Obama’s 2011 Budget Boosts Nuclear, Renewables
President Barack Obama emphasized the role of nuclear power, offshore oil and gas exploration, and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in his first State of the Union speech last week. The proposed $28.4 billion Fiscal Year 2011 budget for the Energy Department released by the White House this week could provide a much-needed boost to these and other measures.
Obama reaffirmed his commitment to enacting a comprehensive energy bill this year is his State of the Union speech, saying it would “finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.” He added: “even if you doubt the evidence [on climate change], providing incentives for energy-efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future—because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.”
The President also said he was “eager to help the bipartisan effort in the Senate,” and complimented the House for its passage of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill last June. Then, in an apparent effort to reach out to Republican members of Congress, he called for incentives to make clean energy profitable. “And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country,” he said, drawing applause.
On Monday, the $28.4 billion Fiscal Year 2011 budget request for the Department of Energy unveiled by Energy Secretary Steven Chu highlighted $56.5 billion in loan guarantees—$36 billion added to the $18.5 billion allotted by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and $2 billion that was subsequently added for fuel cycle facilities. The guarantees could support the construction of seven to 10 new reactors, Chu said, if their designs are approved and the developers raise their share of the capital. The department said the first two conditional loan guarantee awards should be made soon.
The budget also committed to continue funding of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP), an advanced reactor with co-generation capability at Idaho National Laboratory.
Funding for the Nevada Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository has been denied by the 2011 budget, and the administration said it would withdraw the facility’s license application at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) over the next month. The administration instead increased fuel cycle research funding in the budget by 47% to $201 million.
This week, the Energy Department also announced the formation of the much-awaited ‘Blue Ribbon’ commission, a 15-member body that is expected to provide recommendations for developing a long-term platform to manage used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. Co-chaired by Lee Hamilton, a former Congressman who has served as ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the commission also includes former commissioners of the NRC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, three professors (from UCLA, Berkeley, and MIT), and Exelon Corp. CEO John Rowe.
A memo (PDF) issued by the White House outlining the commission’s duties indicates that it should “conduct a comprehensive review of policies for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including all alternatives for the storage, processing, and disposal of civilian and defense used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste.” The DOE-funded commission will not, however, take up the question of where spent fuel might be stored, Chu told reporters last week. "It is not a siting commission," he said.
The commission is expected to provide a final report to the DOE within 18 months, with a final report being issued within two years. The review is expected to mainly evaluate advanced fuel cycle technologies that would optimize energy recovery, resource utilization, and the minimization of materials derived from nuclear activities “in a manner consistent with U.S. nonproliferation goals.”
The 2011 budget also proposed to increase renewable loan guarantees by $5 billion, but it proposes to do away with $36.5 billion in tax breaks to the oil and natural gas industry. It also targets $2.3 billion in similar tax benefits for the coal sector between 2011-2020.
Other highlights include:
• More than $217 million in new funding for science research and discovery, including an additional $40 million for the existing Energy Frontier Research Centers program, and $107 million for Energy Innovation Hubs.
• $300 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy
• Lending authority to support approximately $40 billion in loan guarantees for innovative clean energy programs.
• More than $108 million in new funding to advance and expand research in the areas of wind, solar, and geothermal energies.
Sources: DOE, CNN, POWERnews, Idaho National Lab