Budget & Policy

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 Following the ascension of Julio Friedmann to the position of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary within the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, David Mohler has been appointed to fill the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal and Carbon Management. Mohler most recently served as vice president […]

GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT Chinese officials last week reportedly vowed to cut coal consumption in the country by 160 million tons over the next five years. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also vowed to put a ceiling on total energy consumption and increase the portion of energy produced by non-fossil sources in his […]

GHG Monitor 3/13/2015 An article in the March 6 issue of GHG Monitor incorrectly stated that NRG Energy reported a year end adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization [EBITDA] of $3.1 million, compared to a year end EBITDA in 2013 of $2.6 million. The correct figures are $3.1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. […]

Kenneth Fletcher and Todd Jacobson RW 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, […]

Former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, now the new CEO for uranium enrichment company Centrus Energy Corp., will earn about $1.38 million in his first year at the company, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That includes a base salary of $750,000 and an annual bonus for Fiscal Year 2015 […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 3/6/2015 SANTA FE, N.M.—As discussions continue on penalties that could top more than $100 million, “time is of the essence” in reaching a settlement between the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department to ensure a timely reopening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, NMED Secretary Ryan Flynn said […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/6/2015 Modernizing the nation’s nuclear deterrent will begin to create “affordability problems” starting in 2021, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall told the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee this week. The 2021 period is just outside the five-year window included in budget documents earlier this […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/6/2015 The Air Force’s new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) is estimated to cost $40-$60 billion overall, according to an industry official involved in program discussions. Budget documents indicate the Air Force has programmed about $945.9 million for the follow-on to the Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile in the five-year Future Years’ […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 Innovate UK, the United Kingdom’s innovation agency, is making up to £5 Million available for conventional fossil fuel projects, including carbon capture and storage, through a solicitation opened this week. The solicitation calls for collaborative research and development projects, as well as feasibility studies that develop new innovative technologies […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 The demonstration phase of the Callide Oxyfuel Project in Queensland, Australia has come to a close, project developers announced this week. The project, billed as the world’s first industrial scale demonstration of oxyfuel combustion and carbon capture technology, has been operating for more than two years, having launched in […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 Due to a shifting internal focus to low carbon energy generation, NRG Energy is well positioned to face what CEO David Crane described late last week as the unmistakable early stages of a “technology driven disruption of historic proportions” of the energy industry. NRG has invested heavily in clean […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 A group of environmental organizations, led by the Sierra Club, filed a formal request this week with the California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission for the termination of Hydrogen Energy California’s (HECA) application for certification. The HECA project, should it go forward, will be a new-build, pre-combustion 390 […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has called on states to reject the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission guidelines for existing coal burning power plant by not submitting state implementation plans for compliance with the rule. In an editorial published this week in the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper, McConnell […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 The Obama Administration’s proposed $4 billion “Clean Power State Incentive Fund” to help states go above and beyond the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal fired power plants came under fire this week during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/6/2015 Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said funding for a pilot interim storage facility would be included in the Senate’s upcoming Fiscal Year 2016 appropriation bill, during remarks made this week at a Nuclear Regulatory Commission budget hearing. Both he and subcommittee Ranking Member Diane […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 Southern Co. this week reported an additional $26 million in cost overruns at the Kemper County Energy Facility, being built by subsidiary Mississippi Power, bringing the total cost of the project currently to nearly $6.2 billion. The latest increase is due, in part, to a recent Mississippi Supreme Court […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 While the European Union is on track to meets its short-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the EU will not meet its 2050 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80-95 percent, according to a new report released this week by the […]

GHG Monitor 3/6/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY An Alabama state court issued a temporary restraining order late last week against former Kemper County Energy Facility Project Manager Brett Wingo barring him from talking about the project. Wingo was sued by Southern Co. on Feb. 19 under accusations that he went back on a previous settlement ending […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/6/2015 Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) on March 4 nudged fellow lawmakers on the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to bankroll the Navy’s National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund (SBDF), which was included in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act as a separate fund from the service’s general shipbuilding account.  “We’re now in the beginning […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/6/2015 National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz told House appropriators this week that he is not in favor of changing the name of the Department of Energy as a Congressional advisory panel recommended last year, but declined to say whether he supports one of the more extreme recommendations of the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/6/2015 Leaders of strategic deterrence advocacy groups are reacting positively to the Air Force’s implementation of the Force Improvement Program (FIP), which began in February 2014 to address morale issues and equipment flaws in the service’s nuclear enterprise. “We think the Force Improvement Program is the right program at the right […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/6/2015 The Congressional Budget Office has released information supplementing its January nuclear weapons cost study for Fiscal Year 2015-2024, which shows defense costs for all three legs of the nuclear triad peaking in either 2022 or 2023. The study estimates total government spending on nuclear weapons at $348 billion during the […]

National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz told House appropriators yesterday that he was not in favor of changing the name of the Department of Energy as a Congressional advisory panel recommended last year, but Klotz declined to say how whether he supports one of the more extreme recommendations of the panel: moving the semi-autonomous […]

Modernizing the nation’s nuclear deterrent will begin to create “affordability problems” starting in 2021, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics told the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee yesterday. The 2021 period is just outside the five-year window included in budget documents earlier this year, and coincides with the beginning of construction […]

Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said funding for a pilot interim storage facility would be included in the Senate’s version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water appropriations bill, during remarks made yesterday at a Nuclear Regulatory Commission budget hearing. Both he and subcommittee Ranking Member Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) […]

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) nudged fellow lawmakers on the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday to bankroll the Navy’s National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund (SBDF), included in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act separate from the service’s general shipbuilding (SCN) account. “We’re now in the beginning of reconstituting our seaborne deterrence, and I would hope that this […]

The Congressional Budget Office has released information supplementing its January-released nuclear weapons cost study for Fiscal Year 2015-2024 estimating total government spending on nuclear weapons at $348 billion during that period. The supplemental information shows defense costs for all three legs of the nuclear triad peaking in either 2022 or 2023. National Nuclear Security Administration […]

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said yesterday that she will not seek reelection in 2016, opening up the top Democratic slot on the powerful spending panel. Mikulski, 78, has spent the last 30 years in the Senate, becoming chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2012. She lost […]

National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz has warned that potential sequestration cuts in Fiscal Year 2016 could be “devastating” to the agency’s weapons program, but he said yesterday that any decisions about prioritizing work haven’t been made. And those decisions will only be made in consultation with the Department of Defense. “We will have […]

Here’s a look at the events we will be keeping an eye on this week: The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will hold an industry day Tuesday in Pojoaque, N.M., on its procurement plans for post-2016 cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. On Wednesday, the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will […]