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NUCLEAR BILLS IN COMMITTEE: A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is going nuclear in today’s expected bill mark-up, considering 17 pieces of legislation that are largely nuclear-related.
Later this afternoon, the Energy, Climate, and Grid Security subcommittee is scheduled to mark up legislation that aims to boost and streamline the deployment of nuclear energy, including bills that would speed up the approval of nuclear projects, reduce costs and fees for certain applications, and beef up production of minerals such as uranium to help support the build out of nuclear.
A note: With the House speaker’s race occupying a large space in lawmakers’ schedules, there’s a chance that the mark-up could be pushed to a later time. Stay tuned with us as we hear more updates.
Some notable bills:
- The “Modernize Nuclear Reactor Environmental Reviews Act” from Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina: The bill would direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to submit a report to the House Energy Committee, along with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, on the group’s efforts to facilitate efficient and timely environmental reviews of nuclear reactor applications. The legislation would also require the NRC to conduct rulemaking to implement these recommendations.
- The “Advancing Nuclear Regulatory Oversight Act” from GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona: The legislation would broadly require the NRC to better their oversight and inspection practices. The bill would mandate the commission to report to Congress of any policies that were revised or suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, and how these changes could have impacted the NRC’s ability to conduct oversight of nuclear power plants.
- The bipartisan “Nuclear Fuel Security Act” from Republican Rep. Bob Latta of Ohio and Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina: The legislation would authorize the Secretary of Energy to establish a “Nuclear Security Program” to increase the domestic mining, production, and supply of uranium. The legislation would also expand the American Assured Fuel Supply Program to help ensure the availability of domestically produced, processed uranium in the event of a supply disruption. The senate version of this bill was included as an amendment into the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, and was introduced by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and GOP Sens. John Barrasso and Jim Risch.
- The “Advanced Reactor Fee Reduction Act” introduced by GOP Rep. Larry Bucshon of Indiana: The bill would amend the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act to reduce regulatory costs for advanced nuclear reactor applications.
- The “Strengthening American Nuclear Competitiveness Act,” introduced by Republican Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio, would require the Department of Energy to report on U.S. civilian nuclear commerce, and expedite consideration of technology exports. More specifically, the DOE would have to expedite the consideration of technology exports involving low-proliferation risk reactors to certain foreign countries that are “not a nuclear-weapon state.”
But it’s not just nuclear that’s getting the spotlight – other bills are getting marked-up in today’s E&C meeting. The subcommittee will also consider two bills that will tackle the Energy Department’s efficiency standards, prohibiting Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm from enforcing rules that are not “technologically feasible and economically justified,” and repeal a rule that enforces energy efficiency standards on manufactured housing. The chamber will also be considering a bill that aims to boost hydropower development and deployment.
Read all 17 bills here, and watch the mark-up here.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
IEA’S LATEST PROJECTIONS: The world is set to have as much as 10 times as many electric cars on the road as today, with renewable energy making up almost half of the global power supply, by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Outlook. However, that’s still not enough for countries to reach the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
The latest report bases its projections on current policy around the world, predicting that the growing momentum for clean energy will have fossil fuels peaking in global demand as soon as this decade. This is a notable observation from the IEA, which has historically underestimated the growth of solar and wind energy. However, the IEA does seem to be shifting tides, with a forecast out last month predicting that global use of oil, coal, and natural gas could peak by 2030.
“The transition to clean energy is happening worldwide and it’s unstoppable. It’s not a question of ‘if’, it’s just a matter of ‘how soon’ – and the sooner the better for all of us,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.
Still, demand for fossil fuels is expected to remain high, along with global emissions – pushing temperatures up by around 2.4 degrees Celsius this century, well above the threshold agreed upon in the Paris agreement.
Along with its EV cars projection, the IEA predicts that renewables will contribute 80% of new power generation to 2030, with solar alone accounting for half of this expansion. However, although the world is set to have manufacturing capacity for more than 1,200 gigawatts of solar panels per year, it’s projected to only deploy 500 GW in 2030. Furthermore, if the world were to reach 80 GW of new solar capacity by 2030, it could lead to a further 20% reduction in coal-fired generation in China. Read the report here.
EMMER WINS GOP NOD FOR SPEAKER: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer won the internal conference vote for speaker, beating out Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana in the final ballot. Keep-up with the fast-moving updates here, from our fabulous Congress team.
Related: Emmer, like all the GOP candidates for speaker this time around, has received significant campaign funding from fossil fuel industries, E&E News noted – $524,974 since 2014. He’s also defended the mining industry in the state, which produces a significant amount of iron ore and taconite.
Palmer, the energy committee candidate, dropped out early: House Energy Committee member Gary Palmer dropped out of the speaker’s race Tuesday morning, shortly before the internal GOP conference vote began.
In a statement released by his office, the Alabama Republican stressed that unity amongst the conference is imperative to move forward with a House Speaker – and stated that he would work with the next leader to enact his platform’s principles (laid out here).
$128M FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PROJECTS: The Environmental Protection Agency announced $128 million to fund 186 environmental justice projects across the nation, in its first round of EJ grants revealed before the end of the year.
The grants, which fall under two separate programs, will provide funds to small nonprofits, state and local governments, and territories and tribes to address the effects of climate change. Ninety-eight participants will receive up to $500,000 each to address local environmental or public health issues in their communities, while 88 will receive $1 million to mitigate the environmental and public health harms that have hit poorer cities and towns the hardest.
“Together, these community-driven projects will improve the health, equity, and resilience of communities while setting a blueprint for local solutions that can be applied across the nation,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
An example of a project that’s getting funded is the “Accompanying Returning Citizens with Hope” project in Ohio, which will employ formerly incarcerated individuals for jobs that focus on solar projects. Another project in North Dakota will aim to fill in the gaps of radon mitigation, in order to reduce the presence of radon in low-income communities. Radon is a colorless, odorless radioactive gas that has been linked to lung cancer.
QUANTIFYING BENEFITS OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURES FOR INDUSTRY: Doubling energy efficiency measures in industrial processes could save $437 billion and 11% of global emissions through 2030, according to a new report commissioned by the Energy Efficiency Movement and conducted by Development Economics.
The measures in question include installing smart building management systems, electrifying vehicle fleets, installing heat pumps, and moving data to the cloud.
‘SUPER FOG’ BLAMED IN DEADLY CAR PILE-UP NEAR NEW ORLEANS: A terrible multi-vehicle accident in Louisiana Monday that claimed the lives of at least seven people has been attributed to a decrease in visibility from ‘super fog.’ Super fog is when a “mixture of smoke and moisture released from damp smoldering organic material such as brush, leaves and trees, mixes with cooler, nearly saturated air,” according to the National Weather Service.
Amid the poor visibility caused by the three 18-wheelers crashed and caused a fire on I-55 west of New Orleans, a local sheriff said.
Super fog outside New Orleans is often caused by marsh fires, which have become more frequent because of drier conditions, Tyler Stanfield, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in New Orleans, told the New York Times.
FOREST SERVICE SUED OVER NEW MEXICO FLASH FLOOD DEATHS: Relatives of three people who died last year in a flash flood that stemmed from New Mexico’s largest wildfire are suing the U.S. Forest Service, the Associated Press reports.
The wrongful death lawsuit claims that the Forest Service was negligent in the management of the wildfire, and also failed to close roads and prevent access to high-risk flood zones following the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. The lawsuit also alleges the Forest Service failed to provide adequate warnings to the victims about the dangers caused by wildfires and potential flooding in the area.
The three Texas residents were all staying at a family cabin in northern New Mexico in July 2022 when monsoon rains hit their area – creating a flash flood that swept the three victims to their deaths. Authorities said that an improperly extinguished pile burn operation rekindled and merged with another fire that went awry, destroying about 900 structures, including several hundred homes.
Neither the Forest Service nor the Agriculture Department has formally responded to the lawsuit. The Agriculture Department also didn’t provide a settlement offer or denial of claims filed in the case earlier this year either. More on that here.
The Rundown
E&E News N.Y. climate goals in jeopardy as renewable projects falter
New York Times Inside Poland Spring’s hidden attack on water rules it didn’t like
