Budget & Policy

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 11/21/2014 Laboratory contractor employees received hundreds of thousands of dollars in per diem payments while on Intergovernment Personnel Act assignments with the Department of Energy, some for as long as six years, DOE’s Inspector General said in a report released this week that highlights lax oversight of the temporary detail program. The […]

Simpson to Remain Chairman of House E&W Approps Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 11/21/2014 There will be familiar faces in the next Congress atop the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee and House Energy and Commerce Committee, but a new leader for the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) this week was formally named […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 11/21/2014 As Congress looks at funding for the remainder of the fiscal year after the end of the current Continuing Resolution next month, New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich (D) and Tom Udall (D) are asking Senate appropriators to provide an additional $113 million for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant above current […]

As is our annual practice, GHG Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The next regular issue will be in your inbox Dec. 5. The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will continue to be published Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and we will issue bulletins should any major news break in the […]

Nevada Readies Defense Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has played a significant role in blocking the Yucca Mountain repository intended for his home state from moving forward, cracks are beginning to appear within his own Senate leadership team over the direction of the project. Sen. Patty Murray […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/21/2014 Companies using carbon capture and storage technologies would be eligible for a refund under the carbon fee proposed in a bill introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) this week. The “American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act” would put in place a carbon fee starting in 2015 at $42 per ton […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/21/2014 In the face of a veto threat from the White House, the House of Representatives this week passed two bills targeting the Environmental Protection Agency—one that would change the rules for who can sit on the EPA’s Independent Science Advisory Board and one that would require that all scientific […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/21/2014 President Barrack Obama late last week nominated current Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Jeffrey Baran to serve the remaining years left on departing NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane’s tenure. Macfarlane is set to leave the NRC at the end of this year, ahead of when her tenure would expire in June […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Senate’s fourth ranking Democrat, urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week to “thoroughly consider” the Yucca Mountain licensing review. In a letter addressed to NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane, Murray inquired about the status of the review as well as to the need for additional funding to complete the review. “With […]

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is again set to head up the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the 114th Congress next year, the Committee announced yesterday. Upton has served as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which helps to oversee the Department of Energy, since 2011. Upton also announced yesterday his slate of Subcommittee […]

A report from the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, approved for release on Monday, calls for a renewed focus from the state in its fight against the Yucca Mountain licensing, especially in the face of what the report alleges is government collusion between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy to push the […]

As Congress looks at funding after the end of the current Continuing Resolution, New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich (D) and Tom Udall (D) are asking Senate appropriators to provide an additional $113 million for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant above current funding levels. The CR funding the government expires on Dec. 11, but WIPP will […]

The Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise briefed Congress last week on its final recommendations and is putting the finishing touches on its report, NS&D Monitor has learned. The report was initially due in July, but delays in standing up the panel slowed its progress, though its chairmen, former Lockheed […]

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has formally been named the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, ending months of speculation about the Texas lawmaker taking over for outgoing chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.). Thornberry, whose Texas panhandle district includes the Pantex Plant, has served as the vice chairman of the panel for the last four years […]

Laboratory contractor employees received hundreds of thousands of dollars in per diem payments while on Intergovernment Personnel Act assignments with the Department of Energy, some for as long as six years, DOE’s Inspector General said in a report released yesterday that highlights lax oversight of the temporary detail program. The IG said during 2012, Lawrence […]

After Dec. 11, a subsequent continuing resolution could prompt Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to request a funding anomaly to enable the building of an Ohio-class replacement test facility later this year. The program’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget requests about $200 million more than Fiscal 2014, John Evans, NAVSEA deputy director of naval warfare told […]

President Barrack Obama late last week nominated current-Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Jeffrey Baran to serve the remaining years left on departing NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane’s tenure. Macfarlane’s planned departure at the end of the year would end before her term expires in June of 2018. Baran initially was confirmed to serve out the remainder of former-commissioner William […]

  Hagel: Pentagon to Increase Funding to Rejuvenate Nuclear Enterprise Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 11/14/2014 The Defense Department plans to increase funding for the U.S. nuclear enterprise by an additional 10 percent over the next five years to help reform the nation’s aging nuclear deterrent, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Nov. 14. The funding will […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 11/14/2014 The United States can afford nuclear modernization, but where it falls on President Obama’s list is a matter for debate and will determine which projects will get done. That was the message that Clark Murdock, Director of the Project on Nuclear Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 11/14/2014 Leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee are pushing ahead on an omnibus spending package, though it remains unclear if there will be enough support for the massive spending bill when the current short-term stopgap spending legislation expires in December. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and Senate […]

Republicans Eye Appropriations Process, Other Maneuvers to Limit Action Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 With Republicans taking full control of Congress in last week’s mid-term elections, measures to block some actions by the Environmental Protection Agency, including the EPA’s proposed emissions standards for new and existing power plants, will likely move forward, though it […]

Board Staff Highlight Concerns at Savannah River Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 11/14/2014 The Department of Energy has accepted a formal recommendation from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on the need to strengthen emergency preparedness and response capabilities, but told the Board last week that it will need longer than a required one-year period to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 A Sierra Club challenge to the FutureGen 2.0 project under development in Meredosia, Ill., was thrown out by the Illinois Pollution Control Board late last week when a motion for summary judgment was issued in favor of the FutureGen Alliance. The Sierra Club had argued that the incorrect permit […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 11/14/2014 Ensuring that the federal government lives up to its obligations at Hanford is a priority for Dan Newhouse, the Republican poised to take over the central Washington district being vacated by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.). Newhouse was declared the winner by the Associated Press as he maintained a slim lead […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 11/14/2014 With Congress back in session beginning this week, the White House’s choice to serve as the next head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup program appears set to continue to face a tough road to full confirmation. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is maintaining a hold he has placed on Monica […]

Todd Jacobson and Mike Nartker WC Monitor 11/14/2014 Leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee are pushing ahead on an omnibus spending package for the remainder of this fiscal year, though it remains unclear if there will be enough support for the massive spending bill when the current short-term stopgap spending legislation funding government […]

Board Staff Highlight Concerns at Savannah River Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 11/14/2014 The Department of Energy has accepted a formal recommendation from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on the need to strengthen emergency preparedness and response capabilities, but told the Board last week that it will need longer than a required one-year period to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 Four advanced gasification projects will receive $16 million in funding from the Department of Energy, DOE announced late last week.  The selected projects will “focus on developing technologies that can significantly reduce the cost of producing hydrogen-rich syngas derived from fossil fuels, enabling coal resources to both improve U.S. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 While much attention in Europe has been paid to the technical and financial challenges associated with carbon capture, if investment doesn’t pick up into carbon storage research the full-scale deployment of CCS could be halted just as it begins to gain momentum, according to a new report published this […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/14/2014 Republican House lawmakers this week called on Democrats to resume funding for the Yucca Mountain project and make progress on solving the nation’s nuclear waste problem. Although the Obama Administration shuttered the project in 2010, deeming it “unworkable,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s release of the Volume Three Safety Evaluation […]