Budget & Policy

IN DOE The current tension between the United States and Russia over Ukraine appears to have scuttled a planned Russian visit later this month to Hanford. A group of technical representatives from Russia’s mining and chemical combine, the Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation and the Russian embassy in the United States were scheduled to visit […]

IN CONGRESS Subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee will mark up their portions of the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Authorization Act April 30 and May 1 before the full committee marks up the bill May 7, committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said this week. The Strategic Forces Subcommittee, which authorizes and sets policy […]

March   19 Meeting: Nevada Site-Specific Advisory Board; Frank H. Rogers Building, Las Vegas, Nev.   26 Hearing: NNSA Governance, House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, co-chairmen of the NNSA Governance Panel, Norm Augustine and Richard Mies, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Time: TBA.   26 Hearing: National Nuclear Security Administration and the Office […]

Former Nevada Site Office Manager Stephen Mellington has joined Longenecker & Associates as a senior associate

In another sign of apparent management turmoil within the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a group of Board employees tasked with examining morale concerns has found what appears to be a significant divide between staff and senior management.

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Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/14/2014 IN NRC The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced this week that Renee Simpson has taken over as the director of the Office of Congressional Affairs. Simpson previously served on the House Appropriations and Senate Intelligence committees in senior staff positions, as well as in positions with the offices of Legislative […]

The Supreme Court has yet to indicate whether it plans to take up cases probing some of the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas-related rules in its upcoming term. 

The U.S. should not let the recent natural gas boom detract from investments in clean energy technologies with higher capital costs like carbon capture and storage and new nuclear, observers warned during a Bipartisan Policy Center panel event on natural gas this week. 

President Barack Obama’s top energy and climate adviser Heather Zichal will step down within the coming weeks, the White House confirmed this week. 

A group of more than 400 current and former coal-state Democrats is urging the White House to adopt policies that accelerate the development and deployment of what they are calling “sustainable coal” under the framework of President Barack Obama’s climate action plan. 

House Republicans are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to schedule listening sessions related to its upcoming carbon standards for existing power plants in coal country. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 10/11/13 IN CONGRESS The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously approved Elizabeth Robinson’s nomination to be Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance by voice vote during a meeting this week. Robinson had breezed through her confirmation hearing before the panel last month. The Under Secretary position, created as […]

Tamar Hallerman and Mike Nartker GHG Monitor 10/18/13 IN DOE Bradley Crowell was confirmed by the Senate late this week to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. Crowell, who was nominated to the position last month, previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs and Deputy […]

Anthony Cugini has officially resigned as director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, according to a message acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Fossil Chris Smith sent to employees Oct. 16. 

An interstate compact representing governors and lawmakers from more than a dozen southern states passed a pair of resolutions at its annual meeting this week urging caution from the Environmental Protection Agency as it formulates carbon standards for new and existing power plants. 

Federal workers returned to work late this week after Congress passed an eleventh-hour measure Oct. 16 to end the partial government shutdown and raise the debt limit less than a day before the nation was set to begin defaulting on its bills. 

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a second climate-related case this term, teeing up a docket that could have an impact on President Barack Obama’s environmental agenda. 

Despite a series of slips in cost and schedule, the President and CEO of Mississippi Power said his company’s 582 MW Kemper County gasification project, currently undergoing peak construction in eastern Mississippi, is still worth the now-$4.75 billion investment.

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 10/25/13 IN THE EPA Emissions from power plants have decreased 10 percent since 2010, according to new data released this week by the Environmental Protection Agency. Figures from the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which collects greenhouse gas emissions data annually from more than 8,000 of the country’s largest industrial emitters, […]

Former Vice President and prominent environmentalist Al Gore compared the fossil fuel industry to the lenders whose bad investments sparked the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent economic downturn during a speech this week in Washington

Environmentalists focus far too much of their time on deploying current clean energy technologies and should instead advocate more for an innovation-based agenda that emphasizes RD&D funding, according to a report this week from a nonpartisan D.C. think tank. 

Elizabeth Robinson’s heretofore smooth path to serve as the Department of Energy’s new Under Secretary for Management and Performance hit a roadblock this week when Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) placed a hold on her nomination.

Leadership ranks are set to be reshuffled on the House Appropriations Committee following the Oct. 18 death of Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), with Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) the most likely candidate to take over the coveted defense slot, according to Congressional aides. 

The true test for the Environmental Protection Agency for the remainder of President Barack Obama’s presidency is whether it can stay vigilant in setting tough greenhouse gas standards for power plants, former Clinton-era EPA Administrator Carol Browner said Oct. 24. 

A top Department of Energy official is remaining tight-lipped about the leadership shakeup at the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Alstom’s top American official said that “uncertainty is the new normal” in the country’s power generation industry and called on policymakers to establish a flexible market-based price on carbon in order to drive down emissions and incentivize clean energy RD&D work. 

In its contracts to allow FutureGen 2.0’s developers to move into advanced engineering and design work, the Department of Energy acknowledges—in its most straightforward language to date—the risk that the flagship carbon capture and storage project may not be able to spend all of its stimulus money before it expires in late 2015.