MORE NEWS, 3-17 (NEW ENERGY FOR FEDERAL LANDS; SENATORS PUSH WIND; SEC/DOE LIKES NUKE POWER?)

NEW ENERGY FOR FEDERAL LANDS
U.S. seeks to spur renewable energy on public lands
Ayesha Rascoe (w/Tom Doggett and Christian Wiessner), March 12, 2009 (Reuters)

"The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday said it has created a special task force to speed the development of renewable energy projects on federal lands…

"The task force will identify specific zones on public lands where the department can act rapidly to create large-scale production of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass energy…"

Federal lands. (click to enlarge)

"The department will have to coordinate its efforts with other government agencies involved with energy and electricity transmission policy, including the Energy Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

"Interior is also moving forward with finalizing regulations for offshore renewable energy production, but the department will have to work with FERC to sort out which agency is responsible for issuing permits for offshore wind energy…

"The department manages one-fifth of the U.S. landmass and over 1.7 billion offshore acres…Environmental groups applauded the department's decision to make renewable energy a priority."


SENATORS PUSH WIND
U.S. senators want $400 million spent on wind energy
Tom Doggett (w/ Marguerita Choy), March 13, 2009 (Reuters)

"Senators from two Northeast states, [Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Delaware Senators Tom Carper and Ted Kaufman], urged U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to commit $400 million from the economic stimulus package to support an advanced wind energy program, especially for offshore wind projects.

"The lawmakers want money budgeted for the department's energy efficiency and renewable energy activities set aside for developing domestic wind energy technologies so the United States can be compete with foreign wind companies."

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"The senators pointed out that the Norwegian government last month announced more funding for offshore wind energy…"

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"About 1.5 percent of the U.S. electricity supplies provided by utilities and independent power producers this year will be generated by wind energy, according to the Energy Department…

"[Senators Snowe, Collins, Carper and Kaufman] also called for more job training to boost the number of skilled workers who can build and maintain wind turbines."


SEC/DOE LIKES NUKE POWER?
Chu: Nuclear must be part of energy mix
H. Josef Hebert, March 11, 2009 (AP)

"Energy Secretary Steven Chu sought…to assure skeptical senators [at a Senate Budget Committee hearing] that the Obama administration supports continued development of nuclear energy, even as it backs away from building a nuclear waste dump in Nevada …

"Each time Chu gave [an] assurance…even as he reiterated that the administration has every intention of pulling the plug on a proposed nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain…Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the committee's ranking Republican…said he was concerned about the administration's degree of support for building new reactors."

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"Chu said he is ready to act on loan guarantees for the first group of new reactors…Congress in 2005 authorized $18.5 billion in loan guarantees for new reactors, but none of the applications has yet to be approved.

"…Chu said the administration is determined to move in a new direction on how to deal with the thousands of tons of waste in the form of used reactor fuel now being kept at power plants. [He] said the material can be kept safely "for decades" at reactor sites. And he said he hopes to have a recommendation from a special panel [to which he will soon name members] on alternatives to Yucca Mountain and long-term nuclear waste disposal before the end of the year…"

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"Chu [referred] to future reprocessing of waste so it can be recycled…[but] said more research is needed because current methods of reprocessing used in Japan and Europe raise concerns about nuclear proliferation because they produce pure plutonium.

"Obama's proposed budget calls for eliminating funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, except for money needed to respond to questions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a Yucca license application the Bush administration submitted last year…Chu…said the [license] application process could provide an insight as to what the NRC will require of a future nuclear waste strategy."