|
 |
 |
|
OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Lawmakers prep for nuke waste report probes — and maybe bills
State of play: House and Senate lawmakers are preparing a close look next week at nuclear waste policy recommendations that a presidentially chartered commission unveiled Thursday.
A House Energy and Commerce Committee panel will hold a hearing on the report Feb. 1, while a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing will follow on Feb. 2.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future issued a report Thursday that seeks to end the nation’s impasse on waste policy.
It calls for, among other things, development of consolidated interim storage sites to handle waste that’s piling up at the nation’s power reactors; revived efforts to develop one or more permanent geologic disposal sites; and a new federally chartered body to take control of the issue away from the Energy Department.
The report arrives amid the ongoing impasse over the long-planned, long-delayed project to permanently store high-level waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The Obama administration has halted work on Yucca but many Republicans want to revive the project.
At the same, the report — which doesn’t weigh in on Yucca — comes as a quartet of Senate lawmakers is looking for a path forward on nuclear waste. One of the lawmakers, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), has backed the idea of interim storage sites and creating a new waste management body.
Murkowski, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has been working with committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
“We have a lot of issues to address — not just the need for a long-term repository, but also transportation safety issues, the federal government’s contractual liability and the need to consolidate and prioritize the existing temporary storage facilities — and I’ll be looking to the commission for guidance as we consider possible legislative action,” Murkowski said in a statement Thursday.
Bill Wicker, a spokesman for Bingaman, said the group has been meeting informally for a few months.
“They’re pondering what steps are necessary to develop both short-term and long-term disposal strategies for how to deal with used nuclear fuel,” Wicker said. “Seems too soon to talk legislation, though. Right now, these senators are just trying to work together to set up a process that will lead to a solution.”
Feinstein said she “broadly” supports the report's recommendations, which also include a new “consent-based” approach to siting waste facilities. Feinstein said she, too, plans to hold hearings soon.
NEWS BITES:
Industry is sick of the word 'fracking'
The Associated Press reports on the industry's frustrations with the word “fracking,” which is shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique whereby sand, water and chemicals are injected into the ground to gain access to natural-gas supplies bound up in rock formations.
Here’s AP:
It's not in the dictionary, the industry hates it, and President Barack Obama didn't use it in his State of the Union speech — even as he praised federal subsidies for it.
The word sounds nasty, and environmental advocates have been able to use it to generate opposition — and revulsion — to what they say is a nasty process that threatens water supplies.
"It obviously calls to mind other less socially polite terms, and folks have been able to take advantage of that," said Kate Sinding, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who works on drilling issues.
FirstEnergy shuttering six coal plants
FirstEnergy Corp. is blaming planned closures of six power plants on Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
Here's AP with more:
The plants, which are in Cleveland, Ashtabula, Oregon and Eastlake in Ohio, Adrian, Pa. and Williamsport, Md., will be retired by Sept. 1. They have generated about 10 percent of the electricity produced by FirstEnergy over the last three years, the company said.
In a statement James Lash, head of the company's generation unit, indicated that a review of the company's coal-fired plants determined it would not be cost-effective to get the older ones into compliance with environmental regulations the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in December.
FirstEnergy is the latest utility to say it will shutter plants because of pending EPA air rules. American Electric Power said the same thing in June.
But environmental groups and others note that it's the oldest, most polluting plants that are facing closures.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
Here's a quick roundup of Thursday's E2 stories:
— Waxman: GOP 'so stupid' to include Keystone pipeline in payroll tax package
— Federal commission urges permanent nuclear waste storage strategy
— Obama pushes natural gas on swing-state tour
— Go west, Solar Decathlon
— Obama-backed electric car battery-maker files for bankruptcy
— EPA: Palm oil flunks the climate test
— Obama heads west to sell energy plan
Please send tips and comments to Ben Geman,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, and Andrew Restuccia,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Follow us on Twitter: @E2Wire, @AndrewRestuccia, @Ben_Geman
