Budget & Policy

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 Although funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy received a slight boost in the Department’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, House and Senate lawmakers questioned the proposed funding level when compared to the much larger increases proposed for DOE’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs during […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 With proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations largely mandating the use of carbon capture and storage for all new-build coal-fired power plants due to be finalize mid-summer, last week’s decision by the Department of Energy to pull funding from the FutureGen 2.0 oxycombustion retrofit project in Meredosia, Ill. further calls […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 Work at Shell’s Quest carbon capture and storage project in Alberta is nearing mechanical completion, and the project is on schedule to begin CO2 injection in the second quarter of this year, Tim Wiwchar, Quest Project Lead, said last week at the Americas Forum hosted by the Global CCS […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 While some have suggested that today’s low oil prices could hurt the development of carbon capture and storage technology by reducing interest in enhanced oil recovery, an energy expert said last week that CCS faces greater challenges in moving toward widespread deployment. In remarks during the Global CCS Institute’s […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 Risks to the reliability of the electric grid due to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions reductions standards for existing coal-fired power plants were exaggerated in a November report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), according to an analysis of the NERC study by The Brattle […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 Off-site construction on CO2 Solutions’ Husky Energy pilot project has begun and is on schedule to be installed at Husky’s Pikes Peak South, Saskatchewan, heavy oil site in May, CO2 Solutions announced last week. “We have pretty much completed the procurement and we are starting the assembly of the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 Carbon can be efficiently captured from flue gas using microcapsules consisting of a sodium carbonate solution encased in a highly permeable polymer shell, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced in a new report published late last week in the […]

GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT France announced late last week that it will withdraw export credit insurance for coal-fired power plants without carbon capture and storage abroad. The announcement comes ahead of the 21st Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Conference on Climate Change to be held in Paris in December, during […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz would not commit to defending the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain license application in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s adjudication process after being grilled by House lawmakers at a hearing this week. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), one of the House’s major Yucca proponents, pushed Moniz […]

The following interview with House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) was conducted last week by Weapons Complex Monitor Editor Kenneth Fletcher.  RW Monitor 2/13/2015 I’d like to talk a bit about the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request and what some of your priorities will be going forward in […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/13/2015 The Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program’s (FUSRAP) annual funding level should return to annual funding levels over $150 million in Fiscal Year 2016, six Democratic Senators said in a letter last week to leadership in the Senate Appropriations committee. Each year between FY 1998 […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/6/2015 Coupled with a tight funding environment, the Navy’s Feb. 2 release of its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, which contains $10 billion in programmed funding over the Future Years’ Defense Program for research and development and advanced procurement of the Ohio-Class Replacement Program (ORP), has raised questions about whether the […]

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The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management contract management will remain on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List for another two years, the government watchdog agency announced yesterday. GAO unveiled its list two years after it partially removed the agencies from its infamous rolls in what appeared to […]

The Department of Energy has created an Office of Technology Transitions designed to help better commercialize research efforts at DOE laboratories, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said yesterday. The office will coordinate the commercialization across DOE, managing the $20 million Energy Technology Commercialization Fund, which aims to promote applied energy research and development efforts that can […]

Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz had few answers yesterday as House lawmakes pressed him on whether or not the Department of Energy would commit to defend its Yucca Mountain license application in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s adjudication process during a hearing in front of the House Energy and Power Subcommittee. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), one […]

A defense budget expert told the House Armed Services Committee today that the U.S. should rethink nuclear capabilities and modernization processes before the end of the decade. “And then we can start making some smart decisions,” Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow for Defense Budget Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told the panel […]

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) yesterday criticized the Department of Energy’s proposed cleanup budget next year for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. In its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, DOE is seeking approximately $168.7 million in D&D funding, a cut of approximately $38 million from current funding levels. DOE has sought to explain the proposed cut […]

Former Naval Reactors Government Affairs director Adam DeMella is joining the majority staff of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee where his portfolio will include the National Nuclear Security Administration, NS&D Monitor has learned. DeMella headed up Naval Reactor’s government affairs shop from 2001 until December. DeMella will assume most of the portfolio of […]

The Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee will hold a hearing on U.S. nuclear weapons policy March 4 with testimony from senior officials from across the weapons complex. National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz will join Strategic Command chief Adm. Cecil Haney, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Brian McKeon, Deputy Director […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday unanimously cleared Defense Secretary nominee Ashton Carter to the Senate floor for an upcoming confirmation vote. The committee voted 26-0, after which Carter’s nomination was immediately reported to the floor. A full vote before the Senate is expected by the end of the week. Carter cruised through his first […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is set to hold its next business forum for interested companies March 4 at DOE headquarters. Those wishing to attend should pre-register by Feb. 26 providing name, title, company name, and citizenship to Carol Ward via e-mail at carol.ward@em.doe.gov. On March 5, EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for […]

Given years of delays in the Department of Energy’s audits of contractor costs for non-M&O contracts, DOE should develop a risk-based comprehensive plan to undertake the reviews, the Office of Inspector General said in a report released yesterday. The IG review focused on delays reviews by the Defense Contract Audit Agency on potential unallowable costs […]

Here’s a look at the events we will be keeping an eye on this week: The Energy Communities Alliance is holding a peer exchange meeting in Washington Feb. 12-13. The meeting will involve presentations from Reps. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Chuck Fleischmann  (R-Tenn.); acting Deputy Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance David Klaus; […]

The Government Accountability Office is set to issue the latest version of its biannual “high-risk” list, highlighting federal programs at risk of fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement. It remains to be seen how the Department of Energy will fare on this year’s list. The Department has been a fixture on the list since it was […]

The Administration released its National Security Strategy Friday, reaffirming President Obama’s long-held dual approach to seeking a world without nuclear weapons while ensuring the nation’s nuclear arsenal is sound until that day comes. “No threat poses as grave a danger to our security and well-being as the potential use of nuclear weapons and materials by […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/6/2015 With only two teams likely to be in the running for the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said this week he is “concerned” about the lack of competition for the work. Initially, four teams were believed to be considering the procurement, but potential bidders […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/6/2015 The Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC), will receive $25 million from the Australian government to further its research into carbon capture and storage processes, CO2CRC announced this week. The funding will be in used, in part, to continue work at the Otway carbon storage project located […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/6/2015 The Department of Energy and Shell Canada announced this week an agreement to test advanced monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) technology at Shell’s Quest carbon capture and storage project in Alberta, Canada. Technology developed by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will be tested alongside Shell’s own MVA technology, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/6/2015 Carbon capture, utilization and storage projects could receive a boost in the form of new tax incentives proposed in the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, released this week. The request calls for $2 billion worth of new refundable investment tax credits for new-build and retrofit projects, as […]