Budget & Policy

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/12/2014 Funding for Department of Energy programs related to fossil energy and carbon capture and storage research would see increases under the FY 2015 omnibus package Congress released this week. The bill would provide a total of $571 million for fossil energy research and development, well above the Obama Administration’s […]

NS&D Monitor 12/12/2014 IN THE NNSA The National Nuclear Security Administration was ranked 288th out of 314 federal agency subgroups in this year’s list of the best federal agencies to work for, compiled by the by the Partnership for Public Service and released this week. The NNSA was ranked 58th in pay, but 279th in […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/12/2014 Funding for the Environmental Protection Agency would be cut by approximately $60 million from current levels in the Fiscal Year 2015 omnibus spending bill Congress released this week. The measure was approved by the House late this week, and the Senate is expected to follow suit early next week. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/12/2014 The emissions reduction goals within the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants are significant, but not enough, a group of 10 Senate Democrats and an Independent wrote in a Dec. 9 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “We believe that the rule could […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/12/2014 The potential threat of a “carbon bubble” resulting in stranded assets has become the focus of intense scrutiny in recent weeks with news that the Bank of England has launched an inquiry into the threat. The carbon bubble refers to the idea that if global temperature rise it to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/12/2014 The United States will kick off in April 2015 a Business Development Mission to China focused on clean energy technology, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced this week. The mission will help U.S. companies develop or expand business in China in various energy […]

Fluor B&W Portsmouth officials said that the $76.4 million boost in cleanup funds proposed for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant could reduce or halt potentially hundreds of layoffs that could happen next week. The omnibus funding measure for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2015 released earlier this week included $214 million for operations at Portsmouth, […]

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has dropped his hold on the nomination of Monica Regalbuto to serve as the next Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. The move could ease Regalbuto’s path to confirmation in the last days of the current Congress by allowing the Senate to approve her nomination through unaminous consent. Barrasso chose […]

Weapons Complex Monitor is accepting until Monday, Dec. 15, nominations for this year’s Winners and Losers list, which highlights the good and the bad from 2014. This year’s list is set to be published in the Dec. 19 issue of WC Monitor. Send your nominations or make your case to Editor-in-Chief Mike Nartker at nartker@exchangemonitor.com. […]

The Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise is recommending not only a major overhaul for the National Nuclear Security Administration, but a recasting of how weapons complex contractors are compensated. The panel delivered its report, “A New Foundation for the Nuclear Enterprise,” to Congress yesterday, revealing broad recommendations aimed at […]

Congressional appropriators unveiled an omnibus spending bill last night which would allocate $853.3 million to the Ohio-class replacement program. The bill tacks an additional $4 million on top of the Obama Administration’s $849.3 million Fiscal Year 2015 request, for development of the ship’s propulsion component. The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 15 includes a […]

A feasibility study for refurbishing the cruise missile warhead will go forward in Fiscal Year 2015, according to funding legislation released last night by House and Senate appropriators. The $9.4 million study represents a sliver of the overall budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration in the catch-all spending package, but the decision to include […]

Robert Scher, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities has been reported to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote, a Senate staffer confirmed yesterday. Scher was one of three civilian nominees yesterday that the Senate Armed Services Committee favorably reported out, by voice vote, to the Senate floor. Scher was […]

The spending bill Congressional appropriators unveiled last night would provide $345 million for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and direct continued construction of the plant. That compares to the $196 million included in the Administration’s FY’15 budget request, which called for work on the plant to be ramped down as it moves into a […]

Lawmakers unveiled late yesterday an omnibus funding measure for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2015 that would provide a total of approximately $260 million more than what the Obama Administration had requested for the Department of Energy’s cleanup program for this fiscal year. For defense environmental cleanup, which covers most major DOE cleanup sites, the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board landed on the bottom of this year’s list of best “small” federal agencies to work for, released yesterday. The Board was ranked 30th out of a list of 30 agencies by the Partnership for Public Service, earning a score of 33.8, down from a 2013 score of 45.5. The […]

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) yesterday announced that he will be leading the Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus and is looking to help the group grow. The caucus is comprised of lawmakers with Department of Energy cleanup sites in their districts has been led by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), who is set to retire from Congress in […]

The Senate confirmed yesterday Jeffrey Baran to a longer term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a 52-40 vote along party lines. President Barrack Obama nominated Baran to serve the remaining years left on departing NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane’s tenure, which would expire in June 2018. Baran initially was confirmed to serve out the remainder […]

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) fired back against a call from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for more cuts to the nation’s nuclear stockpile, writing in a Washington Post letter to the editor that Feinstein’s stance “shows a disregard for reality.” In a Dec. 3 Washington Post op-ed, Feinstein called the level of spending on nuclear weapons […]

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) is scheduled this morning to make a “major announcement” on the future of the Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, according to a release from Fleischmann’s office. The group of lawmakers with Department of Energy cleanup sites in their districts has been led by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), but Hastings will retire from […]

House and Senate lawmakers are poised to unveil spending legislation early this week that will fund the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy for the remainder of the year. The Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which includes NNSA/DOE funding, is expected to be part of a so-called “cromnibus”—an 11-bill omnibus and a […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 12/5/2014 House and Senate authorizers are curtailing the Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program, withdrawing support for the program after Fiscal Year 2015, according to the compromise version of the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act released this week. The CTR program, created by Sens. Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/5/2014 The United States must upgrade its nuclear deterrent and the $600 billion-$1 trillion 30-year price tag to modernize all three legs of the triad included in the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review should be manageable, National Defense Panel member and former Congressman Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) told NS&D Monitor this week on […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 12/5/2014 Authorized funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Fiscal Year 2015 would see a significant increase under the final version of the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, unveiled this week. The bill would authorize a funding level of $345 million and would direct that the money be […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/5/2014 The recently announced climate agreement reached between the U.S. and China could have a significant impact on global climate negotiations, Todd Stern, Special Envoy for Climate Change with the U.S. State Department, said at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress early last week. Under the agreement, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/5/2014 As the public comment period for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants came to an end this week, several environmental and industry groups released their final comments on the proposed rule, raising questions on, among other things, the proposed timeline for the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/5/2014 The U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change announced late last week that half of the £5 million in funding made available through phase four of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund competition will be reserved for carbon capture and storage projects. “The CCS element builds on the success of the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/5/2014 The United States can reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, according to a report released last week by the Deep Decarbonizatrion Pathways Project (DDPP). The DDPP is led by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Institute for Sustainable Development […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 12/5/2014 The Senate moved forward late this week with approving a handful of pending Department of Energy nominations, but the White House’s choice to serve as the next head of the Office of Environmental Management still appears to remain in confirmation limbo. Franklin Orr was confirmed to serve as the new […]

Mike Nartker and Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/5/2014 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board would see a cut of approximately 15 percent in the maximum number of employees it can have under the final version of the Fiscal Year 2015 defense authorization bill unveiled this week. The bill would limit the DNFSB to 130 employees, […]