IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
McConnell Announces Senate Republican Committee Assignments for the 117th Congress
Earlier this week, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced the Senate Republican Conference Committee Assignments for the 117th Congress. The assignments are subject to ratification by the Republican Conference as well as the full Senate, which is expected soon. Ranking Members will be selected by a vote of the members of each committee and then ratified by the Republican Conference.
TVA Intends to Prepare a PEIS for Clinch River Nuclear Site Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technology Park
Tennessee Valley Association (TVA), which already received an Early Site Permit for a light water cooled small modular reactor at its Clinch River Site near Oak Ridge National Laboratory, intends to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact statement (PEIS) to address the potential environmental effects associated with the construction, operation, and decommissioning of an advanced non-light water cooled nuclear reactor. The park could contain one or more advanced nuclear reactors with a cumulative electrical output not to exceed 800 megawatts electric (MWe).
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GreenBiz: Why corporate energy buyers should ’Go to 11’
Roger Ballentine, the president of Green Strategies, and Armond Cohen, the co-founder and Executive Director of the Clean Air Task Force, wrote about the pursuit of round-the-clock, carbon-free energy consumption from companies. The column references the scene from Rob Reiner’s film, "This is Spinal Tap,” when they turn the dials on their amplifiers “to 11" even though the dial only goes to 10 as a metaphor for corporate energy buyers searching for 100 percent clean energy as only the beginning.
Read their column here
A Grand Opportunity for Energy Storage
Innovation is driving rapid transformation in America’s energy system. Ten years ago, almost no one predicted the U.S. would be the top producer of oil and natural gas in the world, eclipsing Saudi Arabia and Russia. For the U.S. to continue to demonstrate energy and climate leadership, however, more innovation is needed to ensure the reliable integration of renewables into an evolving electric grid.
What if we could develop technologies to cost-effectively store excess wind and solar generation and save it for later, thereby making renewables more flexible, on-demand resources? And what if the U.S. could lead the world in the manufacture and export of those technologies? The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been working to address these questions, with bipartisan support from Congress, and we hope that continues. Read more in our blog, “A Grand Opportunity for Energy Storage," by Senior Program Director Alex Fitzsimmons.
C3 News Magazine: The Clean Energy Policy That Could Strengthen Texas Oil & Gas
The reality of Democrat majorities in the U.S. Senate and the House is sending a shiver through the Texas oil and gas industry. The concept of attacking fossil fuels should be completely thrown out the window. It’s not fossil fuels that are the problem, it’s emissions from fossil fuels that are the problem. If we can eliminate or significantly reduce the emissions, there is no reason we couldn’t continue using these resources well into the future, or forever.
In fact, there is a clean energy policy that could strengthen Texas energy companies, while also significantly lowering carbon dioxide emissions. The policy is known as “45Q,” a federal tax incentive that is already leading to cleaner air by increasing capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Read more by our Executive Director, Rich Powell
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