The Energy Department filed to withdraw an application for a nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, formally seeking Wednesday to reverse a Bush administration policy.The Obama administration’s Energy Department has said that it hopes to develop a new plan for long-term disposal of nuclear waste. The Energy Department has established a blue-ribbon panel to make recommendation
Here is the filing:
Energy Secretary Steven Chu will announce on Monday an international plan to deploy clean technology in developing countries, a $350 million, five-year effort that will include everything from putting solar lanterns in poor households to promoting advanced energy-efficient appliances worldwide, administration officials said.The Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative is an attempt by the United States and other industrialized nations to help curb energy consumption in countries that will help determine if global greenhouse emissions keep rising or level off.
“No matter what pledges are made here in Copenhagen, global emissions cannot be cut without widespread deployment of clean energy technologies,” said Paul W. Bledsoe, a spokesman with the D.C.-based National Commission on Energy Policy.
Senators John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, and Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, have joined in introducing a bill that would establish awards for researchers who develop technologies that can economically extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stash it away.
Here is their press release:
U.S. Senator John Barrasso, (R-Wyo.) and Senator Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM), have introduced a bi-partisan bill focusing on clean air technology. The bill encourages technology that will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently sequester it.
The Carbon Dioxide Capture Technology Act, S.2744, will establish an award system for scientists and researchers.
Historically, prizes have been used to spur all types of technological development to solve problems. For example, Charles Lindbergh was competing for the Orteig Prize, when he flew in the Spirit of St. Louis, non-stop from New York to Paris in 1927.
“Our proposal takes a fresh look at climate change,” Barrasso said. “We want to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. The bill taps into American ingenuity and innovation. It recognizes the need to develop the technological solutions needed to address climate change. It makes sense that we explore alternative approaches for removing and permanently sequestering excess carbon dioxide. With financial awards, we can encourage the extraordinary breakthroughs needed to tackle this problem.” Senator Barrasso introduced similar legislation last year. The Carbon Dioxide Capture Technology Act is a new, bi-partisan version of that legislation.
“A bi-partisan solution is needed to reduce carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. I commend Senator Bingaman’s willingness to work across the aisle to find solutions.”
Senator Bingaman is Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where the bill has been referred.
“If we could capture carbon dioxide emitted by low-concentration sources, or even the atmosphere, it would be a major step toward a cleaner energy future,” said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. “A federal prize to inspire inventive solutions to this technical challenge could help us get there quicker. That’s why I’m backing Senator Barrasso’s bill.”
The program would be established by a federal commission under the Department of Energy. Commission members, appointed by the President, would be comprised of climate scientists, physicists, chemists, engineers, business managers and economists.
Awards will go to public and private entities that design technology to remove and permanently sequester carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.
Once the technology is developed, the United States would share the intellectual property rights with the inventor.
A Democratic senator is calling on the Obama administration to reject an expected request for economic stimulus money for a $1.5 billion West Texas wind energy project.The joint venture between U.S. and Chinese energy companies will be financed largely by China’s export-import bank.
But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says the project organizers reportedly are planning to ask for 30 percent financing — or $450 million — from the federal stimulus program designed to produce U.S. jobs.
Yet, all of the 240 wind turbines on 36,000 acres in West Texas will be made in a plant in China, producing Chinese jobs. So, Schumer is writing Energy Secretary Steven Chu, urging the administration to reject a request for a federal grant should one arrive.
Senator Schumer’s letter to Secretary Chu is below.
Full Committee hearing entitled, “Legislative Hearing on S. 1733, Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.”
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
09:30 AM EDT
EPW Hearing Room – 406 Dirksen
Witnesses
Opening Remarks
Panel 1
The Honorable John F. Kerry
United States Senator (D-MA)
Panel 2
The Honorable Steven Chu
Secretary
United States Department of Energy
The Honorable Ray LaHood
Secretary
United States Department of Transportation
The Honorable Ken Salazar
Secretary
United States Department of the Interior
The Honorable Lisa Jackson
Administrator
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Honorable Jon Wellinghoff
Chairman
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
A Spanish paper that claimed support for green jobs “may destroy two jobs for every one created” has been debunked by an official publication of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The paper’s conclusions — led by Exxon-funded libertarian Gabriel Calzada — have been cited by GOP leaders, Fox News, right-wing columnists, conservative think tanks, and Big Oil front groups to attack President Obama’s green economic agenda. However, the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) finds that the Spanish authors’ claim that renewable support kills jobs “is not supported by their work.“
NREL –
The Department of Energy announced $27.6 million in research grants on Monday, for projects intended to simulate the underground storage of carbon dioxide.The 19 awards, to be distributed over four years, will be supplemented by $8.2 million paid by the recipients, which are predominantly universities.
Carbon capture and storage technology — or C.C.S. — is especially important for coal-fired power plants, which account for close to half of the country’s electricity use and a substantial portion of its carbon emissions.
Press Release from the Department of Energy below the fold.
Celsias has the story:
The US Department of Energy has spent the past several months in promotion and funding of renewable energy and efficiency , yet it manages to set a less-than-stalwart example by failing its own energy audit.
The 21-page energy audit (pdf) by the DOE’s Office of the Inspector General highlights several sectors where the department’s own buildings, though equipped for efficient management, are not being utilized as such. In particular, the Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Y-12 National Security Complex came under scrutiny.
Secretary Chu Announces Agreement on FutureGen Project in Mattoon, IL
Paves Way for First US Commercial Scale Carbon Capture and Storage Project
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced an agreement with the FutureGen Alliance that advances the construction of the first commercial scale, fully integrated, carbon capture and sequestration project in the country in Mattoon, Illinois.
“This important step forward for FutureGen reflects this Administration’s commitment to rapidly developing carbon capture and sequestration technology as part of a comprehensive plan to create jobs, develop clean energy and reduce climate change pollution.” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “The FutureGen project holds great promise as a flagship facility to demonstrate carbon capture and storage at commercial scale. Developing this technology is critically important for reducing reenhouse gas emissions in the US, and around the world.”
“The agreement that was reached by the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance is an historic moment for both our state and our country,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL). “In my time in Congress, I can’t recall a project that has greater scientific and practical significance than FutureGen, not to mention the enormous economic benefit it will have in Illinois. I want to thank Secretary Chu for his leadership along with my colleagues in the Senate, members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation and the State of Illinois for working with me to keep this project alive for the Obama Administration.”
Under the terms of the provisional agreement between the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance, the Department will issue a Record of Decision on the project by the middle of July, with the following activities to be pursued from the end of July 2009 through early 2010:
* Rapid restart of preliminary design activities.
* Completion of a site-specific preliminary design and updated cost estimate.
* Expansion of the Alliance sponsorship group.
* Development of a complete funding plan.
* Potential additional subsurface characterization.
Following the completion of the detailed cost estimate and fundraising activities, the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance will make a decision either to move forward or to discontinue the project early in 2010. Both parties agree that a decision to move forward is the preferred outcome and plan to reach a revised cooperative agreement that will include a funding plan for the full project. Funding will be phased and conditioned based on completion of NEPA review.
The Department of Energy’s total anticipated financial contribution for the project is $1.073 billion, $1 billion of which comes from Recovery Act funds for CCS research. The FutureGen Alliance’s total anticipated financial contribution is $400 million to $600 million, based on a goal of 20 member companies each contributing a total of $20 million to $30 million over a four to six year period. The Alliance, with support from DOE, will pursue options to raise additional non-federal funds needed to build and operate the facility, including options for capturing the value of the facility that will remain after conclusion of the research project, potentially through an auction of the residual interests in the late fall.
