systems […]

Kenneth Fletcher and Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 3/13/2015 The appointment of former Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman as the new President and CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp. is causing concern among some on Capitol Hill. During Poneman’s tenure at DOE, the Department played a big role in plans by the company, […]

Senate Appropriators Suggest Hard Decisions Await NNSA Budget Request Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/13/2015 National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz told Senate appropriators this week that the Uranium Processing Facility planned for the Y-12 National Security Complex was on track to be completed by 2025 within a $6.5 billion budget cap. Testifying before the […]

Local Business Group Questions Proposed FY16 Funding Cut WC Monitor 3/13/2015 At a time that the Department of Energy’s overall budget is increasing, the administration’s budget requests for environmental cleanup have been decreasing, the Tri-City Development Council pointed out in a recent letter to members of the Washington state Congressional delegation. “DOE made commitments with […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 Both gasifiers at the Kemper County Energy Facility have undergone their “first fire,” representing one of the “most significant milestones to date” at the facility, Mississippi Power announced this week. Thus far, the gasifiers have operated as expected based on testing conducted last year, the company said. “It’s like […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 If finalized, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants could push manufacturers overseas where they would rely on dirtier energy resulting in higher global carbon emissions, Thomas Easterly, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said during a Senate Environment and Public […]

GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 ExchangeMonitor Publications and Forums was acquired this week by Access Intelligence, LLC, a business-to-business media and information company headquartered in Rockville, Md., serving the chemical, defense, satellite, aviation, cable, telecommunications, media and public relations markets. The acquisition comes roughly three months after Ed Helminski, the founder of ExchangeMonitor Publications and Forums, passed […]

Kenneth Fletcher and Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/13/2015 The appointment of former Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman as the new President and CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp. is causing concerns among some on Capitol Hill. During Poneman’s tenure at DOE, the Department played a big role in plans by the company, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 In the face of a veto threat from the Obama Administration, House lawmakers are gearing up to vote on two bills that would change the rules for who can sit on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Independent Science Advisory Board and that would require that all scientific data used to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 The West Virginia state legislature will have final say on the state’s implementation plan for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for coal fired power plants under a new law signed by West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin last week. Under the new law, once the EPA […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 Global dependence on cheap coal is a threat to climate mitigation and while carbon capture and storage technology could help, other low carbon fuel sources will be preferred in the long-run, Secretary of State John Kerry said this week at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council.  “In certain […]