DOE: Chu to defend admin's spending priorities on research, nuclear
(02/01/2010)
•
Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter
Energy Secretary Steven Chu may find himself defending proposed cuts to lawmakers' favored programs Thursday in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Seeking to demonstrate the resolve to tackle deficit spending, President Obama will ask Congress to freeze nonsecurity spending in the fiscal 2011 budget that he sends to Congress today.
But the freeze won't be across the board, and some of the administration's favored clean energy programs might get a boost. But that means others might get cut. And while budget-cutting sounds good in principle amid record deficits, it is not as popular when the ax falls close to home.
If Obama proposes cuts to labs, nuclear cleanups or other DOE sites in the home states of senators on the committee, Chu will likely face some sharp questions about his priorities. Many members of the committee have significant DOE facilities in their states.
One candidate for cuts is the sizeable "environmental management" budget for cleanups at nuclear weapons sites such as Hanford and Savannah River. Last year, the budget for the nuclear cleanups was trimmed from $5.66 billion to $5.64 billion.
Although expected, the administration's move to eliminate the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is likely to spur many questions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed yesterday that the administration had followed through on its promise to close the project (see related story).
The facility's budget has already been slashed. In the last appropriations round, funding went from $288 million to $197 million.
Clean energy research programs are the ones in the DOE budget most likely to come out ahead. Potential winners include ARPA-E, a research program designed to foster high-risk, high-reward research to curb energy imports and greenhouse gas emissions, and "innovation hubs" where scientists could tackle major energy problems with minimal bureaucratic oversight.
Chu is likely to reap praise from Republican senators who grilled him last month about progress on the path to building more nuclear plants.
The administration is expected to propose tripling the size of a program to provide loan guarantees for nuclear plant construction. The budget request will total about $54 billion in loan guarantees, up from $18.5 billion.
On Friday, Chu named a "blue ribbon" panel, headed by former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to study nuclear waste disposal. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), among others, accused Chu of "slow walking" the nuclear process when he appeared before the committee last month. At the time, Chu said there were "complicated issues" involved but offered no clear answers.
$54B nuclear loan guarantee?
On a conference call Friday, Chu would not confirm or deny that the White House will propose raising the total amount of loan guarantee authority for nuclear reactors from $18.5 billion to $54 billion. (See related story in today's ClimateWire.)
Anti-nuclear groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists and Environment America are already criticizing the move, saying the money will take away from less costly energy sources such as energy efficiency and renewable energy and ultimately be a burden on taxpayers.
"At a time when President Obama is calling for fiscal restraint, we should be spending taxpayer dollars on the energy options that yield the best short-term and long-term energy and environmental benefits. Nuclear power clearly fails on both counts," Anna Aurilio, director of Environment America's Washington, D.C., office, said in a statement.
The groups also highlighted the financial issues the proposed projects have recently faced. Billions of dollars in overruns for two proposed reactors in southern Texas have threatened to halt that project after CPS Energy, owned by the city of Austin, wants to alter its cost share or pull out of the project with NRG Energy Inc. and Toshiba Corp. The project is on the list of four finalists for DOE loan guarantees, along with Southern Co., SCANA and Constellation Energy Group Inc.
One of the few projects that elected to go ahead without DOE loan guarantee was also postponed this month. Florida Power & Light Co. said it was suspending engineering and contracting work because the Florida public service commission did not approve a $1.3 billion rate hike (Greenwire, Jan. 14).
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, welcomed the boost to the program.
"This is a good first step toward expanding our use of clean nuclear energy," Murkowski said in a statement. "The next step for the administration is to ensure that these loan guarantees are actually awarded in a timely manner."
Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, Feb. 4, at 10 a.m. in 366 Dirksen.
Witness: Energy Secretary Steven Chu
•
Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter
Energy Secretary Steven Chu may find himself defending proposed cuts to lawmakers' favored programs Thursday in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Seeking to demonstrate the resolve to tackle deficit spending, President Obama will ask Congress to freeze nonsecurity spending in the fiscal 2011 budget that he sends to Congress today.
But the freeze won't be across the board, and some of the administration's favored clean energy programs might get a boost. But that means others might get cut. And while budget-cutting sounds good in principle amid record deficits, it is not as popular when the ax falls close to home.
If Obama proposes cuts to labs, nuclear cleanups or other DOE sites in the home states of senators on the committee, Chu will likely face some sharp questions about his priorities. Many members of the committee have significant DOE facilities in their states.
One candidate for cuts is the sizeable "environmental management" budget for cleanups at nuclear weapons sites such as Hanford and Savannah River. Last year, the budget for the nuclear cleanups was trimmed from $5.66 billion to $5.64 billion.
Although expected, the administration's move to eliminate the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is likely to spur many questions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed yesterday that the administration had followed through on its promise to close the project (see related story).
The facility's budget has already been slashed. In the last appropriations round, funding went from $288 million to $197 million.
Clean energy research programs are the ones in the DOE budget most likely to come out ahead. Potential winners include ARPA-E, a research program designed to foster high-risk, high-reward research to curb energy imports and greenhouse gas emissions, and "innovation hubs" where scientists could tackle major energy problems with minimal bureaucratic oversight.
Chu is likely to reap praise from Republican senators who grilled him last month about progress on the path to building more nuclear plants.
The administration is expected to propose tripling the size of a program to provide loan guarantees for nuclear plant construction. The budget request will total about $54 billion in loan guarantees, up from $18.5 billion.
On Friday, Chu named a "blue ribbon" panel, headed by former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to study nuclear waste disposal. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), among others, accused Chu of "slow walking" the nuclear process when he appeared before the committee last month. At the time, Chu said there were "complicated issues" involved but offered no clear answers.
$54B nuclear loan guarantee?
On a conference call Friday, Chu would not confirm or deny that the White House will propose raising the total amount of loan guarantee authority for nuclear reactors from $18.5 billion to $54 billion. (See related story in today's ClimateWire.)
Anti-nuclear groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists and Environment America are already criticizing the move, saying the money will take away from less costly energy sources such as energy efficiency and renewable energy and ultimately be a burden on taxpayers.
"At a time when President Obama is calling for fiscal restraint, we should be spending taxpayer dollars on the energy options that yield the best short-term and long-term energy and environmental benefits. Nuclear power clearly fails on both counts," Anna Aurilio, director of Environment America's Washington, D.C., office, said in a statement.
The groups also highlighted the financial issues the proposed projects have recently faced. Billions of dollars in overruns for two proposed reactors in southern Texas have threatened to halt that project after CPS Energy, owned by the city of Austin, wants to alter its cost share or pull out of the project with NRG Energy Inc. and Toshiba Corp. The project is on the list of four finalists for DOE loan guarantees, along with Southern Co., SCANA and Constellation Energy Group Inc.
One of the few projects that elected to go ahead without DOE loan guarantee was also postponed this month. Florida Power & Light Co. said it was suspending engineering and contracting work because the Florida public service commission did not approve a $1.3 billion rate hike (Greenwire, Jan. 14).
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, welcomed the boost to the program.
"This is a good first step toward expanding our use of clean nuclear energy," Murkowski said in a statement. "The next step for the administration is to ensure that these loan guarantees are actually awarded in a timely manner."
Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, Feb. 4, at 10 a.m. in 366 Dirksen.
Witness: Energy Secretary Steven Chu