Budget & Policy

The Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office was unable to determine if a former senior manager at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant was terminated as an act of retaliation due to a lack of access to information from the main contractors involved on the project, according to a report released yesterday. The DOE IG had […]

Department of Energy Inspector General Gregory Friedman named environmental cleanup and contract administration as the top two areas of concern for DOE in a Washington Post interview published yesterday. When asked what issues have raised the most concern lately, Friedman first named cleanup. “There have been lots of problems in terms of project management and […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is scheduled to hold on Oct. 30 a public meeting on the Board’s work plans for Fiscal Year 2015. The meeting will involve presentations on draft work plans in several areas, including nuclear weapons programs, nuclear materials processing and stabilization, nuclear facility design and infrastructure and nuclear programs and […]

The 26th Annual Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum kicks off this evening in Amelia Island, Fla., and will run through Thursday. Keynote speakers this week include Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), Mark Whitney, the Department of Environmental Management’s acting assistant secretary, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur, DOE Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy Bruce […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 Southern Company is “committed to keeping coal viable into the future,” and that means investing in innovations such as carbon capture and storage and plant efficiency improvements to create cleaner coal electricity, Southern Company Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Greene said this week during the fall meeting of the National […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 When looking beyond the simple measure of greenhouse gas emissions to the total environmental impacts of the implementation of low carbon technology, carbon capture and storage falls behind other low carbon technologies such as wind and solar power generation, a life cycle study published this week in the Proceedings […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 As stakeholders continue to develop their comments for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, concerns over certain factors of the proposed standards continue to mount and were expressed by a panel of state regulators at an event hosted by Resources for the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 AUSTIN, Texas—While much work goes into the physical site characterization of a planned carbon capture and storage project, social site characterization is often not given the attention it needs, Emma ter Mors, senior researcher at Leiden University in the Netherland, said during a plenary address at the International Conference […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 While progress in battling climate change outside of a global climate agreement has been substantial, the importance of such an agreement and the need for that agreement to be well structured should not be underestimated, Special Envoy for Climate Change with the Unites States Department of State Todd Stern […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 A new technology which can produce low-cost electricity from natural gas-fired plants with no atmospheric emissions, according to its North Carolina-based developers, NET Power and affiliate 8 Rivers Capital, will be demonstrated in a 50MWt natural gas plant located in Texas. The $140 million plant will be funded with […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 AUSTIN, Texas—The logistics of using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery are often misunderstood, which can cause trouble for those involved in the practice when it comes to policy development, Greg Schnacke, Executive Director of Governmental Affairs for Denbury Resources, Inc said during the International Conference on Greenhouse Gas […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 AUSTIN, Texas – While the use of carbon capture and storage technology has widely been considered a means to reduce carbon emissions in the coal industry, its eventual transition into natural gas energy production is essential, Juho Lipponen, head of the CCS Unit at the International Energy Agency, said […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 A new hybrid form of absorption discovered by a team of researchers from California, Switzerland and China may address issues present with two promising but flawed methods of capturing carbon, according to a paper published by the team this week. Currently, liquid absorption is the leading method used for […]

Delays to LRSO Warhead Mean Pantex Could Face Production Lull After B61 Work Wraps Up Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 10/17/2014 The Obama Administration’s decision to delay work on a new long-range standoff (LRSO) weapon for up to three years and defer work on a first interoperable warhead has created a potential production gap at the […]

Board to Undergo Safety Culture Assessment of Itself Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/17/2014 Employee dissatisfaction at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has hit a four-year low, according to the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which the DNFSB posted on its website this week. The survey found a drop in positive responses […]

More than 90 percent of the Department of Energy’s $26 billion budget is contracted out to a host of firms, large and small. DOE has been working hard over the past several years to improve how it reports, records and tracks contractor performance—a laudable goal, considering how much money is on the line. But there’s […]

More than 90 percent of the Department of Energy’s $26 billion budget is contracted out to a host of firms, large and small. DOE has been working hard over the past several years to improve how it reports, records and tracks contractor performance—a laudable goal, considering how much money is on the line. But there’s […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/17/14 Infrastructure modernization and deferred maintenance are a “special concern” in the Department of Energy Inspector General’s latest annual report on DOE management challenges, released late last week. Infrastructure modernization was not listed as a management challenge, but instead on a lower level watch list. However, the topic is a “special […]

Board to Undergo Safety Culture Assessment of Itself Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 10/17/2014 Employee dissatisfaction at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has hit a four-year low, according to the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which the DNFSB posted on its website this week. The survey found a drop in positive responses […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 10/17/14 Infrastructure modernization and deferred maintenance are a “special concern” in the Department of Energy Inspector General’s latest annual report on DOE management challenges, released late last week. Infrastructure modernization was not listed as a management challenge, but instead on a lower level watch list. However, the topic is a “special […]

Employee dissatisfaction at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has hit a four-year low, according to the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which the DNFSB posted on its website yesterday. The survey found a drop in positive responses from Board employees in four key areas—leadership and knowledge (48 percent compared to 54 […]

The Department of Energy Inspector General Friday released its annual report on management challenges for DOE for Fiscal Year 2015, removing from the list operational efficiency and cost savings and downgrading human capital management. This year’s list includes cybersecurity, environmental cleanup, nuclear waste disposal, safeguards and security and stockpile stewardship. The efficiency and cost savings […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 10/10/2014 The top manager at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Site Office improperly utilized her position to force employees to perform work on personal matters and created a “negative work environment” before being terminated, DOE’s Inspector General said in a report released late last week. The publicly released version of […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/10/14 The Department of Energy is still spending more than necessary on software maintenance licenses, according to a DOE Inspector General report released this week that follows up on a previous investigation finding issues with the acquisition and management of desktop software. “Although the Department had made progress in addressing our […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 10/10/14 The Department of Energy is still spending more than necessary on software maintenance licenses, according to a DOE Inspector General report released this week that follows up on a previous investigation finding issues with the acquisition and management of desktop software. “Although the Department had made progress in addressing our […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 10/10/2014 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur announced to staff late this week that he will not seek re-nomination as the agency’s top official. Winokur said in an Oct. 9 meeting with staffers that he planned to serve until Daniel Santos (nominated to replace Joseph Bader) is confirmed as […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 10/10/2014 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur announced to staff late this week that he will not seek re-nomination as the agency’s top official. Winokur said in an Oct. 9 meeting with staffers that he planned to serve until Daniel Santos (nominated to replace Joseph Bader) is confirmed as […]

FBP Warns Worse Layoffs Could Come if Needed Funding Isn’t Obtained Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 Hundreds of workers at the Portsmouth D&D project can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now, with contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth announcing late this week that it is suspending planned layoffs that could have cut the project’s total […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 10/10/2014 While new technologies could potentially reduce the Department of Energy’s cleanup costs by billions, given flat budgets and pressing milestone commitments, securing enough technology development funding is a major challenge, officials said this week at a Secretary of Energy Advisory Board task force meeting. The panel convened to discuss technology […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 10/10/2014 A new approach to how the Department of Energy manages its projects is set to be rolled out in the coming weeks, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said this week, though he provided few concrete details about what changes may be in the works.  DOE has been looking at “redoing […]