Budget & Policy

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/16/2014 To help ensure the future of coal in the U.S. energy mix, incentives are a better approach to driving carbon capture and sequestration development rather than increased regulation, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said at a forum hosted by the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI) and the Atlantic Council this week. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/16/2014 Carbon capture and sequestration technology could be “turn-key” ready for power plants by 2030, if the United States is able to overcome the challenges posed by the current lack of large-scale CCS projects, which has hindered the adoption of the technology in recent years, Julio Friedmann, Deputy Assistant Secretary […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/16/2014 The current status of the nation’s coal fleet is not optimal for a large scale deployment of carbon capture and storage technology, the National Coal Council reported at its meeting this week. The council approved a new report, Reliable & Resilient: The Value of Our Existing Coal Fleet, which […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a chorus of state stakeholders criticizing the lack of state and local input into the decisions behind a utility’s decommissioning plan for commercial reactors during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on nuclear reactor decommissioning held this week. Sanders, whose home state […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/16/2014 Due to arguments over the addition of several amendments dealing with, among other issues, the U.S. Environmental Agency’s proposed New Source Performance Standards by Senate Republicans, a bipartisan energy efficiency bill died on the Senate floor Monday. Republicans should have been willing to sacrifice the amendments for a vote […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/16/2014 The Nuclear Waste Fund fee was reduced to zero May 16 as the Department of Energy complied with a federal court’s ruling from late last year that said the fee should be eliminated until a time when DOE either makes progress on the now-shuttered Yucca Mountain waste repository or […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/16/2014 Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is essential to achieving the 2 degree target necessary to avoid potentially devastating effects of global warming, a report published by the International Energy Agency Monday states. The report, the fourth volume of the agency’s Energy Technology Perspectives, states that barring significant changes the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 Efficiencies outlined in a key National Nuclear Security Administration report to Congress don’t adequately assess opportunities for cost savings, according to a Government Accountability Office report released late this week. The GAO analysis criticizes the November 2013 NNSA report, which outlines seven opportunities for efficiencies, for being vague and questions […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 The legislation that created the National Nuclear Security Administration as a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy has been “counter-productive” as it has been implemented, the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise said in an interim report just made public this week. The panel’s […]

Todd Jacobson and Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 With the House Armed Services Committee rebuffing an attempt to boost authorized funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) hasn’t offered any hints yet as to whether he’ll fight to reinstate the funding […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 PITTSBURGH, Pa. — U.S. Energy Association Executive Director Barry Worthington said here last week that with cap-and-trade unlikely to be adopted in the United States, a carbon tax is more likely to be implemented in the next several years. “The cap-and-trade legislation came about the time of the financial […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) urged the Department of Energy late last week to support a $1 billion loan guarantee being sought for a new nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant to be built in his home state. The Cenex Harvest State (CHS) project would convert natural gas into ammonia for use […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this week blocked Senate Republicans from offering two amendments to an energy efficiency bill that would have targeted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed New Source Performance Standards. The EPA proposal would set emissions guidelines and largely mandate carbon capture and sequestration for […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 PITTSBURGH, Pa.— Natural gas with carbon capture and sequestration is a viable, cost-effective option moving into a low-carbon future, John Thompson, Director of the Fossil Transition Project with the Clear Air Task Force, said here last week at this year’s Annual CCUS conference. In his plenary address, Thompson argued […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Carbon capture and sequestration runs the risk of being “a rich man’s solution” to addressing climate change unless costs are significantly reduced, Statoil President and CEO Helge Lund said this week during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Without a global effort to develop less […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 The National Climate Assessment released by the Obama Administration this week emphasizes the uncertainty of carbon capture and storage technology as a means to combat climate change, seemingly standing in contrast to the declarations from the Environmental Protection Agency in relation to regulations for new power plants that CCS […]

The following interview with Ken Humphreys,Chief Executive Officer at FutureGen 2.0, was conducted by GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor Reporter Abby L. Harvey on the sideline of this year’s Annual CCUS Conference in Pittsburgh PA.   With the Environmental Protection Agency in the midst of crafting rules that would all but require CCS for any new […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Swiss investment bank UBS downgraded Southern Company’s stock rating to ‘sell’ earlier this week, stating that trouble at the Kemper County Energy Facility could cause the “possibility for further project slippage and the use of the remaining contingency.” Kemper, a coal gasification and carbon capture project located near Meridian, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Royal Dutch Shell’s Quest project, which has been in construction since September 2012, is officially beyond 50 percent complete and on track for its 2015 operational date. The project is a retrofit of capture technology onto Shell’s existing Scotford oil sands upgrader near Edmonton, Alberta. When completed, the project […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Swedish power company Vattenfall announced Tuesday that it would be discontinuing its carbon capture and storage research and development in an effort to “prioritize [their] R&D investments and choose whatever is most needed.” This comes only weeks after the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding on CCS knowledge and […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Stanford University has announced that it will no longer invest in companies whose primary business is the mining of coal for energy generation. The decision is the result of a recommendation by the university’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing. According to a release from the university, the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) this week introduced two bills aimed at supporting the advancement of carbon capture and sequestration and enhanced oil recovery technologies. One measure, the “Carbon Capture and Sequestration Deployment Act,” is intended to encourage the development of CCS technologies through programs, tax credits and loan guarantees. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 PITTSBURGH, Pa.—  A Mississippi state lawmaker suggested here last week that Denbury Resources grant smaller companies access to its Mississippi CO2 pipeline, suggesting that legislation might be necessary to prompt such action and renewing a debate with company representatives over pipeline usage rights.  “One of the things that I […]

GHG Monitor 5/9/2014 IN EUROPEAN UNION The European Commission said Monday that most heavy industry businesses that had been receiving free carbon permits would be likely to keep them. Under the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, power plants, factories, airlines and other large emitters are required to surrender a permit for every tonne of gas […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/9/2014 The latest round of House Republican outrage concerning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s handling of the Yucca Mountain licensing review occurred this week during a House Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing as lawmakers chastised the Commission for failing to request funds to complete the review as well as failing to […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 5/9/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration is transferring $56.65 million from other programs to an effort to preserve the American Centrifuge technology under a new contract being managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The ORNL subcontract, awarded to USEC, is worth $33.7 million through the end of this fiscal year, and […]

Fluor-B&W Past Halfway Point of Removing Cells from Former Enrichment Process Building Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, has reached a significant milestone in cleaning out one of the three former enrichment process buildings at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, but funding challenges currently appear set to prevent FBP from reaching a goal […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 5/9/2014 The House Appropriations Committee formally unveiled its subcommittee allocations for Fiscal Year 2015 this week, and lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will have a little less funding to work with this year. The committee set the Energy and Water allocation at $34.010 billion, $50 million less […]

Bill Reported Out of Committee Late This Week Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/9/2014 Members of the House Armed Services Committee dropped funding for a new federal contribution to the Uranium Enrichment D&D Fund from the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act before reporting the bill out of committee late this week. As originally drafted, […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/9/2014 With numerous cleanup milestones at risk due to insufficient budget requests, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management’s set of ECitizens Advisory Boards are emphasizing that DOE should ask for adequate cleanup funding to meet commitments. “The Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) believes the fiscal year […]