August 10, 2012: In a ceremony at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Department announces formal completion of a memorandum of agreement to preserve the historic contributions of Oak Ridge’s K-25 site to the World War II Manhattan Project.

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January 3, 2012
The Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory announces that environmentally-friendly lead-free solder, a tin-silver-copper alloy invented by a research team at the lab in the mid-1990s, has become the global standard and the top royalty income-generating technology ever produced in the history of the lab.

January 4, 2012
The American Petroleum Institute announces a "Vote4Energy" campaign to "encourage voters to make energy an important issue in this year's elections and to get U.S. energy policy on the right track."

January 5, 2012
Secretary Chu announces an initiative to further protect the electrical grid from cyber attacks: the “Electric Sector Cybersecurity Risk Management Maturity” project, a White House initiative led by the Department in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The initiative will develop a “maturity model” that allows utility companies and grid operators to measure their current capabilities and analyze gaps in their cyber defenses. Maturity models, which rely on best practices to identify an organization’s strengths and weaknesses, are widely used by other sectors to improve performance, efficiency, and quality. Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman and other officials from the Department, the White House, and DHS meet with more than two dozen senior leaders from across the electric sector. Over the next several months, the Department will host a series of workshops with the private sector to draft a maturity model that can be used throughout the electric sector. Howard Schmidt, White House cybersecurity coordinator, posts an article on the White House blog on January 9.

January 5, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency publishes a proposed rule in the Federal Register that identifies "additional fuel pathways" that "meet the biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel or cellulosic biofuel lifecycle greenhouse gas reduction requirements specified in Clean Air Act." These include "biofuels produced from camelina oil, energy cane, giant reed, and napiergrass."

January 5, 2012
The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. approves a $638 million direct loan to finance the sale by Siemens Energy, Inc. of gas and steam turbines produced at a plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, to be installed in Saudi Arabia.

January 9, 2012
The Department awards two small-business contracts to CAST Specialty Transportation, Inc. and Visionary Solutions, LLC, to provide trucking services to transport transuranic (TRU) waste, from DOE and other defense-related TRU waste generator sites to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The contracts are firmfixed-price with cost-reimbursable expenses over five years. The total maximum value of the contracts is $119 million and $120.5 million, respectively.

January 9, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator laboratory jointly announce that they have independently made the largest direct measurements of the invisible scaffolding of the universe, building maps of dark matter using new methods that, in turn, will remove key hurdles for understanding dark energy with ground-based telescopes.

January 9, 2012
The Department releases a new video, “Energy 101: Electric Vehicles”, which highlights the benefits of electric vehicles, including improved fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and lower maintenance costs.

January 9, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announces his decision to protect the Grand Canyon and its vital watershed from the potential adverse effects of additional uranium and other hardrock mining on over 1 million acres of federal land for the next 20 years. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) responds that "The Obama Administration is putting politics above American jobs and American energy security by blocking mining on what is the most uranium-rich land in the United States."

January 10, 2012
Secretary Chu tours the North American International Auto Show in Detroit where he talks with numerous automakers and their suppliers and looks at the latest electric vehicles. He also visits the Ford Technology Center, meets with researchers, and tours the laboratory.

January 10, 2012
President Obama delivers a speech to the staff of the Environmental Protection Agency. He tells them they have a "vital mission" and notes that "[w]e established new fuel economy standards, a historic accomplishment that is going to slash oil consumption by about 12 billion barrels, dramatically reduces pollution that contributes to climate change, and saves consumers thousands of dollars at the pump, which they can then go spend on something else."

January 11, 2012
Secretary Chu delivers major address on the state of the auto industry at a Detroit Economic Club breakfast. He also tours robotics, chemistry, and physics classrooms and labs at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School and meets with students involved in STEM education programs at Cass Tech, Detroit’s Davis Aerospace High School, and the Detroit International Academy.

January 11, 2012
President Obama names Mildred S. Dresselhaus and Burton Richter as the winners of the Enrico Fermi Award, one of the government’s oldest and most prestigious awards for scientific achievement. The Presidential award carries an honorarium of $50,000, shared equally, and a gold medal. The award is administered on behalf of the White House by DOE.

January 11, 2012
The Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announces that researchers have used visual information from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys to make the most accurate calculation yet of how matter in the universe clumps together – from a time when the universe was only half its present age until now. “The way galaxies cluster together over vast expanses of the sky tells us how both ordinary visible matter and underlying invisible dark matter are distributed, across space and back in time,” says Shirley Ho, an astrophysicist at the laboratory who led the work. “The distribution gives us cosmic rulers to measure how the universe has expanded, and a basis for calculating what’s in it: how much dark matter, how much dark energy, even the mass of the hard-to-see neutrinos it contains. What’s left over is the ordinary matter and energy we’re familiar with.”

January 11, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announces that it will be reviving the study of critical rare earths to better understand how to extract them, use them more efficiently, reuse and recycle them, and find substitutes for them. Rare earths are used in almost every high-tech gadget and clean energy technology invented in the last 30 years, from smart phones to wind turbines to hybrid cars. The vast majority are now mined in China and the supply has been subject to fluctuations.

January 11, 2012
The parties to Hanford's Tri-Party Agreement (TPA)--DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Washington State Department of Ecology--announce that 77 waste sites have been cleaned up meeting two TPA milestones. Workers removed 1.2 million tons of soil and debris containing heavy metals, hydrocarbons, gas, diesel, oil-based liquids, and radioactive constituents in the D and H Reactor Areas at Hanford along the Columbia River. The soil and debris were transported to Hanford’s landfill, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.

January 11, 2012
Duke Energy and AWS Truepower announce that they will be collaborating with the Department National Renewable Energy Laboratory in preparing the Carolinas Offshore Wind Integration Case Study funded by the Department and designed to gain valuable knowledge about the benefits and challenges associated with developing offshore wind generation facilities in the waters off the coasts of North and South Carolina. The results, note Duke and AWS, "will be critical to making rational policy and commercial decisions related to offshore wind."

January 11, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and NorthWestern Energy agree to explore collaboration on the Mountain States Transmission Intertie project. The line would allow the transfer of renewable and other energy sources from Montana, Idaho and other regional markets, and could allow BPA to serve customers in Idaho, western Wyoming and Montana and provide other operational benefits.

January 12, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration, Idaho Power, and PacifiCorp agree to continue exploring joint participation in the 300-mile, 500-kilovolt Boardman-to-Hemingway Transmission Line Project. Agreements by the three provide funding to environmental review and permitting, ensuring continued consideration of the project.

January 12, 2012
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy issues a report, The Long-Term Energy Efficiency Potential: What the Evidence Suggests, that finds that more attention needs to be paid to large-scale energy efficiency savings that could cut U.S. energy consumption over 50 percent and save consumers more than $300 to $400 billion per year. The reports also states that the nation is making the mistake of “crowding out” economically beneficial investments in energy efficiency by focusing on riskier and more expensive bids to develop new energy sources.

January 13, 2012
Secretary Chu in a letter to supporters of the American Centrifuge Project (ACP) informs them that the Department will assume $44 million in liability for uranium tails that USEC is contractually required to dispose of. This frees the company to invest the $44 million in further ACP research work. The Secretary notes that this is only a "down payment" that gives Congress the "time it needs to act" in authorizing DOE to provide an additional $106 million needed by USEC for ACP research and development.

January 13, 2012
The Department's Office of Health, Safety and Security releases a report providing an Independent Oversight Assessment of nuclear safety culture and nuclear safety concerns at the Hanford Site Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). HSS determines that "most personnel at WTP believed that safety was a high priority. However, during the safety culture evaluation, a significant number of staff . . . expressed reluctance to raise safety or quality concerns for various reasons. Fear of retaliation was identified in some . . . groups as inhibiting the identification of problems. Employees’ willingness to raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation is an essential element of a healthy safety culture, and therefore significant management attention is needed to improve the safety culture at WTP."

January 13, 2012
The Department's Office of Health, Safety and Security issues a Consent Order to Battelle Energy Alliance at the Idaho National Laboratory related to issues associated with the inadvertent draining of cooling water from the reactor vessel at the Advanced Test Reactor that occurred during a maintenance outage on June 1, 2011. The draindown of approximately half the reactor vessel coolant above the fuel went unrecognized by the control room for two hours. This did not result in any "adverse effects," but the Department "considers this event to be of high nuclear safety significance." Battelle agrees to take corrective actions and pay $250,000.

January 16, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman and South African Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters hold the second meeting of the U.S. – South Africa Bilateral Energy Dialogue. The Dialogue, aimed at enhancing energy capacities and strengthening the U.S. – South Africa partnership on energy initiatives, builds on the inaugural U.S. – South African Energy Dialogue launched by the Deputy Secretary and Minister Peters in April 2010 in Washington, DC.

January 17, 2012
President Obama convenes a meeting at the White House with the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which presents its 2011 year-end report, “Road Map to Renewal.” The report highlights three new recommendations on long-term competitiveness. The second is a strategy of "Build on Our Strengths in Manufacturing and Energy," which focuses on "the manufacturing sector and how we can scale up and support clean energy while responsibly accessing unconventional supplies."

January 17, 2012
The Department announces the first U.S. purchase by a utility of low-carbon power from a commercial-scale, coal-based power plant with carbon capture. CPS Energy of San Antonio, the nation's largest municipally owned utility, will purchase approximately 200 megawatts (MW) of power from the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP), located just west of Midland-Odessa. The 400-MW TCEP plant is a first-of-its-kind Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle poly-generation facility believed to be the cleanest coal-fueled power plant operating anywhere in the world. The facility is capable of capturing 90 percent of the carbon dioxide it produces, as well as 99 percent of sulfur dioxide, 90 percent of nitrogen oxide, and 99 percent of mercury. The $2.4 billion plant will receive $450 million in funding from the Department’s Clean Coal Power Initiative.

January 18, 2012
Secretary Chu discusses clean energy in remarks at the City Club of Cleveland.

January 18, 2012
The Department releases two nationwide resource assessments showing that waves and tidal currents off the nation's coasts could contribute significantly to the U.S.' total annual electricity production. These assessments, combined with ongoing analyses of the technologies and other resource assessments, show that water power, including conventional hydropower and wave, tidal, and other water power resources, can potentially provide 15% of the nation's electricity by 2030. The two reports—Mapping and Assessment of the United States Ocean Wave Energy Resource and Assessment of Energy Production Potential from Tidal Streams in the United States—calculate the maximum kinetic energy available from waves and tides off U.S. coasts that could be used for future energy production.

January 18, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General issues a Special Report on lessons learned/best practices during DOE's implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As part of the Recovery Act, DOE received more than $35 billion to support a number of science, energy, and environmental initiatives, and its authority to make or guarantee energy-related loans increased to as much as $52 billion. "As might be expected in such a complex undertaking," the report notes, "certain actions did not initially achieve
their intended result. There were notable successes and some failures."

January 18, 2012
The Department of State (DOS) recommends to President Obama that the presidential permit for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline be denied and, that at this time, the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline be determined not to serve the national interest. President Obama concurs with DOS’s recommendation, which was predicated on the fact that DOS does not have sufficient time to obtain the information necessary to assess whether the project, in its current state, is in the national interest. On December 23, 2011, Congress passed the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011, which provides 60 days for the President to determine whether the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest. DOS’s denial of the permit application does not preclude any subsequent permit application or applications for similar projects.

January 18, 2012
An editorial by Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, on the Obama Administration’s announcement on the Keystone XL Pipeline appears in USA Today. She also posts an article on "Increasing Energy Security" on the White House blog.

January 18, 2012
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra joins with DOE officials and utility and technology executives in Silicon Valley to announce several new online tools that will allow consumers in California and other states to download their household energy use information. Two of California’s three largest utilities—Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric—launch "Green Button," a new feature on their websites that will let nearly six million households representing about 17 million electricity consumers download their own detailed energy usage information with a click of a button. In addition, Southern California Edison (California’s second largest utility), Glendale Water & Power, Oncor, Pepco Holdings Inc, and several other utilities across the country that collectively serve an additional 11.3 million households also plan to make the feature available later this year. Chopra post an article on the White House blog.

January 18, 2012
The Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration initiates anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty investigations of imports of utility scale wind towers from China and Vietnam.

January 19, 2012
Secretary Chu announces, as part of the SunShot Initiative, two opportunities that will engage innovative scientific thinkers from the nation's top universities to drive transformational research in solar energy. To advance promising utility-scale solar energy technologies, DOE will make up to $10 million available to support the development of more efficient heat transfer fluids to reduce the cost of energy from concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. The announcement also opens the second round of SunShot Initiative postdoctoral research awards for applied research at universities, national laboratories, and other research facilities.

January 19, 2012
The Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases a report, produced at the request of DOE's Office of Fossil Energy, on the Effect of Increased Natural Gas Exports on Domestic Energy Markets. The EIA finds increasing natural gas exports would "lead to higher domestic natural gas prices, increased domestic natural gas production, reduced domestic natural gas consumption, and increased natural gas imports from Canada via pipeline."

January 20, 2012
The Department, in a draft Funding Opportunity Announcement, takes the first step toward manufacturing small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in the U.S. The Department will establish cost-shared agreements with private industry to support the design and licensing of SMRs. Small modular reactors, approximately one-third the size of current nuclear plants, have compact designs that are expected to offer a host of safety, siting, construction, and economic benefits. Specifically, they could be made in factories and transported to sites where they would be ready to “plug and play” upon arrival, reducing both capital costs and construction times. The small size also makes SMRs ideal for small electric grids and for locations that cannot support large reactors, providing utilities with the flexibility to scale production as demand changes.

January 23, 2012
President Obama announces his intent to nominate Adam E. Sieminski as Administrator of the Department’s Energy Information Administration.

January 23, 2012
The Department announces that it is considering natural gas transportation and distribution requirements to support the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) and evaporator operations at the Hanford Site.

January 23, 2012
The Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) issues the Annual Energy Outlook 2012 Early Release Reference case, which provides updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2035. "Our updated Reference case projections show natural gas and renewables gaining an increasing share of U.S. electric power generation, domestic crude oil and natural gas production growing, reliance on imported oil decreasing, U.S. natural gas production exceeding consumption, and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions remaining below their 2005 level through 2035," says EIA Acting Administrator Howard Gruenspecht in his rollout presentation. A major difference in the 2012 versus the 2011 report is that "the estimated unproved technically recoverable resource (TRR) of shale gas for the United States is 482 trillion cubic feet, substantially below the estimate of 827 trillion cubic feet in AEO2011. The decline largely reflects a decrease in the estimate for the Marcellus shale, from 410 trillion cubic feet to 141 trillion cubic feet. Both EIA and USGS have recently made significant revisions to their TRR estimates for the Marcellus shale. Drilling in the Marcellus accelerated rapidly in 2010 and 2011, so that there is far more information available today than a year ago."

January 24, 2012
The Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology holds a hearing reviewing DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar and DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman testify. The Government Accountability Office also testifies.

January 24, 2012
President Obama in the State of the Union Address lays out a Blueprint for an America Built to Last, underscoring his commitment to an all-of-the-above approach that develops every available source of American energy. "Nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy," states the President. "Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. . . . But with only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, oil isn’t enough. This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. A strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs." Asserting that the "the development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy, " the President notes that "it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock – reminding us that government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground." He adds that "what’s true for natural gas is just as true for clean energy. . . . Because of federal investments, renewable energy use has nearly doubled, and thousands of Americans have jobs because of it. . . . Our experience with shale gas, our experience with natural gas, shows us that the payoffs on these public investments don’t always come right away. Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy." The White House issues a fact sheet on the all-of-the-above energy approach.

January 24, 2012
The Department announces that Secretary Chu, Deputy Secretary Poneman, and other senior DOE officials will participate in events across the country during the upcoming week to highlight President Obama’s State of the Union address and discuss the Obama Administration’s commitment to energy innovation and advanced manufacturing.

January 24, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Columbia Land Trust announce the largest purchase of riverside habitat in the Columbia River estuary in nearly 40 years, permanently protecting essential refuge for salmon, steelhead and other wildlife.

January 24, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration, Puget Sound Energy, and Seattle City Light sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) aimed at improving the reliability of the Puget Sound regional electric grid and reducing the probability of region-wide customer power outages in the future. The MOA includes six proposed transmission improvement projects that working in unison will significantly improve electric reliability for electric utility customers. In all, the projects are estimated to cost approximately $140 million and involve either transmission line upgrades or equipment additions at existing facilities.

January 26, 2012
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, formed at the direction of President Obama to conduct a comprehensive review of polices for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, submits its final report to Secretary Chu. The report contains three primary recommendations: 1) a consentbased approach to siting future nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities, noting that trying to force such facilities on unwilling states, tribes, and communities has not worked; 2) the responsibility for the nation’s nuclear waste management program should be transferred to a new organization; one that is independent of DOE and dedicated solely to assuring the safe storage and ultimate disposal of spent nuclear waste fuel and high-level radioactive waste; 3) changing the manner in which fees being paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund – about $750 million a year – are treated in the federal budget to ensure they are being set aside and available for use as Congress initially intended. The report also recommends immediate efforts to commence development of at least one geologic disposal facility and at least one consolidated storage facility, as well as efforts to prepare for the eventual largescale transport of spent nuclear fuel and highlevel waste from current storage sites to those facilities. Secretary Chu posts an article on the Energy blog, noting that "Congress has asked the Department to develop a strategy for managing used nuclear fuel and other nuclear waste within six months of the completion of the Commission's report."

January 26, 2012
President Obama in a speech at the United Parcel Service hub in Las Vegas, Nevada, discusses "an economy built to last with American energy." 

January 26, 2012
President Obama in a speech at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, discusses energy issues highlighted in the State of the Union Address. "For all our lives, America has been talking about decreasing our dependence on foreign oil," the President says. "Well, my administration has actually tried to do something about it."

January 26, 2012
Secretary Chu joins with Houston Mayor Annise Parker to announce that Houston, Texas, is joining the Better Buildings Challenge. Houston is the latest community to join the Challenge, a public-private partnership that seeks to improve energy efficiency 20 percent by 2020 in commercial, government, and school buildings across the country. As the newest Challenge community partner, the City of Houston is committing to improve energy efficiency across 30 million square feet of public and private buildings throughout the city.

January 26, 2012
Secretary Chu travels to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to highlight President Obama’s State of the Union address and discuss the Obama Administration’s commitment to energy innovation and advanced manufacturing. The Secretary tours the National Solar Thermal Test Facility, which provides researchers and companies with state-of-the-art tools, at DOE's Sandia National Laboratories. The Secretary also hosts a State of the Union Town Hall with students at the University of New Mexico.

January 26, 2012
Secretary Chu announces the 20 collegiate teams selected to compete in the DOE Solar Decathlon 2013 and unveils the competition’s location, the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California. The 20 teams from colleges and universities across the U.S. and from around the world will now begin a two-year process to build solar-powered, highly energy-efficient homes that combine affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence.  Throughout the two-year process, the teams will design, construct, and test their homes before reassembling them at the Solar Decathlon 2013 competition site.

January 26, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman travels to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to highlight President Obama’s State of the Union address and discuss the Obama Administration’s commitment to energy innovation and advanced manufacturing. He visits the Eolos Wind Energy Research Station at the University of Minnesota. The Department is supporting the University of Minnesota’s research on mechanical power transmission and electric generator systems for wind turbines. The Deputy Secretary also hosts a roundtable with local business leaders and students from the university.

January 26, 2012
The Department invites Americans to vote online for the most innovative and promising start-up companies in the “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” challenge. The top start-up companies out of the 14 participating – based on the public vote and an expert review – will be invited to be featured at the premier annual gathering of clean energy investors and innovators around the country, the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, at the end of February.

January 27, 2012
Acting Under Secretary Arun Majumdar travels to Greensboro, North Carolina, to highlight President Obama’s State of the Union address and discuss the Obama Administration’s commitment to energy innovation and advanced manufacturing. The Acting Under Secretary visits the Volvo Truck Headquarters. The Department’s Super Truck program supports Volvo North America’s efforts to improve the efficiency of heavy-duty trucks.

January 27, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the 4th Annual Argus Americas Crude Summit in Houston, Texas, on U.S. Oil and Natural Gas Production Outlook: the Gulf of Mexico and Other Areas.

January 30, 2012
The Department announces that Secretary Chu and other senior DOE officials will participate in events across the country during the upcoming week to highlight President Obama’s State of the Union address and discuss the Obama Administration’s commitment to American energy.

January 30, 2012
Secretary Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, the National Park Service, and the Trust for the National Mall host a lighting ceremony to celebrate the installation of energy-efficient LED lights on the Mall. The LED lights, donated by OSRAM SYLVANIA and installed pro bono by Pepco, the electric utility that serves Washington, D.C., will reduce lighting energy use for the streetlamps by up to 65 percent. OSRAM SYLVANIA contributed 174 LED bulbs and the retrofit kits needed to install them in the historic bronze streetlamps that line the Mall from 3rd to 15th streets.

January 30, 2012
The Department's Sandia National Laboratories engineers announces that researchers have invented a dart-like, self-guided bullet for small-caliber, smooth-bore firearms that could hit laser-designated targets at distances of more than a mile (about 2,000 meters).

January 31, 2012
Secretary Chu hosts a meeting of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB). The Secretary participates in a discussion of some of the major scientific and technical challenges in energy innovation and receives briefings from SEAB on energy efficiency, DOE’s SunShot effort to reduce the cost of installing solar panels, and nuclear energy issues.

January 31, 2012
Secretary Chu, on the one year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Startup America Initiative, announces that DOE is kicking off a second year of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator,” a program that allows startup companies to license groundbreaking technologies developed by DOE’s 17 national laboratories for $1,000 and build successful businesses. As part of this effort, DOE reduces both the cost and paperwork requirements for startup companies to obtain an option agreement to license some of the 15,000 patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories. President Obama sends a Startup America Legislative Agenda to Congress that will expand tax relief and unlock capital for startups and small businesses that are creating jobs.

January 31, 2012
Acting Under Secretary Arun Majumdar participates in a roundtable discussion with clean technology businesses hosted by the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), a non-profit organization working to accelerate the development of clean energy start-ups. The discussion focuses on the future of electrification, biofuels, solar power, and building efficiency, and is followed by an open press tour of the LACI facility.

January 31, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), testifies on the U.S. and global energy outlook at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

January 31, 2012
The Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Electric Power Research Institute release a new seismic study that will help U.S. nuclear facilities in the central and eastern U.S. reassess seismic hazards. The Central and Eastern United States Seismic Source Characterization for Nuclear Facilities model and report is the culmination of a four-year effort among the participating organizations and replaces previous seismic source models used by industry and government since the late 1980s.

January 31, 2012
The Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory announces that researchers have found atomic-level defects in graphene that could be a path forward to smaller and faster electronic devices. Graphene, which consists of a single sheet of carbon atoms, has unique properties and potential applications in areas from electronics to biodevices. The research suggests that point defects, composed of silicon atoms that replace individual carbon atoms in graphene, could aid attempts to transfer data on an atomic scale by coupling light with electrons.

February 1, 2012
Secretary Chu participates in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Computational Research and Theory (CRT) Facility at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The CRT will be at the forefront of high-performance supercomputing research. Key research areas expected to benefit from the CRT Facility would include global climate change research, fusion energy research, biological and environmental research, basic energy science, and astrophysics. The Secretary also hosts a State of the Union Town Hall and takes questions from students and faculty at San Francisco State University.

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February 1, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it has awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement to Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, Inc., for Enterprise Construction Management Services. Parsons will provide a full range of professional and technical services to NNSA, including continued development of the supporting intellectual infrastructure, ensuring project management requirements are consistently followed, improving federal oversight of contractors, and strengthened accountability for performance of the capital construction portfolio across the complex.

February 1, 2012
Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft, co-chairmen of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy hearing on the commission's recommendations on managing spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. They note that "our nation’s failure to come to grips with the nuclear waste issue has already proved damaging and costly. It will be even more damaging and more costly the longer it continues." In response to Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus' (R-IL) contention that "Yucca Mountain remains the most shovel-ready, thoroughly studied geological repository for spent nuclear fuel," Hamilton notes that "If you stand around and insist on Yucca, Yucca, Yucca, which people have been insisting on for a long, long time, we think the result of that is an impasse, a failure to solve the problem. The federal government or any entity cannot force the decision down the throats of a local community, and that is exactly what the Congress has done."

February 1, 2012
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Chairman Emeritus Joe Barton (R-TX), and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY), in a letter to Jeffrey Zeints, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, request that the proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants be withdrawn. The chairmen cite concerns over the harmful consequences for jobs and the economy.

February 1, 2012
Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter signs an Executive Order creating the Idaho Leadership in Nuclear Energy (LINE) Commission. The commission will spend the next year identifying the opportunities and challenges associated with hosting DOE's Idaho National Laboratory.

February 2, 2012
Secretary Chu travels to Houston, Texas, meets with executives from various oil and gas companies, hosts a State of the Union Town Hall with students from Houston Community College, and tours the Texas Medical Center--which recently completed a series of major energy efficiency upgrades.

February 2, 2012
The Department of the Interior (DOI) announces that an environmental assessment has found that there would be no significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts from issuing wind energy leases in designated Outer Continental Shelf areas off the mid-Atlantic Coast. This allows DOE to move forward with the process for wind energy lease sales.

February 3, 2012
Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is featured on NBC’s TODAY Show as part of a Super Bowl security story. NBC met with D'Agostino at NNSA’s Remote Sensing Lab at Andrews Air Force Base to discuss NNSA’s state-of-the art detection systems used to help detect radioactive material. The systems will be mounted in vehicles or carried by NNSA responders to help detect any radiation threat at the Super Bowl.

February 3, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman tours Southwestern Energy’s natural gas operations near Conway, Arkansas. His tour includes a drilling site, producing natural gas wells, a supply yard, and operations center. At the last site visit, the natural gas production wells, he delivers remarks and takes questions from reporters. The Deputy Secretary highlights President Obama’s State of the Union address.

February 5, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) notes the first anniversary of the New START Treaty entering into force between the U.S. and Russian Federation. The treaty will cap the strategic deployed nuclear arsenals of each country at 1,550 warheads, a nearly 75% reduction compared with the first START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which expired in 2009. As of the most recent update to the treaty’s database on September 1, 2011, Russia reported 1,566 deployed nuclear warheads and the U.S. reported 1,790. The obligations laid out in the treaty must be met within seven years of the treaty’s entry into force.

February 6, 2012
Fisker Automotive suspends work at its manufacturing plant in Delaware where it plans to build plug-in hybrid vehicles. DOE provided Fisker with a $528.7 million conditional loan in 2009. DOE stopped disbursements to Fisker in June 2011 after the company fell short of the rigorous milestones set in the loan.

February 7, 2012
Secretary Chu announces plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid. The interdisciplinary research and development through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies that can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid, to better integrate clean, renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system, and for use in electric and hybrid vehicles.

February 7, 2012
The Department announces that exploration and field development in the largest continuous oil play in the lower 48 states, the Bakken Shale located in North Dakota and eastern Montana, will be guided by new geo-models developed with funding from DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy.

February 7, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes compensating wind energy producers within its section of the grid for periodically reducing their output when necessary to keep the electricity supply from exceeding demand during high river flows. BPA will also propose in a rate case to split the cost of the compensation approximately equally between users of BPA’s Federal Base System and wind energy producers in its grid. The proposal comes after months of discussions with key stakeholders to find an equitable solution to oversupply. The proposal is based on concepts developed in these discussions.

February 7, 2012
President Obama hosts the second-ever White House Science Fair, featuring research and inventions from more than 100 students representing 30 student teams. After viewing some of the displays and talking with students about their work, the President addresses students, parents, and teachers in the East Room.

February 7, 2012
Tribal leaders, industry and tribal executives, and federal representatives came together for DOE’s Office of Indian Energy forum on “Exploring the Business Link Opportunity: Transmission & Clean Energy Development in the West” held in Denver, Colorado.

February 8, 2012
Secretary Chu announces over $12 million to speed solar energy innovation from the lab to the marketplace through DOE’s SunShot Incubator program. The funding will accelerate American innovation in solar energy and manufacturing by supporting advancements in hardware, reductions in soft costs, and the development of pilot manufacturing and production projects.

February 8, 2012
The Department announces that Secretary Chu and other senior DOE officials will participate in events across the country during the current week to "highlight America’s investments in cutting-edge energy innovations that are laying the building blocks for an American economy built to last. The visits nationwide will highlight American-made energy resources like natural gas and biofuels, and focus on the important role American scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are helping to ensure the U.S. leads in the global clean energy economy."

February 8, 2012
The Department's ARPA-E issues a Request For Information (RFI) focused on accelerating the development of transformative market-ready non-photosynthetic biofuel technologies. ARPA-E also releases a Request For Information (RFI) concerning a draft Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The Open FOA is expected to support transformational and disruptive high-impact energy R&D projects related to renewable power, bioenergy, transportation, conventional generation, the electrical grid, and building efficiency, among other technology areas.

February 8, 2012
Government and private sector leaders gather at the White House to highlight progress in answering President Obama’s call to use science, technology and innovation to promote global development. At this event, a number of new public and private sector efforts are announced. DOE will offer licenses to not-for-profit organizations with a demonstrated commitment to providing global access to clean technologies and services. Licensees will pay a reduced fee and a nominal royalty. These organizations will have access to the unlicensed patents held at DOE for clean energy technologies. In addition, DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announces the launch of the Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies with a mandate to foster the discovery, development, and deployment of a generation of technologies that will advance sustainable methods to fight global poverty.

February 8, 2012
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology holds a hearing on the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future's recommendations on managing spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons testifies for DOE.

February 8-9, 2012
The Department's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) sponsor the two-day 2012 National Electricity Forum. Secretary Chu and Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Patricia Hoffman join NARUC President David Wright for the keynote discussion on the morning of February 9. Senior Advisor to the Secretary Lauren Azar presents DOE's vision of the 21st century electricity industry.

February 9, 2012
Secretary Chu travels to Pittsburgh and tours a range of research facilities at DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The tour focuses on science and technology that is now being developed at NETL to extract natural gas more safely and efficiently and highlights the initial innovations supported by the national laboratory that have helped to spur the expansion of shale gas development in Pennsylvania and around the country. “As President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address, we need an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy - a strategy that’s cleaner, safer and full of new jobs for U.S. workers,” the Secretary tells reporters after the tour. NETL announces that it that it received six patents in 2011 for innovative technologies that are helping to address the nation’s energy needs. Later in the day, the Secretary visits the Pittsburgh City-County Building to highlight a Recovery Act-funded project that will reduce energy use and energy bills at one of the city’s main municipal buildings. The Secretary also meets with a range of natural gas industry leaders and the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

February 9, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman tours Dow Kokam’s new global battery research and development center, located in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, outside of Kansas City, to highlight America’s investments in cutting-edge energy innovations. Later in the day, the Deputy Secretary meets with Kansas City Clean Cities leaders during a roundtable on local energy efficiency initiatives. He also visits the site of the NNSA's new National Security Campus.

February 9, 2012
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves construction and operating licenses for two new nuclear reactors at Southern Nuclear Operating Company’s Vogtle site near Augusta, GA. The construction permit is the first issued in 34 years.

February 10, 2012
The White House issues its Independent Review on the current state of DOE’s clean energy loan portfolio. The report confirms that the loan portfolio as a whole is expected to perform well and holds less than the amount of risk envisioned by Congress when it created and funded the program. The report also includes a number of recommendations on how to improve the management of DOE’s loan program and ongoing monitoring of the loan portfolio. Secretary Chu issues a statement. "The report makes clear," the Secretary says, "that the Department was operating under Congressional requirements to provide loans to projects that would have trouble obtaining private financing, which is why Congress appropriated funds for a loan loss reserve."

February 10, 2012
Secretary Chu announces the three winning startup companies – based on a public vote and an expert review – out of the 14 participating in the “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” challenge. The three winners are IPAT, Umpqua Energy, and Vorbeck Materials. From January 26 through February 6, Americans cast nearly half a million votes online by liking the most innovative and promising startup companies that participated in the America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge. Experts conducted a separate review of the companies and scored them based on their potential economic and societal contributions. The winning teams will be featured at the premier annual gathering of clean energy investors and innovators around the country, the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, at the end of February.

February 13, 2012
The Obama administration releases its Fiscal Year 2012 budget request. On energy, President Obama, in remarks, notes that "we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by ending the subsidies for oil companies, and doubling down on clean energy that generates jobs and strengthens our security."

February 13, 2012
Secretary Chu details President Obama's $27.2 billion Fiscal Year 2013 budget request for DOE at a media briefing, emphasizing the President’s commitment to an all-of-the-above energy strategy. Highlights in the budget include: $60 million to perform critical research on energy storage systems and devise new approaches for battery storage; $770 million for nuclear energy, including $65 million for cost-shared awards to support  first-of-a-kind small modular reactors and $60 million for nuclear waste R&D that aligns with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future; $276 million for research and development of advanced fossil fuel power systems and carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies to allow for the continued use of our abundant domestic coal resources while reducing greenhouse gas emissions; $350 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to continue support for promising early-stage research projects that could deliver game-changing clean energy technologies; $120 million to support the Energy Frontier Research Centers and $140 million for the five existing Energy Innovation Hubs and to establish a new hub to focus on grid systems and the tie between transmission and distribution systems; $11.5 billion to DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for maintaining U.S. nuclear deterrence capabilities, reducing nuclear dangers in an increasingly unstable and unpredictable world, and providing for the Navy’s nuclear propulsion needs; and $2.5 billion to support NNSA’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation program, which plays a critical role in completing the President's goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear material around the world in four years.

February 14, 2012
The Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory announces that research on proteins from bacteria found in a Yellowstone National Park hot spring is furthering efforts toward commercially viable ethanol production from crops such as switchgrass.

February 15, 2012
Secretary Chu visits the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, and DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In remarks to more than 500 workers at the power plant, the Secretary announces up to $10 million in new funding for innovative research and development in advanced nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies. The funding will support research that is intended to solve common challenges across the nuclear industry and improve reactor safety, performance, and cost competitiveness. At Oak Ridge, the Secretary tours the Nuclear Modeling and Simulation Energy Innovation Hub. Established in 2010, the hub harnesses the skills of nuclear scientists and engineers and the lab's supercomputing capabilities to improve nuclear reactor design, engineering, and efficiency.

February 15, 2012
The Department releases the fourth chapter of The Hanford Story to the public. “Tank Waste Cleanup” focuses on the work conducted by the Office of River Protection to retrieve, treat and ultimately dispose of the 56 million gallons of Hanford’s tank waste.

February 15, 2012
The National Research Council releases a report, requested by Congress and sponsored by DOE, on Managing for High-Quality Science and Engineering at the NNSA National Security Laboratories. The committee that wrote the report finds that an intrusive degree of oversight stemming from past security and safety concerns has led to a "breakdown of trust." The "broken relationship" between DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the labs threatens to erode the quality of the scientific research and engineering being conducted there.

February 16, 2012
Secretary Chu details DOE's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request in testimony at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Secretary emphasizes the President’s commitment to an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes critical investments in innovation, clean energy technologies, and national security strategy. President Obama, the Secretary notes, has called for an “all-of-the-above strategy that develops every source of American energy.”

February 16, 2012
The House Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee holds a hearing on the management of DOE's "nuclear security enterprise." Eugene Aloise of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testifies that GAO findings show that "ineffective NNSA oversight of its contractors has contributed to many of the safety and security problems across the nuclear security enterprise and that NNSA faces challenges in sustaining improvements to safety and security performance." Charles Curtis and Charles Shank, members of the National Research Council's Committee on Review of the Quality of the Management and of the Science and Engineering Research at the DOE’s National Security Laboratories, and three former directors of the weapons laboratories also testify.

February 16, 2012
The Department and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program announces up to $1.3 million for training programs to provide commercial building professionals with critical skills needed to optimize building efficiency, reduce waste, and save money.

February 16, 2012
Secretary Chu announces $6.5 million for 19 competitively selected clean energy projects that will allow Native American Tribes to advance clean energy within their communities by assessing local energy resources, developing renewable energy projects, and deploying clean energy technologies.

February 17, 2012
The Department's ARPA-E issues a Request For Information (RFI) regarding the development of technologies to support transformational research and development for advanced management strategies for Energy Storage Systems.

February 17, 2012
The Department's Sandia National Laboratories announces that lab researchers have developed new chemical technology that could lead to batteries able to cost-effectively store three times more energy than today's batteries. The new family of liquid salt electrolytes, called MetILs, might enable economical and reliable incorporation of large-scale intermittent energy sources, like solar and wind, into the nation's electric grid.

February 20, 2012
The U.S. and Mexico sign an agreement concerning the development of oil and gas reservoirs that cross the international maritime boundary between the two countries in the Gulf of Mexico. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signs the agreement for the U.S. and provides remarks at the ceremony in Los Cabos, Mexico. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar also attends the ceremony.

February 21, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that, with support from DOE, 142 small businesses around the nation are starting work this week on 180 innovative research projects ranging from designing better wind turbines to developing a chemical-free approach to killing bacteria in power plant cooling water and from developing instruments to improve nanomaterials to making new coatings to improve the efficiency of gas turbines. These grants to small businesses total $26.4 million. The companies will use their awards--in amounts up to $150,000--over the next nine months to explore the feasibility of their innovative concepts. They will then be eligible to compete for awards up to $1 million under a two-year, Phase II of research and development. DOE selected the 180 projects from among nearly 1,000 Phase I proposals submitted under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

February 21. 2012
The Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory announces a proposed reduction in its workforce of between 400 and 800 employees in the next few months through a voluntary separation program. The lab's 2012 budget is more than $300 million lower than 2011--$2.2 billion versus $2.55 billion--and future budgets are expected to be flat or lower.

February 21, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announces that researchers have found new evidence to explain how cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) mediates the transfer of cholesterol from “good” high density lipoproteins (HDLs) to “bad” low density lipoproteins (LDLs). These findings point the way to the design of safer, more effective next generation CETP inhibitors that could help prevent the development of heart disease.

February 22, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that the most recent NNSA quarterly summary of experiments conducted as part of its science-based stockpile stewardship program is now available.

February 22, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces proposed upgrades to the Pacific Direct Current Intertie, an electrical superhighway between the Northwest and Southern California, which will increase its capacity from 3,100 to 3,220 megawatts, avoid outages and strengthen it against weather and other threats. The Intertie, one of the world’s longest and highest capacity transmission lines, delivers renewable Northwest hydropower and increasing amounts of wind energy to California, while carrying electricity north to meet winter demand in the Northwest. The improvements, estimated to cost approximately $428 million, would modernize equipment that was cutting edge when installed more than 40 years ago but has aged to where BPA now in extreme circumstances locates parts on Ebay.

February 22, 2012
The Department of Justice announces that the French oil and natural gas company Total and its affiliates have agreed to pay the U.S. $15 million to resolve claims that the companies violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases

February 23, 2012
President Obama delivers a speech on energy at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida. The President notes that "right now we are experiencing just another painful reminder of why developing new energy is so critical to our future. Just like last year, gas prices are climbing across the country. This time, it’s happening even earlier. And when gas prices go up, it hurts everybody." He states that "there are no quick fixes to this problem. You know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices. If we’re going to take control of our energy future and can start avoiding these annual gas price spikes that happen every year -- when the economy starts getting better, world demand starts increasing, turmoil in the Middle East or some other parts of the world -- if we’re going to avoid being at the mercy of these world events, we’ve got to have a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. Yes, oil and gas, but also wind and solar and nuclear and biofuels, and more." The President also commends DOE’s cost-cutting Industrial Assessment Program, which supports university-based Industrial Assessment Centers across the country providing students with critical skills and training to conduct energy assessments in a broad range of facilities. The President also announces new funding to catalyze breakthrough technologies for two key alternative fuels – natural gas and biofuels. DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) will make $30 million available for a new research competition that will engage scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to find ways to harness abundant supplies of domestic natural gas for vehicles. DOE will make $14 million available to support research and development into biofuels from algae. The White House issues two fact sheets.

February 23, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that eight of DOE’s national laboratories will participate in a pilot initiative to make it easier for private companies to utilize the laboratories’ research capabilities. The new Agreement for Commercializing Technology (ACT) will allow for more flexibility in negotiating over the intellectual property rights for technologies created at the laboratory and more flexible terms on other issues ranging from payment arrangements to project structures to indemnification. ACT was created to address concerns that have been raised by industry and to remove barriers that sometimes got in the way of commercializing technology under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) or a Work For Others (WFO) Agreement.

February 23, 2012
In a letter to Jeffrey Zeints, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, 221 congressmen — 207 Republicans and 14 Democrats — express concerns about the proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants "that could only be achieved through the use of costly technologies such as Carbon Capture and Sequestration." The lawmakers note that "Affordable, reliable electricity is critical to keeping and growing jobs in the United States and such a standard will likely drive up energy prices and threaten domestic jobs." The effort is headed by Representatives Ed Whitfield (KY-R) and John Barrow (GA-D).

February 24, 2012
The Department submits the 2010 Smart Grid System Report in response to Section 1302 of Title XIII of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which directs the Secretary of Energy to report to Congress concerning the status of smart grid deployments nationwide and any regulatory or government barriers to continued deployment. This is the second installment of this report to Congress.

February 25, 2012
President Obama's weekly address focuses on the importance of taking an all-of-the-above energy approach. "You know there are no quick fixes to this problem, and you know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices," says the President. "If we’re going to take control of our energy future and avoid these gas price spikes down the line, then we need a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy – oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear, biofuels, and more."

February 27, 2012
The three-day, third annual Energy Innovation Summit, sponsored by DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) and held at the Gaylord Convention Center outside Washington, DC, begins with a Technology Developers Workshop assisting researchers, entrepreneurs, and technology developers to gain strategic insights into ARPA-E existing and future program priorities, including key criteria in proposal evaluation, discussions with ARPA-E program managers, and energy commercialization advice and direction. In addition, Secretary Chu recognizes the winners of the America’s Next Top Energy Innovator.

February 27, 2012
The Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability announces that it is seeking information on the questions related to permitting of transmission lines. The Request for Information is focused on making the development times for generation and transmission to be more commensurate with one another.

February 27, 2012
The Department announces that the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project has shipped 5 million tons of tailings from the massive pile located in Moab, Utah, to the engineered disposal cell near Crescent Junction, Utah. The pile comprised an estimated 16 million tons total when DOE’s Remedial Action Contractor EnergySolutions began relocating the tailings in April 2009.

February 28, 2012
Secretary Chu testifies before the House Committee on Appropriations' Energy and Water subcommittee hearing on DOE's FY 2013 budget. When asked about rising fuel costs, the Secretary responds that "there is great suffering when the price of gasoline increases in the United States, and so we are very concerned about this. As I have repeatedly said, in the Department of Energy, what we’re trying to do is diversify our energy supply for transportation so that we have cost-effective means." He adds that "the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy."

February 28-29, 2012
On the second and third days of the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, nearly 2,500 attendees hear from top leaders in business, research, and government who offer their insights on how to break down commercialization barriers and bring the energy solutions of the future to the market faster. On the second day, highlights include a fireside chat between Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Microsoft Founder and Chairman Bill Gates. The two exchange ideas about how small businesses and innovators can overcome the roadblocks that many startup businesses and emerging technologies face on the path to success as well as their views on views on R&D, nuclear power, commercialization, and other issues. On the third day, former President Bill Clinton, in a Keynote Presentation, stresses the importance of government investment in research that will help move the world toward a cleaner and more secure energy future. The summit also includes a Summit Technology Showcase with displays on more than 240 breakthrough energy developments from ARPA-E awardees and other innovative companies. These projects covered everything from grid-scale storage to building efficiency to advanced carbon capture and electrofuels.

February 29, 2012
Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on NNSA's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request.

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March 1, 2012
President Obama, in remarks at Nashua Community College in Nashua, New Hampshire, discusses gas prices and ending oil industry subsidies. "The amount of oil that we drill at home doesn’t set the price of gas on its own," the President says. "And the reason is, is because oil is bought and sold on the world energy market. And just like last year, the biggest thing that’s causing the price of oil to rise right now is instability in the Middle East. This time it's Iran. . . . So when you start hearing a bunch of folks saying somehow that there's some simple solution, you can turn a nozzle and suddenly we're going to be getting a lot more oil, that’s not just how it works. Over the long term, the biggest reason oil prices will rise is because of growing demand in countries like China and India and Brazil."

March 1, 2012
Secretary Chu testifies before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology hearing on DOE's Research and Development Budget for Fiscal Year 2013. Chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) focuses on "misplaced priorities . . . and the budget’s call to 'double-down' on clean energy spending." Vice Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) tells the Secretary that the "price of gas has gone up 100% on your watch, and this is unacceptable. All American consumers are being punished." The Secretary responds that "We are very concerned that as gasoline prices and oil prices increase, that can have a dampening effect on the economy. That is why we are so focused on this, and that is why the tools that I have in the Department of Energy are focused on what we can do both in the near-term future, but in the mid and long-term future." Secretary Chu also says that Strategic Petroleum Reserve could be tapped if it is determined that such a step is warranted. "All options are on the table," he says. "The President will use whatever tools he has to what we have to do."

March 1, 2012
Secretary Chu announces a planned six-year $180 million initiative to capture the potential of wind energy off American coasts. An initial $20 million will be available this year as the first step in supporting up to four innovative offshore wind energy installations. DOE will focus the research and demonstration initiative on highly innovative technologies that will achieve large cost reductions over existing offshore wind technologies. The demonstrations will help address key challenges associated with installing utility-scale offshore wind turbines, connecting offshore turbines to the power grid, and navigating new permitting and approval processes.

March 1, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force it recently performed a successful test of the W87 Joint Test Assembly (JTA) delivered by a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The JTA includes a telemetry system, which collects and transmits data from the warhead. The data is fed into models to evaluate performance and reliability. JTAs are not capable of nuclear yield, as they contain no special nuclear materials.

March 2, 2012
The Department and its Savannah River Site (SRS) announce three public-private partnerships to develop deployment plans for small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) technologies at SRS facilities, near Aiken, South Carolina. The agreements with Hyperion Power Generation Inc.; SMR, LLC, a subsidiary of Holtec International; and NuScale Power, LLC, will help these private companies obtain information on potential SMR reactor siting at Savannah River and provide a framework for developing land use and site services agreements to further these efforts.

March 2, 2012
The Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) issues a $150 million funding opportunity open to all transformational energy technologies. This Open Funding Opportunity Announcement is a call for proposals on early-stage research projects that would not otherwise be able to attract private investment, but could lead to breakthrough energy technologies. This is the second open funding opportunity released under ARPA-E. The first was in April 2009.

March 2, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that DOE has issued a determination and market impact analysis authorizing uranium transfers to fund accelerated cleanup activities at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, through the third quarter of calendar year 2013. The Determination finds that the proposed transfer of uranium will not have an adverse material impact on the domestic uranium industries.

March 2, 2012
Secretary Chu recognizes the winners of the Better Buildings Case Competition, part of DOE’s Better Buildings Challenge, at an event at the White House. The competition challenges collegiate students to develop and present real-world solutions to boost the energy efficiency of buildings across the country.

March 3, 2012
President Obama in his weekly address discusses the auto industry and taking control of the nation's energy future. "We can’t just drill our way out of this problem," the President says. "While we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil, we only have 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves. We’ve got to develop new technology that will help us use new forms of energy." The President also calls for an end to oil industry subsidies.

March 5, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that four new corporate partners – Best Buy, Johnson Controls, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Veolia – are joining DOE’s National Clean Fleets Partnership, a broad public-private partnership that assists the nation’s largest fleet operators in reducing the amount of gasoline and diesel they use nationwide. The new partners join with 14 other major national companies in committing to improve the fuel economy of the commercial fleets, integrate alternative technology vehicles like natural gas trucks and electric vehicles into their fleets, and reduce their overall fuel use.

March 6, 2012
President Obama, in his first press conference of 2012, discusses gas prices and short and long-term measures the administration is taking. Short-term problems include potential bottlenecks in refineries, decreased worldwide production, and potential speculation in the oil markets. On the latter, the President says that he has asked the attorney general to reconstitute a task force to examine the issue.

March 6, 2012
Secretary Chu hosts a live, streaming Q&A session with the directors of the Energy Innovation Hubs.

March 6, 2012
Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on NNSA's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request.

March 6, 2012
The Department's Brookhaven National Laboratory announces that researchers have deciphered molecular-level details of the complex choreography by which intricate cellular proteins recognize and bind to DNA to start the DNA replication process. The research has implications for new ways to attack cancers at a basic level.

March 6, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces a new approach to addressing situations arising when too much energy is available for delivery. In these situations, which usually happen in the springtime when there is a lot of water in the Columbia River system, some generators must be turned off. As the transmission grid operator, BPA is required to develop a method for determining which generators must be turned off first. BPA’s plan allows for displacing generators after all other reasonable actions are taken. While BPA operates the transmission grid, it also is responsible for generation units. In times of high water, federal system operators must run the federal hydroelectric plants in order to comply with environmental regulations to protect fish.

March 6, 2012
The sun erupts with the second largest solar flare in five years. In association with the flare, the sun expels a coronal mass ejection, with a large mass of charged solar energetic particles that escape from the sun’s corona and travel to the earth in between 14 and 96 hours. The Department works closely with other government agencies, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, and electricity utilities across the U.S. monitoring the situation and evaluating the impact to the nation’s electric grid.

March 7, 2012
President Obama, at an event at the Daimler Truck factory in Mt. Holly, North Carolina, discusses the all-of-the-above energy approach and launches EV-Everywhere, the second in a series of DOE “Clean Energy Grand Challenges.” The EV Everywhere Challenge will bring together scientists, engineers, and businesses to work collaboratively to make electric vehicles more affordable and convenient to own and drive than today’s gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 10 years. The Challenge will involve working with industry, universities, DOE's national laboratories and government partners to set technical goals for cutting costs for the batteries and electric drivetrain systems, including motors and power electronics, reducing the vehicle weights while maintaining safety, and increasing fast-charge rates. DOE will hold a series of EV-EVerywhere Challenge workshops across the country over the next few months. The President also announces the $1 billion National Community Deployment Challenge to help boost the deployment of clean, advanced vehicles.

March 7, 2012
The Department's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announces that new measurements by scientists from the CDF and DZero collaborations on the Tevatron accelerator indicate that "the elusive Higgs boson may nearly be cornered." After analyzing the full data set from the Tevatron accelerator, which completed its last run in September 2011, the two independent experiments see hints of a Higgs boson.

March 8, 2012
Secretary Chu testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on DOE's Fiscal Year 2013 budget. Much of the hearing focuses on rising gasoline prices. Fred Upton (R-MI), committee chairman, tells the Secretary that "The President has recently begun to brag that he supports an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy policy, but these actions look more like a policy of ‘nothing from below." Secretary Chu responds that “Both I and the President want very much to do what we can to lower the price of gasoline because it has a severe effect on the pocketbook of Americans. We do want to help in every way we can. But as the president said, there is no silver bullet. We work very hard with all the tools at our disposal."

March 8, 2012
The Department launches the next phase of the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) competition. The L Prize competition challenges the lighting industry to develop high performance, energy-saving replacements for conventional light bulbs. The new competition will spur leading-edge companies to build innovative LED replacements for conventional parabolic aluminized reflector (PAR 38) lamps, commonly known as spot or flood lamps, which are in widespread use in retail businesses and as outdoor security lights and track lights.

March 8, 2012
The Department's Ultra-Deepwater Advisory Committee releases its annual report focusing, at the request of Secretary Chu, on research projects that would enhance the safety of offshore gas and oil drilling. The committee notes that "while there is a strong emphasis on the engineering aspects of increasing safety, little attention is given to the aspects of human behavior regarding safety."

March 9, 2012
President Obama, in remarks on manufacturing and the economy delivered at the Rolls-Royce Crosspointe factory in Petersburg, Virginia, announces plans for a new National Network of Manufacturing Innovation, to build a network of up to fifteen Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation around the country, serving as regional hubs of manufacturing excellence that will help to make manufacturers more competitive and encourage investment. A pilot institute will be funded from $45 million of existing resources from the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Commerce and the National Science Foundation.

March 9, 2012
Secretary Chu and Ghana Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor sign a Statement of Principles reaffirming bilateral commitment to supporting President Obama’s Partnership for Growth (PfG) Initiative. Ghana is one of the first four countries globally – including El Salvador, Tanzania, and the Philippines – to participate in the interagency PfG Initiative. PfG aims to significantly enhance U.S. bilateral relationships with this select set of countries to accelerate and sustain broad-based economic growth with the goal of creating the next generation of emerging markets.

March 10, 2012
President Obama in his weekly address discusses investing in a clean energy future. "The recent spike in gas prices has been another painful reminder of why we have to invest in [energy] technology," the President says. "As usual, politicians have been rolling out their three-point plans for two-dollar gas: drill, drill, and drill some more. Well, my response is, we have been drilling. Under my Administration, oil production in America is at an eight-year high. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs, and opened up millions of acres for drilling." Nothing that "we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices," he states that "We need an all-of-the-above strategy that relies less on foreign oil and more on American-made energy – solar, wind, natural gas, biofuels, and more."

March 11, 2012
Wind turbines in the transmission grid of the Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) generate over 4,000 megawatts for the first time, producing nearly twice as much energy as that generated by coal, gas, and nuclear plants connected to BPA’s system at that time.

March 12, 2012
President Obama receives a multi-agency, one-year Progress Report on the Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, a comprehensive plan released on March 30, 2011, that outlined the administration’s all-of-the-above energy approach. The President, in a statement, says that the report "underscores the headway our nation has made towards reducing our reliance on foreign oil, while also expanding American made energy." Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, brief the White House press corps, and Zichal posts an article on the White House Blog.

March 12, 2012
The Department's Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina, dedicates the $795 million Biomass Cogeneration Facility. Clean biomass, consisting of local forest residue and wood chips, and bio-derived fuels will be the primary fuel source for the high-tech renewable energy facility, which has the capacity to combust 385,000 tons of forest residue into 20-megawatts of clean power annually. The facility replaces a deteriorating and inefficient 1950s-era coal powerhouse and oil-fired boilers.

March 12, 2012
The Department’s Argonne National Laboratory announces that two new studies have revealed a new pathway for materials scientists to use previously unexplored properties of nanocrystalline-diamond thin films. While the properties of diamond thin films are relatively well-understood, the discovery using a new technique that alters the deposition process of the diamond films could dramatically improve the performance of certain types of integrated circuits by reducing their "thermal budget."

March 12, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Center for Public Utilities Current Issues Conference at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on The Outlook for Electricity Supply and Demand to 2035.

March 12, 2012
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) releases a report on DOE's Loan Guarantee Program and finds that further actions are needed by DOE to improve the tracking and review of loan applications.

March 13, 2012
Secretary Chu testifies before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing (transcript) on the Independent Review of the current state of DOE’s clean energy loan portfolio released by the White House on February 10. Herbert Allison, author of the report, also testifies. The Secretary states that DOE is working to upgrade the loan program. "We have improved, and will continue to improve, processes for proactive monitoring, loan administration, compliance, reporting, and resolution capabilities to take into account industry best practices," he says. "And we have upgraded the electronic systems of the Loan Programs Office to better automate and standardize data, so it can be reviewed and acted upon in a timely and streamlined manner, and best inform decisions. In addition, we have put in place rigorous internal and external reviews to hold the Loan Programs Office accountable. The Department takes our responsibility to U.S. taxpayers seriously, and we are looking closely at Mr. Allison's recommendations for additional improvements."

March 13, 2012
The Department holds a closed-door meeting at the White House with executives from more than 30 major companies focusing on the tax-related benefits of partnering with renewable-energy developers. "We certainly hope Congress enacts the president’s budget, but in the meantime, we have to deal with what we’ve got," says Richard Kauffman, a senior adviser to Secretary Chu. "So the intent of this meeting is to get people in a room to share information about tax-equity investment in renewable energy."

March 13, 2012
President Obama announces that the U.S., Japan, and the European Union are filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization against China for its export restraints on its near-monopoly rare earth metals that are used by American manufacturers to make a wide variety of products, including hybrid car batteries, wind turbines, energy-efficient lighting, steel, advanced electronics, automobiles, petroleum, and chemicals. "America’s workers and manufacturers are being hurt in both established and budding industrial sectors by these policies," says U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. "China continues to make its export restraints more restrictive, resulting in massive distortions and harmful disruptions in supply chains for these materials throughout the global marketplace."

March 14, 2012
Secretary Chu testifies before the Senate Committee on Appropriations' Energy and Water Development Subcommittee hearing on DOE's Fiscal Year 2013 budget. Subcommittee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (CA-D) focuses on DOE's spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste program. "If there is anything that you need in this budget to do it quicker, faster, and make the decisions quicker and faster, I want to advocate for it,” she tells the Secretary. "I feel passionately about this. I want to find a way to get you what you need." Secretary Chu responds that "We share your sense of urgency. Within our jurisdiction now, we are not sitting idly by. The things that we hope Congress will allow us to act on, we are moving forward on these things. . . . The details need to be spelled out."

March 15, 2012

President Obama, in remarks delivered at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, discusses gas prices and the administration's all-of-the-above strategy to develop every available source of American-made energy.

March 15, 2012
The National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's most energetic laser, at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory surpasses a critical milestone in its efforts to meet one of modern science's greatest challenges: achieving fusion ignition and energy gain in a laboratory setting. NIF's 192 lasers fired in perfect unison, delivering a record 1.875 million joules (MJ) of ultraviolet laser light to the facility's target chamber center. The historic laser shot involves a shaped pulse of energy 23 billionths of a second long that generated 411 trillion watts (TW) of peak power (1,000 times more than the U.S. uses at any instant in time).

March 15, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General issues an Audit Report to determine whether the Office of Management (EM) was effectively managing and planning for declining budget allocations. The report finds that "although EM's current annual budget planning process appeared to be adequate to address the nearly five percent decline in budget allocations that we tested, more extensive reductions could put future regulatory and agreement milestones at risk. Given the current widespread calls for dramatic reductions in Federal spending, it is possible that the process currently in place that is based on site needs and requirements may lead to an increase in missed regulatory and agreement milestones as budget allocations are further reduced across the complex."

March 16, 2012
Secretary Chu sends a memo to the Administrators of DOE's four Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) outlining a strategy to ensure that the PMAs can play a leadership role in their respective regions in modernizing the grid to meet 21st century needs. The strategy includes upgrading and replacing aging electricity infrastructure and utilizing new tools and technology that would better utilize existing infrastructure; leveraging all available resources and tools--including private-public partnerships, increased collaboration with grid owners and operators, and loan financing for critical, job-creating transmission projects--to build a stronger, more resilient electric grid; and developing new rate structures that save consumers money by promoting energy efficiency and demand response programs that will reduce costs by better managing the electricity load at times when demand for electricity is highest. The rate structures also will help ensure that new clean energy resources from wind and solar power are efficiently and effectively integrated into the grid. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-R) issues a statement noting that "While some of the Secretary’s goals may be laudable, the statutory basis of some of these proposed actions is at best unclear and the impact on consumers potentially significant. The Secretary should remember that the traditional mission of the PMAs is to provide the lowest-cost energy possible to their customers within sound business principles."

March 16, 2012
The White House announces that President Obama will travel on March 21 and 22 to Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Ohio to highlight the administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy.

March 17, 2012
President Obama, in his weekly address, discusses rising gas prices and calls for an end to subsidies for big oil companies. "At a time when big oil companies are making more money than ever before," the President notes, "we’re still giving them $4 billion of your tax dollars in subsidies every year."

March 18, 2012
The Department's Brookhaven National Laboratory announces that researchers have developed a new catalyst that reversibly converts hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide to a liquid under very mild conditions. The work could lead to efficient ways to safely store and transport hydrogen for use as an alternative fuel.

March 19, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), testifies on changes in the East Coast markets at a hearing before the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence of the House Committee On Homeland Security.

March 19, 2012
Thomas D’Agostino, Administrator of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), appears on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC and breaks the news of NNSA’s latest achievement – removing all remaining weapons-usable material from Mexico. Through a trilateral agreement, the U.S., Mexico, and Canada worked to convert Mexican research reactors to use low enriched uranium (LEU), removed all remaining spent and fresh highly enriched uranium (HEU), and provided Mexico with LEU to continue reactor operations. The achievement is formally announced at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Korea.

March 19, 2012
Director of Public Affairs Dan Leistikow posts an article on the Energy Blog in response to "Congressional critics" of DOE's loan program who "have demonstrated a consistent pattern of cherry-picking individual emails from the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents the Department has provided to Congress with the sole purpose of inventing false and misleading controversy." The latest example, he notes "is an effort to falsely suggest two of the Department’s loan guarantees, the Agua Caliente and Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, did not meet the Department’s definition for “innovative” – a definition that was first established during the Bush Administration."

March 19, 2012
The Department's Idaho Operations Office announces a major performance milestone with the successful completion of the Contractor Operational Readiness Review of its Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, the first-of-a-kind facility that will treat the remaining 900,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste generated from the Idaho Site's legacy cleanup mission.

March 20, 2012
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform releases two reports--The Department of Energy’s Disastrous Management of Loan Guarantee Programs and The Department of Energy’s Weatherization Program: Taxpayer Money Spent, Taxpayer Money Lost--that "show a pattern of mismanagement, high-risk lending to green energy firms, and shoddy work performed under Department of Energy (DOE) weatherization programs."

March 20, 2012
Secretary Chu testifies for over two hours before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on "Oversight of the Department of Energy’s Stimulus Spending." The hearing focuses on rising gas prices and the DOE loan program. When Chairman Darrell Issa (CA-R) asks the Secretary if he would give himself an A minus in "controlling the cost of gasoline at the pump," Secretary Chu responds that although "the tools we have at our disposal are limited, . . . I would say I would give myself a little higher in that since I became Secretary of Energy I have been doing everything I can to get long-term solutions."

March 20, 2012
William Brinkman, Director of DOE's Office of Science, testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing on the Fiscal Year 2013 budget request.

March 20, 2012
Administrators from DOE's four Power Marketing Administrations (PMA) testify before the House Committee on Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Water and Power hearing on proposed spending, priorities, and missions for FY 2013. Full committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-R) states that Secretary Chu's PMA initiative announced March 16 "could dramatically alter the way these agencies do business. Mandating PMAs to change their rate structure to integrate even more wind and to provide power for electric vehicles will only increase energy rates, further strain the transmission system, and shift costs to consumers for little or no benefit." Stephen Wright of the Bonneville Power Administration says that the Secretary's initiative is consistent with steps the PMA's are already taking. "At this point," he states, "I don’t agree that rates will go up because it is already embedded in our current restructuring activities." Timothy Meeks of the Western Area Power Administration adds that "This is a beginning of a dialogue for us and the customers out there, the utility industry, and so, again, consistent with my colleague here, we have been implementing things in the direction of improving the electric utility grid."

March 20, 2012
Adam Sieminski, the Administration's nominee for administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on nominations. When asked about positive changes he would attempt to implement at EIA, Sieminski responds that the EIA needs to "take advantage of new ways to get data faster and cheaper." Some information, for example, is still being collected by fax when "web based systems would be far more accurate and ultimately cheaper." He adds that data in EIA's forecasts needs to be "more readily available to . . . stakeholders including the Congress, the public and others. There are some wonderful innovations actually in the last year or so at EIA. The daily energy briefs, the weekly energy updates that are shorter, punchier, more market relevant . . . . I’d like to see EIA carry on with that."

March 20, 2012
The Department's Sandia National Laboratories announces that, according to a series of computer simulations performed, high-gain nuclear fusion could be achieved in a preheated cylindrical container immersed in strong magnetic fields. The simulations show the release of output energy many times greater than the energy fed into the container’s liner. The method appears to be 50 times more efficient than using X-rays — a previous favorite at Sandia — to drive implosions of targeted materials to create fusion conditions. Such fusion eventually could produce reliable electricity from seawater.

March 20, 2012
The Department of Commerce announces its affirmative preliminary determination in the countervailing duty investigation of imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells. Commerce finds that Chinese producers/exporters have received subsidies ranging from 2.90 to 4.73 percent.

March 21, 2012
Thomas D'Agostino, Administrator of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing on NNSA's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request.

March 21, 2012
David Huizenga, Senior Advisor for DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) and Glenn Podonsky, Chief Health, Safety, and Security Officer of DOE's Office of Health, Safety, and Security, testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing on EM and HSS's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request. When asked about the effect of declining cleanup budgets, Huizenga responds that the current request " will enable us to fully meet our compliance agreements and our milestones in Fiscal Year 2013. . . . That being said, I do not want to underestimate the difficulty I believe we are going to have in the out years. In prior years, we have signed up for a number of milestones at many of our sites and we did this in a sense when we thought we might have slightly higher budget projections when things were different a few years ago."

March 21, 2012
President Obama visits the Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility in Boulder City, Nevada. The facility is the largest photovoltaic plant in the country, and its one million solar panels power 17,000 homes in California. The President, in his remarks, discusses solar power and the administration's all-of-the-above energy strategy. The President then travels to oil and gas production fields located on federal lands outside of Maljamar, New Mexico, an area home to more than seventy active drilling rigs. The President, in his remarks, highlights the administration’s commitment to expanding domestic oil and gas production

March 22, 2012
President Obama travels to Cushing, Oklahoma, and delivers remarks at a storage yard holding pipes that will be used for the construction of a pipeline that will transport oil from Cushing to the Gulf of Mexico, which will help address the bottleneck of oil that has resulted in large part from increased domestic oil production in the Midwest. The President announces that he is "directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles, and make this project a priority, to go ahead and get it done." He also discusses the Keystone pipeline and notes that his administration "has approved dozens of new oil and gas pipelines over the last three years--including one from Canada." The President then travels to the Ohio State University in Columbus where he tours the Center for Automotive Research and delivers remarks on the all-of-the-above energy strategy.

March 22, 2012
The Obama Administration announces that nine major utilities and electricity suppliers will commit to providing more than 15 million households access to data about their own energy use with a simple click of an online “Green Button.” Green Button is an industry-led effort that allows electricity customers to download their household or building energy-use data in a consumer- and computer-friendly format.

March 22, 2012
The Obama Administration announces up to $35 million over three years to support research and development in advanced biofuels, bioenergy, and high-value biobased products. The projects funded through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) – a joint program through the Department of Agriculture and DOE – will help develop economically and environmentally sustainable sources of renewable biomass and increase the availability of renewable fuels and biobased products

March 22, 2012
The Obama Administration announces a new $14.2 million effort at DOE to accelerate the development and deployment of stronger and lighter materials for advanced vehicles. This funding will support the development of high-strength, lightweight carbon fiber composites and advanced steels and alloys that will help vehicle manufacturers improve the fuel economy of cars and trucks while maintaining and improving safety and performance.

March 22, 2012
The Obama Administration announces new funding to advance the development of American-made small modular reactors (SMRs). A total of $450 million will be made available to support first-of-its-kind engineering, design certification, and licensing for up to two SMR designs over five years, subject to congressional appropriations. Small modular reactors are approximately one-third the size of current nuclear plants and have compact, scalable designs that are expected to offer a host of safety, construction, and economic benefits.

March 22, 2012
The Obama Administration issues Executive Order 13604 on Improving Performance of Federal Permitting and Review of Infrastructure Projects, fulfilling a commitment made by the President in his State of the Union Address. The Executive Order creates an inter-agency Steering Committee that "shall facilitate improvements in Federal permitting and review processes for infrastructure projects in sectors including surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource projects, renewable energy generation, electricity transmission, broadband, pipelines, and other such sectors." Member agencies are directed to select "a list of infrastructure projects of national or regional significance that will have their status tracked on the online Federal Infrastructure Projects Dashboard." The Steering Committee is to develop a plan by May 31 "to significantly reduce the aggregate time required to make Federal permitting and review decisions on infrastructure projects while improving outcomes for communities and the environment."

March 22, 2012
The Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory announces that the 100-tesla pulsed, multi-shot magnet, a combination of seven coils sets weighing nearly 18,000 pounds and powered by a massive 1,200-megajoule motor generator, produces magnetic fields in excess of 100 tesla while conducting six different experiments. There are higher magnetic fields produced elsewhere, but the magnets that create such fields blow themselves to bits in the process. The system at Los Alamos is instead designed to work nondestructively, in the intense 100-tesla realm, on a regular basis. The Los Alamos facility is one of three campuses forming the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

March 23, 2012
Secretary Chu launches DOE’s first-ever “Apps for Energy” competition. “Apps for Energy” will challenge innovative software developers to build new apps – for mobile phones, computers, tablets, software programs, and more – that utilize data from major utility companies to help consumers and businesses use less energy and save money. The competition will begin April 5 and offers $100,000 in cash prizes sponsored by DOE and interested companies. Developers competing in “Apps for Energy” will create apps that are designed to make the best use of the data provided through the President’s Green Button initiative.

March 23, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the recovery of the 30,000th disused and unwanted radioactive source .The 30,000th source was one of several hundred disused unwanted sealed sources packaged and removed from a licensed facility in North Carolina. Because there are no commercial disposition options, NNSA routinely recovers radioactive sources no longer in use from companies in the interest of national security, public health, and safety.

March 24, 2012
President Obama, in his weekly address, highlights his travels across the country during the past week "to talk about my all-of-the-above energy strategy for America." The President also calls on the House to pass a bipartisan transportation bill.

March 24, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducts the first “convergent ablator” experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using an X-ray streak camera to measure the velocity of the capsule implosion. The ablator is the plastic material surrounding the fuel in a NIF capsule that blows off (ablates) when heated by the X-rays inside the hohlraum. This causes a rocket-like implosion that compresses and heats the fuel to the conditions required for fusion.

March 26, 2012
At the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Secretary Chu joins with officials from Belgium, France, and the Netherlands in announcing a Four-party Joint Statement that provides a framework for cooperation on minimizing for the future the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in the production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) while still ensuring a reliable supply of this lifesaving radioisotope. Mo-99 is used to produce a medical isotope that is used in more than 100,000 medical procedures every day.

March 26, 2012
President Obama delivers remarks on nuclear security issues and "our vision of a world without nuclear weapons" at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea. "Here in Seoul," the President says, "more than 50 nations will mark our progress toward the goal we set at the summit I hosted two years ago in Washington -- securing the world’s vulnerable nuclear materials in four years so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists. And since then, nations -- including the United States -- have boosted security at nuclear facilities. . . . And that's why here in Seoul, we need to keep at it. . . . We’re now expecting more commitments -- tangible, concrete action -- to secure nuclear materials and, in some cases, remove them completely. This is the serious, sustained global effort that we need, and it's an example of more nations bearing the responsibility and the costs of meeting global challenges. This is how the international community should work in the 21st century."

March 26, 2012
President Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation while at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Korea. The two presidents deliver remarks after the meeting.

March 26, 2012
President Obama, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan, President Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation issue a Joint Statement on the elimination of the remnants of the past nuclear testing activities within the territory of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site. The White House issues a fact sheet. The three presidents make brief remarks the following day.

March 27, 2012
President Obama in remarks at the opening Plenary Session of the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, recollects the first Nuclear Security Summit held in 2010 in Washington, highlights accomplishments in the intervening two years, and discusses the need for ongoing serious and sustained effort.

March 27, 2012
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication Ben Rhodes, and NSC Director for Nuclear Threat Reduction Shawn Gallagher brief the press on the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit.

March 27, 2012
Participants at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, issue a Communiqué and a number of statements and fact sheets: Statement of Activity and Cooperation to Counter Nuclear Smuggling, United States-Japan Nuclear Security Working Group Fact Sheet, Fact Sheet: Belgium Nuclear Security Summit, Joint Statement on Transport Security, Joint Statement on Nuclear Security Training and Support Centers, Joint Statement on Nuclear Terrorism, Joint Statement on National Legislation Implementation Kit on Nuclear Security, Multinational Statement on Nuclear Information Security. President Obama makes a "final intervention" at the close of the summit.

March 27, 2012
The 24 Partners of the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction issue a statement in support of the Nuclear Security Summit’s goal of securing vulnerable nuclear material and radioactive sources around the world.

March 27, 2012
The U.S., Belgium, France, and the Republic of Korea, at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, issue a Joint Statement on utilizing high-density low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel powder production technology in the following ways as part of an effort to convert research reactors from highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to LEU fuel.

March 27, 2012
The U.S. announces the removal of 128 kilograms (over 280 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from two remaining sites in Ukraine. The shipments were completed as part of a joint effort with Ukraine and fulfill the commitments made by Presidents Obama and Yanukovych at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit to remove all of Ukraine’s HEU by the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit. The White House issues a fact sheet.

March 27, 2012
The U.S. and Sweden, at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, announce the successful removal of plutonium from Sweden. The plutonium shipment was completed by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Global Threat Reduction Initiative and was the first shipment of plutonium to the U.S. under this program. More than three kilograms of plutonium was removed, including Swedish, United Kingdom, and U.S. origin material stemming from former research and development activities in Sweden. Prior to removal, the plutonium was securely stored in a special vault under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. The White House issues a fact sheet.

March 27, 2012
Henry Kelly, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Acting), Patricia Hoffman, Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, and Charles McConnell, Assistant Secretary (Acting), Fossil Energy testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing on DOE's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request.

March 27, 2012
Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs David Sandalow delivers the keynote address at Methanol Policy Forum 2012 in Washington, D.C. looking at the role of methanol fuel and methanol in transportation. "Methanol has many attractive features as a transportation fuel," Sandalow notes, "including low cost, the ability to blend it with gasoline, and the fact that it can be made from many feedstocks. However there are important challenges, including the need for changes to the vehicle fleet, emissions issues and investments required in refueling infrastructure." He adds that DOE is planning additional research in this area.

March 28, 2012
Arun Majumdar, Director of ARPA-E, and David Frantz, Director (Acting), of DOE's Loan Guarantee Program, testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing on DOE's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request. Majumdar's oral statement is here.

March 28, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Tommy Beaudreau announce the release of a draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) assessing the conventional and renewable energy resource potential in the Mid- and South Atlantic. The PEIS will help inform future decisions about whether, and if so where, leasing would be appropriate in these areas.

March 29, 2012
President Obama, prior to a vote in the Senate on repealing tax subsidies for the oil industry, tells members of Congress, in remarks from the Rose Garden at the White House, that they "have a simple choice to make:  They can stand with the big oil companies, or they can stand with the American people. Right now, the biggest oil companies are raking in record profits –- profits that go up every time folks pull up into a gas station.  But on top of these record profits, oil companies are also getting billions a year -- billions a year in taxpayer subsidies -– a subsidy that they’ve enjoyed year after year for the last century." The Senate votes 51 to 47, nine short of the 60 needed for cloture, and the measure fails.

March 29, 2012
Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Thomas D’Agostino announces on a press conference call that DOE has reached a major milestone in efforts to clean up the Cold War legacy at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, laying the groundwork for closing two underground storage tanks that previously held radioactive liquid waste from nuclear weapons production at SRS. The determination signed by Secretary Chu paves the way for SRS to begin closing the massive tanks that make up the F Tank Farm. The site will start this year by closing two tanks that pose the greatest risk to the environment - Tanks 18 and 19. These tank closures will be the first DOE tanks closed nationwide since 2007, the first closed at SRS in 15 years, and some of the largest underground storage tanks closed by DOE to date.

March 29, 2012
Secretary Chu announces $5 million to establish the Scalable Data Management, Analysis and Visualization (SDAV) Institute as part of the Obama Administration’s just-announced “Big Data Research and Development Initiative,” which takes aim at improving the nation’s ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data. Led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the SDAV Institute will bring together the expertise of six national laboratories and seven universities to develop new tools to help scientists manage and visualize data on the Department’s supercomputers.

March 29, 2012
The Department announces that one of the world’s fastest supercomputers will be installed at the Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) this summer to help develop solutions to carbon capture, utilization, and storage technology barriers. NETL's new supercomputer will be installed at the Simulation-Based Engineering User Center. Researchers from partnering organizations will be able to access the supercomputer via user centers at NETL’s Albany, Morgantown, and Pittsburgh locations.

March 29, 2012
The Department announces the award of $2 million to Eaton Corporation in Southfield, Michigan, and the award of $3 million to 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, to lower the cost of advanced fuel cell systems by developing cost-effective, durable, and highly efficient fuel cell components.

March 29, 2012
The Department announces that four nominees to key Departmental positions have been confirmed by the Senate: David Danielson, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Dot Harris, Director of the Office of Minority Economic Impact; Charles McConnell, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy; and Gregory H. Woods, General Counsel.

March 29, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), testifies on the current and near-term price expectations for motor gasoline at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

March 29, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation announce the completion of Island Thunder, a table-top counterterrorism exercise in Hawaii. Island Thunder was the latest in NNSA’s Silent Thunder series, which gives federal, state, and local officials, and first responders, critical, hands-on experience in prioritized alarm assessment and response, crisis management, threat assessment, emergency response, consequence management, and post-contingency procedures to prepare them in the event of a terrorist incident involving radiological materials.

March 29, 2012
The Department's Western Area Power Administration announces the decision to analyze the environmental impacts of the proposed Estes Park-to-Flatiron Reservoir 115-kilovolt transmission line rebuild project in Larimer County, Colorado, through an environmental impact statement. Western proposes to upgrade and co-locate two aging transmission lines in the area onto one right of way. Upgrading these lines is necessary to comply with safety standards; ensure reliable and cost effective electricity in Estes Park, Loveland, and along the Front Range; and provide accessibility for maintenance and emergencies.

March 30, 2012
The Obama Administration joins with the governors of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that creates the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Energy Consortium that will streamline the efficient and responsible development of offshore wind resources in the Great Lakes. Federal and state agencies will develop an action plan that sets priorities and recommends steps for achieving efficient and responsible evaluation of proposed offshore wind power projects in the Great Lakes region.

March 30, 2012
President Obama makes a determination required under Section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 regarding the supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran. Analysis, based on a February 29th report by DOE's Energy Information Administration, "indicates that the oil market became increasingly tight over the first two months of 2012. . . . Nonetheless, there currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to significantly reduce their import of Iranian oil, taking into account current estimates of demand, increased production by some countries, private inventories of crude oil and petroleum products, and available strategic petroleum reserves and in fact, many purchasers of Iranian crude oil have already reduced their purchases or announced they are in productive discussions with alternative suppliers."

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April 2, 2012
The Department’s Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) announces the publication of its database of environmental monitoring data on the web for public use. "Intellus New Mexico," the new web-based application, will display the same internal data that Laboratory scientists and regulatory agencies see and use for environmental analysis and monitoring of the LANL site. The new system contains more than 9 million records, including historical data as well as a near-real-time view of ongoing data collection activities.

April 3, 2012
The Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability releases comments responding to its request for information related to permitting of transmission lines.

April 5, 2012
David Frantz, acting executive director of DOE's Loan Programs Office, in a letter updates Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on the process for making loan guarantees under 1703 loan program.

April 6, 2012
The Department announces up to $15 million available to demonstrate biomass-based oil supplements that can be blended with petroleum. Known as “bio-oils,” these precursors for fully renewable transportation fuels could be integrated into the oil refining processes that make conventional gasoline, diesel and jet fuels without requiring modifications to existing fuel distribution networks or engines. The proto-type bio-oils will be produced from a range of feedstocks that could include algae, corn and wheat stovers, dedicated energy crops, or wood residues.

April 6, 2012
The Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) issues a study estimating the economic impact of investments that received federal support through the Treasury Department’s 1603 grant program. The Section 1603 program was created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support the deployment of renewable energy resources. NREL’s analysis estimates that up to 75,000 direct and indirect jobs and up to $44 billion in total economic output were supported by the design, manufacturing, construction, and installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects funded by the grant program.

April 6, 2012
The Department announces a funding opportunity of up to $4 million to accelerate the development of wireless charging technology for electric vehicles (EVs) to provide hands-free, automated charging of parked vehicles. EV wireless charging has the potential to accelerate the adoption of EVs by making them more convenient for consumers to charge, whether at home or away,  and reducing the total energy storage requirements of EVs, unlocking the benefits of lighter and smaller battery packs, lighter vehicles, higher efficiency, and longer ranges.

April 7, 2012
The Department announces that Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, in a DOE funded project and in partnership with DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory and others, has developed a high-pressure dry-solids feed pump that could make high-efficiency, low-emission coal gasification economically competitive by improving efficiencies and introducing low-rank Western coal as a viable feedstock option.

April 9, 2012
President Obama holds bilateral discussions in the Oval Office with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on energy and other issues. The two presidents make a Joint Statement, and the White House issues a fact sheets on the U.S.-Brazil Strategic Energy Dialogue and U.S.-Brazil Science and Technology Cooperation.

April 9, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) hosts the four-day 7th Joint Coordinating Committee meeting of the 1998 U.S.-China Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technology (PUNT) Agreement in Washington, DC. Both countries review progress made under each of the five PUNT working groups, explore common interests, and identify next steps to initiate, advance, and strengthen technical collaborations in nuclear safety and security.

April 11, 2012
Secretary Chu announces a $30 million research competition to develop next generation energy storage technologies. Through its Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), DOE is seeking out transformational, breakthrough energy storage technologies that are too risky for private-sector investment. "Innovation is our nation’s sweet spot," says the Secretary, "and it is critically important that we look at every possible energy solution in order to ensure America’s future prosperity and security."

April 11, 2012
The Obama Administration announces that the Army will open a new 30,000-square-foot lab to develop cutting edge energy technologies for the next generation of combat vehicles. The new lab will support the launch of the Army Green Warrior Convoy, which will test and demonstrate advanced vehicle technology including fuel cells, hybrid systems, battery technologies and alternative fuels. The Department of Defense also will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history, with a new goal to deploy three gigawatts of renewable energy – including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal – on military installations by 2025 – enough to power 750,000 homes.

April 11, 2012
The Department's Office of Science announces that proposals are now being accepted for the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program for the year 2013. INCITE supports high-impact scientific advances through the use of DOE computing facilities located at Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. The INCITE program is open to US- and non-US-based researchers and research organizations needing large allocations of computer time, supporting resources, and data storage to pursue transformational advances in science, engineering, and computer science.

April 11, 2012
The Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory announces that a new medical isotope project at the lab shows promise for rapidly producing major quantities of a new cancer-treatment agent, actinium 225 (Ac-225). Using proton beams, Los Alamos and its partner, DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, could match current annual worldwide production of the isotope in just a few days, solving critical shortages of this therapeutic isotope that attacks cancer cells. Ac-225 emits alpha radiation. Alpha particles are energetic enough to destroy cancer cells but are unlikely to move beyond a tightly controlled target region and destroy healthy cells.

April 12, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman participates at the ribbon cutting opening the West Tennessee Solar Farm (WTSF). At a capacity of five megawatts, WTSF is the largest photovoltaic installation in Tennessee and the seven-state Tennessee Valley Authority region. WTSF is projected to produce enough energy to power 500 homes and offset 250 tons of coal per month. With $31 million in Recovery Act funds from DOE, WTSF is the largest single funded project under the State Energy Program.

April 13, 2012
President Obama issues an Executive Order "to coordinate the efforts of Federal agencies responsible for overseeing the safe and responsible development of unconventional domestic natural gas resources and associated infrastructure." The Executive Order establishes a deputy-level interagency working group, consisting of fourteen agencies and offices including DOE, to coordinate policy and to promote sensible, cost-effective approaches. The White House convenes a meeting with key stakeholders, including representatives from the American Chemistry Council, the American Gas Association, the American Natural Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Manufacturers, to discuss the Executive Order. A number stakeholders issue statements.

April 13, 2012
The Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of the Interior announce a formal partnership to coordinate and align all research associated with development of unconventional natural gas and oil resources. A primary goal of the effort will be to identify research topics where collaboration among the three agencies can be most effectively and efficiently conducted to provide results and technologies that support sound policy decisions by the agencies responsible for ensuring the prudent development of energy sources while promoting safe practices and human health.

April 13, 2012
At the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, the U.S. in cooperation with Colombia, announces the Connecting the Americas 2022 (Connect2022) Initiative, which will seek to accelerate electricity energy integration to ensure that within a decade, every person in the Western Hemisphere will have access to the electricity they need, at a price they can afford

April 13, 2012
The Department announces up to $2.5 million available this year for applied research to advance clean biomass cookstove technologies for use in developing countries. The funding will support the development of innovative cookstove designs that allow users to burn wood or crop residues more efficiently and with less smoke than open fires and traditional stoves, helping to save lives and improve livelihoods. DOE, along with other federal agencies, is a founding partner of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership to advance cookstove technologies.

April 13, 2012
The Department announces the selections for three consortia that will make up the $125 million U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center. These consortia – led in the U.S. by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Florida – will bring together experts from national laboratories, universities, and industry in both the U.S. and India. Consortia researchers will leverage their expertise and resources in solar technology, advanced biofuels, and building efficiency.

April 13, 2012
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack posts an article on the White House Blog supporting cutting-edge efforts to reduce America’s reliance on fossil fuel.

April 16, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the International Energy Agency (IEA) in
Paris, France, comparing projections and approaches of the EIA and IEA.

April 16, 2012
The Department announces the removal at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) of four structures as part of the Building 3026 C/D Hot Cells Project. The structures, which once processed radioisotopes, have been a safety concern since the building’s outer structure was removed in 2010.Building 3026, formerly known as the Radioisotope Development Laboratory, dates back to the Manhattan Project and postwar era, when one of the laboratory's primary missions included the production of radioisotopes for medical, research, and industrial uses. Constructed from 1943-1945, the building processed radioisotopes from ORNL's Graphite Reactor. Prior to its demolition, the building had been inactive for 20 years and posed significant fire and radiological hazards.

April 17, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Flame 2012 conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on current and projected supply and demand conditions in the U.S. natural gas market.

April 17, 2012
President Obama, in remarks from the Rose Garden at the White House, announces new steps to strengthen oversight of energy markets while calling on Congress to pass a package of measures that would deter illegal behavior and hold accountable those who manipulate markets for financial gain at the expense of consumers. The President's Five-Part Plan includes: 1) increasing funding to support at least a six-fold increase in the surveillance and enforcement staff for oil futures market trading, 2) providing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) funding for critical IT upgrades to strengthen monitoring of energy market activity, 3) a ten-fold increase in maximum civil and criminal penalties for manipulative activity in oil futures markets, 4) giving the CFTC authority to direct exchanges to raise margin requirements to address increased price volatility or prevent excessive speculation or manipulation, and 5) taking immediate steps to expand access to CFTC data to better understand trading trends in oil markets.

April 17, 2012
The Department releases a renewable energy resource assessment detailing the potential to develop electric power generation at existing dams across the U.S. that are not currently equipped to produce power. The report, An Assessment of Energy Potential at Non-Powered Dams in the United States, estimates that without building a single new dam, these available hydropower resources, if fully developed, could provide an electrical generating capacity of more than 12 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to roughly 15 percent of current U.S. hydropower capacity.

April 18, 2012
The Department announces the resumption of operations to retrieve the estimated 6,900 cubic meters of stored transuranic waste remaining at the Idaho site at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. The waste, which is stored in the Transuranic Storage Area-Retrieval Enclosure, is the last of some 65,000 cubic meters referenced in the Idaho Settlement Agreement and has been stored in Idaho for nearly 40 years. Metal drums and wooden boxes contain the waste, however, given environmental factors and the period of time the waste has been stored, some containers are losing their structural integrity. Retrieval operations were suspended in July 2010 after two retrieval incidents in which wooden boxes broke.

April 18, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration announces the signing of a new long-term agreement with the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority to use additional reservoir flow shaping capability on the upper Columbia River in Canada to provide safer flows for protected fish and support power generation.

April 19, 2012
The Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announces that researchers in a recent report found that U.S. commercial building owners could save an average of 38 percent on their heating and cooling bills if they installed a small number of energy efficiency controls that make their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems more energy efficient.

April 20, 2012
Secretary Chu hosts a live chat discussion to celebrate the 42nd annual Earth Day.

April 20, 2012
The Department announces that Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC has been awarded a $1.3 billion contract for management and operating (M&O) at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The five-year contract contains an option to extend for an additional five years. The M&O contractor manages the WIPP site and the Department’s National Transuranic (TRU) Waste program. After a transition period, the contractor will assume responsibility for M&O of the WIPP facility on October 1, 2012.

April 23, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman, Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the Department of State Ambassador Carlos Pascual, and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain Al Shahristani co-chair the inaugural meeting of the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) on Energy and issue a Joint Statement. Both sides express interest in making efforts to assure oil markets meet producers’ and consumers’ needs for worldwide economic growth and recognize the steps Iraq has taken to increase its oil production and export. The U.S. and Iraq commit to convene the Energy JCC quarterly.

April 23, 2012
The Department's Idaho site initiates the controlled, phased startup of the 53,000-square-foot Integrated Waste Treatment Unit facility scheduled to begin treating 900,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste stored in underground tanks at a former Cold War spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in May. Treatment of the waste is scheduled to take approximately seven to eight months to complete, in time to meet a December 31, 2012 regulatory milestone outlined in the 1995 Idaho Settlement Agreement between the state of Idaho, DOE, and the U.S. Navy.

April 24, 2012
Secretary Chu announces up to $5 million available this year to develop “plug-and-play” photovoltaic (PV) systems that can be purchased, installed, and operational in one day. This SunShot Initiative effort is part of DOE’s broader strategy to spur solar power deployment by reducing non-hardware, or “soft” costs, such as installation, permitting, and interconnection, which currently amount to more than half of the total cost of residential systems.

April 24, 2012
The Department announces that it plans to extend CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company’s contract for environmental cleanup at the Hanford Site by another five years. In 2008, following a competitive bid, DOE awarded CH2M HILL a cost-plus, award-fee contract valued at approximately $4.5 billion over ten years, including a five-year base period with the option to extend the contract for another five years. CH2M HILL employs approximately 1,800 and is responsible primarily for demolishing former plutonium facilities, cleaning up contaminated soil, managing solid radioactive waste, and monitoring and cleaning up contaminated groundwater.

April 25, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) issues a report on allegations concerning aspects of the quality assurance program at the Hanford Site's Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The IG's review substantiates the allegations, finding that DOE and the contractor, Bechtel National Inc. (BNI), had procured and installed vessels in WTP that did not always meet quality assurance and/or contract requirements. The IG identified multiple instances where quality assurance records were either missing or were not traceable to the specific area or part of the vessel. Weaknesses in quality assurance records associated with black cell and hard-to-reach processing vessels occurred, the IG says, because of deficiencies in BNI's implementation of its quality assurance program and a lack of DOE oversight.

April 25, 2012
The Department announces that an innovative DOE technology has demonstrated the potential for significant increases in safe and responsible production from depleted U.S. oil fields. Use of an innovative alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP) flooding technique has successfully improved oil recovery at a 106-year old Illinois field by more than 300 percent. This method of extraction could help pull as many as 130 million additional barrels of oil from the depleted field, which is past peak production using traditional drilling.

April 25-26, 2012
Secretary Chu attends the two-day third Clean Energy Ministerial annual meeting held in London with energy ministers from 23 governments in attendance. The Secretary speaks about opportunities in cutting energy waste and the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) initiative, which could save consumers more than $1 trillion over the next two decades. The Department announces a three-part plan to help implement the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment initiative or “C3E” – a Ministerial program aimed at attracting more women to clean energy careers and supporting  their advancement into leadership positions. The International Energy Agency releases its annual Tracking Clean Energy Progress report, which noted that while progress is being made on renewable energy, most clean energy technologies are not being deployed quickly enough. The meeting outlines specific commitments by participating countries and private sector leaders which will promote improved energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies, and increased energy access around the world. Acting Under Secretary David Sandalow posts an article on the White House Blog.

April 26, 2012
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Patricia Hoffman appears before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to speak about the Department's role in managing weather related electrical outages.

April 26, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Institute of Clean Air Companies in Hilton Head, South Carolina on the U.S. energy future.

April 27, 2012
Vice President Biden meets with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussein Shahristani, thanking him for his participation in this week’s U.S.-Iraqi Joint Coordinating Committee on Energy meeting. The Vice President reaffirms the U.S. commitment to work with Iraqi leaders from across the spectrum to support the continued development of Iraq’s energy sector.

April 30, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that Lexington High School from Lexington, Massachusetts, and Hopkins Junior High School from Fremont, California, as the winners of the 2012 DOE National Science Bowl held at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

April 30, 2012
President Obama meets with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Washington, DC. The two leaders announce a number of cooperative initiatives, including the establishment of a high-level Bilateral Commission on Civil Nuclear Cooperation and new clean energy initiatives, and hold a joint press conference.

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May 1, 2012
The Department joins with partners from Canada and Mexico to release the first-ever atlas mapping the potential carbon dioxide storage capacity in North America. According to the newly released North American Carbon Storage Atlas (NACSA), there is at least 500 years of geologic storage for carbon dioxide emissions in North America. These areas could be used for storing carbon from industrial sources or power plants.

May 1, 2012
Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Charles McConnell posts an article on the Energy Blog on research in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies.

May 1, 2012
The Department announces that the Richland Operations Office and Hanford site contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company have received the Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification for sustainable design for the 200 West Groundwater Treatment Facility. The facility was built to remove contamination from a 5-square-mile area of groundwater beneath several facilities that produced plutonium from the 1940s to the 1980s. Approximately 450 billion gallons of water and contaminated liquids were discharged from facilities across the Hanford site during the production years, including those facilities located near the center of the site, called the 200 West Area. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute, which rates buildings on criteria such as energy savings, water efficiency, carbon-dioxide emissions reduction and indoor air quality.

May 2, 2012
Secretary Chu announces the completion of a successful, unprecedented test of technology in the North Slope of Alaska that was able to safely extract a steady flow of natural gas from methane hydrates. DOE partnered with ConocoPhillips and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, injecting a mixture of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen into a methane hydrate formation and demonstrating that this mixture could promote the production of natural gas. As a result, DOE is launching a new research effort, with $6.5 million in funding available, to conduct a long-term production test in the Arctic as well as research to test additional technologies that could be used to locate, characterize, and safely extract methane hydrates on a larger scale in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Secretary posts an article on the Energy Blog.

May 2, 2012
Secretary Chu announces the winners of the America’s Home Energy Education Challenge, a national student competition designed to encourage students and their families to take action to start saving money by saving energy.

May 3, 2012
The Department announces that DOE-sponsored test drilling at geologic sites in three states indicate that a combined 64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be stored successfully. If the potential of the sites is eventually fulfilled, they could safely and permanently store combined CO2 emissions equivalent to that produced by more than 11 million passenger vehicles annually or from the electricity use of more than 7 million homes for one year.

May 3, 2012
The Department releases a Joint Report on the concrete outcomes and next steps of the Strategic Energy Dialogue agreed to by President Obama and President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil in March 2011.

May 3, 2012
At the annual Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer National Meeting, DOE laboratories win six of the 23 awards given for Excellence in Technology Transfer, two of the three Laboratory Director of the Year awards, and two additional awards for state and local development and interagency partnership.

May 3, 2012
The Department's Carlsbad Field Office announces the completed cleanup of the Cold War legacy transuranic (TRU) waste at DOE's Sandia National Laboratories when four shipments of remote-handled TRU waste from Sandia arrive at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, NM, for permanent disposal.

May 4, 2012
The Department announces the regional winners of its National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. The initiative inspires university teams across the country to create new businesses and commercialize promising energy technologies developed at U.S. universities and the National Laboratories. The regional finalists will go on to compete in the first national competition in Washington, DC, in June.

May 4, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announces the release of a proposed rule to require companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations on public and Indian lands.

May 7, 2012
President Obama meets with Drs. Mildred Dresselhaus and Burton Richter in the Oval Office prior to Secretary Chu honoring the two scientists with the Enrico Fermi Award.

May 7, 2012
The Department's Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) announces that three DOE national laboratories to participate in WAPA’s 2012 consolidated renewable energy certificate purchase. Oak Ridge National Laboratory requested 30,000 RECs for fiscal year 2012, Los Alamos National Laboratory requested 461,231 RECs for 2012 through 2016 and Sandia National Laboratories requested 48,000 RECs for 2013 and 2014. In total, the three national labs requested 539,231 RECs over the next five years. RECs are the environmental benefits associated with generating one megawatthour of electric energy from a renewable resource and can be purchased without requiring transmission or affecting existing power contracts. Agencies can use RECs to meet the environmental and renewable energy goals established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

May 8, 2012
President Obama, in remarks at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany, New York, provides a five-item "To-Do" list for Congress that, if acted upon quickly, will create jobs. The list includes extending the Production Tax Credit for clean energy and expanding the 30 percent tax credit to investments in clean energy manufacturing (48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit).

May 8, 2012
Secretary Chu announces more than $47 million in scholarships, fellowships, research grants, and university research reactor upgrades to train and educate the next generation of leaders in America’s nuclear industry. The 143 awards under DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs and Integrated University Program will support nuclear energy R&D and student investment at 46 colleges and universities. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons posts an article on the Energy Blog.

May 8, 2012
The Department's Office of Science announces that 68 scientists from across the nation have been selected for five-year awards under the Office's Early Career Research Program. The five-year awards are designed to bolster the nation's scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work. The research awards also aim at providing incentives for scientists to focus on mission research areas that are a high priority for DOE and the nation.

May 8, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approves a major natural gas project in Utah’s Uinta Basin that could develop more than 3,600 new wells over the next decade. An article by Secretary Salazar is posted on the White House and Energy blogs.

May 8, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) announces the signing of a cooperative agreement with the Morgridge Institute for Research to further the development of accelerator-based technology to produce molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) in the U.S. without the use of proliferation-sensitive highly enriched uranium (HEU). Mo-99 is a medical radioisotope used to diagnose heart disease, treat cancer, and study organ structure and function. The cooperative agreement between NNSA and Morgridge totals $20.6 million. The U.S. currently does not have a domestic production capability for Mo-99.

May 8, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announces the completion of the NDCX-II, the second generation Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment. NDCX-II, an unusual special-purpose particle accelerator, is a compact machine designed to produce a high-quality, dense beam that can rapidly deliver a powerful punch to a solid target. Research with NDCX-II will make advances in the acceleration, compression, and focusing of intense ion beams that can inform and guide the design of major components for heavy-ion fusion energy production. The eventual goal of heavy-ion fusion is to produce electrical power with particle accelerators through a process called inertial confinement fusion.

May 9, 2012
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Patricia Hoffman appears before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power to speak about the Department's emergency authority under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act and the proposed legislation intended to address the use of this authority and potential conflicts with other Federal, state and local laws and regulations.

May 9, 2012
The Department announces that DOE-sponsored research indicates that changes in operating conditions coupled with changes in commercially manufactured catalysts can produce both power generation increases and significant cost savings at Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plants. The results could ultimately lead to lower-cost carbon-capture technologies. Advanced power plants using IGCC technology convert coal into a synthesis gas, or "syngas," which can then be combusted to produce electricity. The syngas contains combustible hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO), along with water, nitrogen, and CO2, a greenhouse gas.

May 10, 2012
The Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) announces that a multi-institutional research team has developed a carbon nanotube sponge that can soak up oil in water with unparalleled efficiency. The researchers conducted simulations on ORNL's Jaguar supercomputer. The nanotube sponge has potential in oil spill cleanup and is extremely efficient at absorbing oil in contaminated seawater because it attracts oil and repels water.

May 11, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman travels to Detroit, Michigan, to deliver the keynote address before labor and environmental advocacy groups at the BlueGreen Alliance’s Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference, tour Diversified Chemical Technologies, Inc. headquarters, and speak with students at Wayne State University. In his keynote address, the Deputy Secretary focuses on the revival of the U.S. auto industry and highlights the increase of U.S. fuel economy to nearly 55 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by Model Year 2025. Diversified Chemical Technologies is an African American-owned, small manufacturing business expanding its “green” chemistry applications to include battery and light military vehicle parts, solar and wind turbine adhesives, and agricultural bio-based fuel products.

May 11, 2012
The Department's Office of Legacy Management announces that residential drinking water testing from an alternative water supply system in Riverton, Wyoming, confirmed the water is safe. Results from water samples collected on May 3 show that uranium levels at 0.0001 milligrams per liter, well below the drinking water standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency. On May 2, DOE officials learned that water samples from four residences, conducted by the Northern Arapaho Utility Organization in October 2011, had tested positive for high concentrations of uranium. DOE responded immediately by delivering bottled water to the affected residents and maintaining their bottled water supply until additional samples could be collected, analyzed, and verified as safe. The DOE Riverton Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act Title I site, located on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming, processed uranium ore from 1958 to 1963. While there are no tailings disposal cells at Riverton, historical ore processing resulted in contamination of the shallow groundwater.

May 15, 2012
The White House withdraws the nomination of Arunava Majumdar to be Under Secretary of Energy. His nomination was sent to the Senate on November 30, 2011. President Obama directs Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs David Sandalow Acting Under Secretary as of May 9.

May 15, 2012
The Department – in collaboration with Energy Northwest (EN), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and USEC Inc. – announces the finalized details of a transfer of depleted uranium to EN that will be enriched at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant during the next year and ultimately result in fuel for EN and TVA. DOE’s transfer is the initial step in an arrangement between the collaborating organizations that includes: the transfer of a portion of DOE’s high-assay depleted uranium tails to EN; commercial contracts between EN and USEC for about a year’s worth of enrichment services; the sale of low-enriched uranium (LEU) from EN to the TVA; and the extension of an agreement between TVA and DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to produce tritium for the nation’s nuclear deterrent. The project will ensure a supply of U.S.-origin unobligated uranium to support the NNSA tritium production for up to 15 years. Prior to the agreement, DOE undertook an analysis of the domestic uranium market to ensure that the transactions under the project would not have an adverse material impact on the domestic uranium mining, enrichment, or conversion industry.

May 15, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Electric Power Conference & Exhibition in Baltimore, Maryland, on the future mix of electricity fuels.

May 15, 2012
Secretary Chu, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, and officials of the National Bank of Arizona, in a ceremony at the bank, launch Solar Phoenix 2, the nation’s largest city-sponsored residential solar financing program. This is the second phase of the Solar Phoenix program, made possible by a $25 million commitment from National Bank of Arizona. The program puts solar panels on 1,000 roofs in the city and will save families 10 to 15 percent in energy costs each month. The mayor posts an article on the Energy Blog.

May 16, 2012
Secretary Chu delivers the keynote address at the World Renewable Energy Forum in Denver and discusses the Obama Administration’s commitments to strengthening U.S. leadership in the global clean energy race. Following his remarks, the Secretary tours the Exhibit Hall and participates in a media availability

May 16, 2012
The Department announces energy efficiency standards for residential clothes washers and dishwashers that will save consumers $20 billion in energy and water costs. The new standards for both clothes washers and dishwashers were informed by important feedback from manufacturers, consumer groups, and environmental advocates, producing significant savings while retaining consumer choice. The clothes washers standard will save households approximately $350 over the lifetime of the appliance, while offering consumers a variety of more efficient machine choices, and as a result of the standards for dishwashers, home dishwashers will use approximately 15 percent less energy and more than 20 percent less water.

May 16, 2012
The Coordinating Research Council (CRC), a research organization for jointly-funded work by the auto and oil industries, releases a report on the effects of E15 and E20, or gasoline mixed with up to 15 or 20 percent ethanol, respectively, on vehicle engines. The study claims mechanical damage and suggests degraded engine performance, emissions, and durability on conventional vehicles from the use of E15 or E20 fuel. In an article posted on the Energy Blog, Patrick Davis, DOE's vehicle technologies program manager, states that "the study is significantly flawed." The CRC "failed to establish a proper control group, a standard component of scientific, data-driven testing and a necessity to determine statistical significance for any results." The study findings, Davis notes, are inconsistent with DOE's "own rigorous, thorough and peer-reviewed study of the impact of E15 fuel on current, conventional vehicle catalyst systems."

May 16, 2012
Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy Richard Kauffman, in response to a Brookings Institution report, Beyond Boom and Bust: Putting Clean Tech On a Path To Subsidy Independence, which argues that without a national energy policy providing certainty for renewable sources the recent boom in U.S. clean tech sectors could falter, posts an article on the Energy Blog and in the National Journal. "The report is right to point out," Kauffman notes, "that the current lack of action in Congress forces a rethinking of the policy framework for clean energy and an examination of the finance structures developers use to build out their projects – two conversations that we are very interested in having at the Department of Energy. In this rethinking, let’s focus on two principles that must anchor the next generation of clean energy policy: 1) deployment of proven technology drives innovation by providing market opportunities for innovative companies, and 2) using stock and bond capital markets can offer clean energy projects more robust access to cheaper capital than the current private sources of investment."

May 17, 2012
Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs David Sandalow testifies at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on how President Obama’s goal of generating 80 percent of the nation's electricity from clean sources by 2035 relates to The Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012. Howard Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), testifies on the EIA's analysis of The Clean Energy Standard Act.

May 17, 2012
Dan Arvizu, director of the Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is elected Chairman of the National Science Board. The 25-member body advises the president and Congress on science and engineering issues and is the policy-setting and budget-approving body for the National Science Foundation. With an annual budget of $6.9 billion, the foundation funds about 20 percent of all federally supported basic scientific research at U.S. colleges and universities. Arvizu will serve a two-year term as chairman.

May 19, 2012
The Group of Eight (G-8) leaders, meeting at Camp David, issue a statement on global oil markets. Noting the "increasing disruptions in the supply of oil to the global market over the past several months," the leaders state that they "are monitoring the situation closely and stand ready to call upon the International Energy Agency to take appropriate action to ensure that the market is fully and timely supplied." The White House issues a fact sheet on several actions identified by the leaders for the G-8 to take together on energy and climate change. These include pursuing a comprehensive and safe energy strategy, responding to changing fuel mix and infrastructure, promoting the sustainable deployment of renewables, enhancing preparedness for oil and gas supply disruptions, advancing energy efficiency, and addressing climate change. The U.S., in its role as 2012 Chair of the G-8, intends to work with G-8 partners to develop mechanisms for following up these actions. The G-8 leaders, at the conclusion of the summit, issue a declaration that includes a section on energy and climate change. President Obama issues a statement.

May 19, 2012
The Department's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility holds an Open House, with several of the lab's facilities open, including the first opportunity for the public to visit Jefferson Lab's newest experimental hall (Hall D), which is a cornerstone of the 12 GeV Upgrade project underway at the lab. The $310 million project will allow the lab to continue as a world leader in nuclear physics research. More than 8,000 visitors attend.

May 21, 2012
The White House and DOE launch the Energy Data Initiative (EDI) with an “Energy Data Jam” held in Silicon Valley. The goal of EDI is to drive entrepreneurs to use data to create tools that can help Americans save money on utility bills and at the pump. The Jam workshop brings together a group of America’s most innovative entrepreneurs, software developers, CEOs, energy experts, and policy makers to take advantage of existing and newly available government data to spark new private-sector consumer-facing and business-oriented tools, products, and services – such as smart phone apps – while rigorously protecting personal, proprietary, and national security information.

May 21, 2012
The Department announces thirteen projects aimed at reducing the risks while enhancing the environmental performance of drilling for natural gas and oil in ultra-deepwater settings. The total value of the projects is more than $56 million over 4 years with approximately $21.2 million of cost-share provided by the research partners in addition to $35.4 million in federal funds. 

May 22, 2012
The Department announces the first round of winners for the “Apps for Energy” competition, with app developers submitting more than 50 innovative mobile and web applications that will help utility consumers save money by making the most of their “Green Button” electricity usage data. The winners were selected by a panel of expert reviewers. Popular Choice awards will be announced after the conclusion of a public voting period. Secretary Chu posts an article on the Energy Blog. The Department also announces phase I awards totaling nearly $3.2 million that will encourage utilities, local governments, and communities to create programs that empower consumers to better manage their electricity use through improved access to their own electricity consumption data. These projects will complement the Apps for Energy prizes by demonstrating how convenient tools and services can help consumers make more informed decisions about their energy consumption and helping to stimulate the market for the development of additional innovative energy applications.

May 22, 2012
Secretary Chu recognizes the grand opening of DuPont’s expanded solar photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Circleville, Ohio, and calls on Congress to extend the expiring clean energy tax credits that made this investment possible. The Circleville plant, which received $50 million in federal clean energy tax credits, produces thin film material which strengthens the performance and durability of solar modules.

May 23, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman, during a tour of Arkansas Power Electronics International (APEI) in Fayetteville, Arkansas, announces $11 million in innovative research and technology grants of up to $150,000 to nearly 70 small businesses nationwide. APEI, a small business that received one of the Small Business Innovative Research grants of $150,000, develops state-of-the-art technology in power storage systems for electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies.

May 23, 2012
The Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, releases guidance to help utilities better understand their cybersecurity risks, assess severity, and allocate resources more efficiently to manage those risks. The Electricity Subsector Cybersecurity Risk Management Process (RMP) guideline, which provides a flexible approach to managing cybersecurity risks across all levels of the organization, was developed by a public-private sector team that was led by the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and included representatives from across the industry. 

May 23, 2012
The 1,527-foot BREN (Bare Reactor Experiment -- Nevada) Tower at DOE's Nevada National Security Site is demolished. The tower, used in above-ground nuclear experiments in the 1960s, is the tallest structure of its kind ever to be brought down.

May 24, 2012
President Obama visits TPI Composites, a manufacturer in Newton, Iowa, that makes blades for wind turbines, and in his remarks presses Congress to take action on his To-Do List for creating jobs by extending the expiring clean energy tax credits.

May 24, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Lute, and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt host industry executives to conclude the Electricity Sector Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model initiative, launched on January 5, which provides a tool to evaluate and strengthen cybersecurity capabilities and enables utilities to prioritize their actions and their cybersecurity investments.

May 24, 2012
EcoCAR 2 names Mississippi State University the Year One winner at the EcoCAR 2012 Competition in Los Angeles. EcoCAR 2, a three-year competition sponsored by DOE, General Motors, and 25 other government and industry leaders, gives students the opportunity to gain real-world, eco-friendly automotive engineering experience while striving to improve the energy efficiency of an already highly-efficient vehicle – the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. The 15 universities competing in EcoCAR 2 gathered for six days of judged competition with $100,000 in prize money.

May 24, 2012
The Department issues a Preliminary Notice of Violation (PNOV) to LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, LLC (LATA KY), for violations of DOE's worker safety and health and nuclear safety regulations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The violations are associated with a March 9, 2011, heat stress event during which an employee lost consciousness; and a May 22, 2011, event resulting in the release of uranium hexafluoride and its reaction products during work to decommission the plant. In lieu of a civil penalty, DOE has withheld a $250,000 contract fee.

May 24, 2012
The Department and the Denali Commission announce that five Alaska Native Tribes have been selected to receive technical assistance to accelerate clean energy project development and advance energy self-sufficiency and job creation in these communities. DOE and the Commission also announce a partnership to pursue collaborative clean energy projects in rural Alaska.

May 24, 2012
The Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of the Interior announce the members of the steering team that will lead efforts to coordinate research addressing the challenges of safely and prudently developing unconventional shale gas and tight oil resources. The formation of the steering team is the first step in the formal cross-government coordination required under President Obama’s Executive Order released last month and announced in a joint memorandum signed by the three federal agencies on April 13.

May 29, 2012
The Obama Administration announces a $26 million multi-agency Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge to foster innovation-fueled job creation through public-private partnerships. This is the third round of the Jobs Accelerator competition, which is being funded by DOE and five other federal agencies.

May 29, 2012
The Department's Sandia National Laboratories announces that lab-developed technology has been used to remove radioactive material from more than 43 million gallons of contaminated wastewater at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

May 30, 2012
Secretary Chu, following up on his March 16 memo to the Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs), posts an article on the Energy Blog discussing how the nation's competitiveness depends on a 21st century grid. The Secretary, as a first step, announces six stakeholder workshops to ask for input from all stakeholders in the service area of the Western Area Power Administration to help guide the process.

May 30, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman and other officials brief President Obama on preparations for the upcoming hurricane season.

May 30, 2012
The Department announces that carbon dioxide removal sorbents developed by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) could result in power and cost savings for users of some heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems under a recently signed license agreement. NETL entered into a patent license agreement with Boston-based Enverid Systems Inc. for NETL-developed solid sorbents that remove CO2 from gas streams. NETL’s sorbents will be incorporated into an Enverid product called EnClaire, which adds on to HVAC systems to reduce power consumption and improve indoor air quality. Under the new patent license agreement, NETL will receive royalties when Enverid begins commercial sales of its EnClaire technology. The royalties will fund additional research.

May 31, 2012
The Department announces the award of an $18 million small disadvantaged business contract with S&K Aerospace, LLC, of St. Ignatius, Montana, to continue to provide technical assistance services for the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project in Moab, Utah. The basic contract is for three years with two one-year options to extend, for a total of up to five years.

May 31, 2012
The Department issues a Preliminary Notice of Violation (PNOV) to Bechtel National, Incorporated for two material handling incidents that occurred on July 16, 2010, and March 16, 2011, at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Project. The PNOV cites three violations of DOE’s worker safety and health regulations. DOE proposes a $150,000 civil penalty.

May 31, 2012
Secretary Chu announces plans to invest up to $120 million over five years to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub, establishing a multidisciplinary and sustained effort to identify problems and develop solutions across the lifecycle of critical materials. Rare earth elements and other critical materials have unique chemical and physical characteristics, including magnetic, catalytic and luminescent properties that are important for a growing number of energy technologies. These critical materials are also at risk for supply disruptions. The Hub, funded by up to $20 million in Fiscal Year 2012, will work to advance U.S. leadership in energy manufacturing – such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, efficient lighting and others – through research aimed both at having a reliable supply of these rare earths and other critical materials, as well as finding efficiencies and alternatives that reduce the amount actually needed.

May 31, 2012
The Department releases the Electricity Subsector Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model, which allows electric utilities and grid operators to assess their cybersecurity capabilities and prioritize their actions and investments to improve cybersecurity and combines elements from existing cybersecurity efforts into a common tool that can be used consistently across the industry. The Maturity Model was developed as part of a White House initiative led by DOE in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and involved close collaboration with industry, other Federal agencies, and stakeholders. 

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June 4, 2012
Adam Sieminski begins service as the Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA).

June 4, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it has deployed a nondestructive process at its Y-12 facility for assessing nuclear weapon components as part of its Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program, called Nondestructive Laser Gas Sampling (NDLGS). The NDLGS system is capable of assessing the internal gas constituents of hazardous components in a nondestructive manner. NDLGS demonstrated first use on a W76 Retrofit Evaluation System Test unit on May 3. The technology is anticipated to save several million dollars per year by reaccepting weapon components back into the stockpile in a nondestructive manner and avoid the cost of new manufacture. In addition, the process greatly improves the safety and minimizes workers exposure to hazardous material.

June 5, 2012
Secretary Chu joins Mayor Rahm Emanuel at an event in Chicago to announce that the city is joining the Obama Administration’s Better Buildings Challenge, part of the initiative launched on February 3, 2011, to catalyze investment in commercial and industrial building energy upgrades and support new jobs across the country. As a partner in the initiative, Chicago is committing to reduce energy use by 20 percent across nearly 24 million square feet of public and private building space within the next five years.

June 5, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announces that researchers have for the first time simulated and quantified the early stages of radiation damage that occurs in a given material. The new method opens up the possibility to predict the effect of radiation on a wide range of complex materials. The research not only applies to materials for nuclear applications, but also for materials related to the space industry, and new processing techniques for lasers and highly energetic ions. In biology and medicine, it also may contribute to understanding the effects of radiation on living tissues, both for damage and therapeutic processes

June 6, 2012
The Department announces that nine universities have won awards for research projects to support innovation and development of clean coal technologies. The projects will each receive approximately $300,000 to focus on the development of high-temperature, high-pressure corrosion-resistant alloys, protective coatings, and structural materials for advanced coal-fired power plants and gas turbines. Research projects will also develop new processes and computational design methods to develop these materials, improve efficiency, and reduce the costs of cleaner power generation systems.

June 6, 2012
The Department announces the Popular Choice winners for the “Apps for Energy” competition, with app developers submitting more than 50 innovative mobile and web applications that will help utility consumers save money by making the most of their “Green Button” electricity usage data. Popular Choice awards reflect the results of public voting, which ran from May 17 to May 31. Other winners in the competition were selected by a panel of expert reviewers and announced May 22.

June 7, 2012
The Department announces more than $7 million for three innovative lighting projects at companies in California, Michigan, and North Carolina that aim to lower the cost of manufacturing high-efficiency solid-state lighting (SSL) technologies like light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). LEDs and OLEDs are generally ten times more energy-efficient than conventional incandescent lighting and can last up to 25 times as long,

June 7, 2012
The White House announces steps to ensure the reliable supply of the isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for legitimate medical purposes while minimizing the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) for civilian purposes. In order to maintain access globally to reliable supplies, the U.S. is accelerating commercial projects that produce Mo-99 domestically without the use of HEU. The White House commits the U.S. to "eliminating the use of HEU in all civilian applications, including in the production of medical radioisotopes, because of its direct significance for potential use in nuclear weapons, acts of nuclear terrorism, or other malevolent purposes." The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issues a release on June 15 on its efforts to collaborate with commercial domestic and foreign counterparts on ways to transition the medical radioisotope industry to ensure a reliable supply of Mo-99.

June 7, 2012
White House Science Advisor John Holdren tours DOE's Sandia National Laboratories.

June 8, 2012
The Department announces that HPM Corporation, of Kennewick, Washington, has been awarded an estimated $99 million contract to provide Occupational Medical Services at the DOE Hanford Site. This is a two-year hybrid contract with four-one-year option periods.

June 8, 2012
The Department's Western Area Power Administration issues a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Grapevine Canyon Wind Energy Project, a proposed wind generation facility, up to 500 megawatts, located near Flagstaff, Arizona. The Project includes a transmission line and interconnection switchyard that would be located on the Coconino National Forest.

June 8, 2012
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit finds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has not adequately assessed the risks of storing spent fuel at reactor sites. The court orders NRC to conduct a new environmental assessment of the impacts of storing spent fuel at reactor sites. “This is a game changer,” says Geoff Fettus of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups that had sued NRC. “This forces the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to take a hard look at the environmental consequences of producing highly radioactive nuclear waste without a long-term disposal solution.”

June 11, 2012
The International Energy Agency IEA releases Energy Technology Perspectives 2012, its flagship energy technology publication. The report states that a host of new technologies are ready to transform the energy system, offering the potential to drastically reduce carbon emissions, enhance energy security, and generate a huge investment return. The report emphasizes the need for action now. “While our efforts to bring about a clean energy transformation are falling further behind, I want to stress the golden opportunity before us,” says IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven. “If significant policy action is taken, we can still achieve the huge potential for these technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and boost energy security,”

June 11, 2012
President Obama makes a determination required under Section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 regarding the supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran. Analysis, based on an April 27th report by DOE's Energy Information Administration, "indicates that tightness in the oil market relaxed somewhat in March and April of 2012 compared to January and February." That trend, notes the President, continued in May. The President concludes that "there currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to significantly reduce their imports of Iranian oil."

June 12, 2012
The Department announces awards of more than $54 million – leveraging approximately an additional $17 million in cost share from the private sector – for 13 projects across the country to develop cutting-edge manufacturing tools, techniques, and processes that will be able to save companies money by reducing the energy needed to power their facilities.

June 13, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that, in its efforts to secure an advanced domestic uranium enrichment capability for national security purposes, DOE, USEC Inc., and American Centrifuge Demonstration, LLC, have signed a set of agreements that will enable the research, development and demonstration (RD&D) project at the American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) in Piketon, Ohio, to move forward while providing significant taxpayer protections. The RD&D at ACP will be managed under a new enhanced governance structure that strengthens the roles of other project partners such as Babcock and Wilcox and Toshiba Corporation, which will provide additional project management support and personnel for the program. The cooperative agreement provides a framework for a cost-shared multiyear RD&D effort to build out and test the first cascade and plant systems at ACP. DOE will provide approximately $88 million under the initial phase by taking title to and disposal responsibility for a quantity of depleted uranium tails from USEC. The project participants will provide an additional $22 million in the first phase of the project, representing a 20 percent cost share.

June 13, 2012
Secretary Chu opens the two-day SunShot Grand Challenge: Summit and Technology Forum in Denver, Colorado, addressing more than 600 attendees from the solar energy industry. The Secretary lauds recent progress in driving down the cost of solar with efficiency improvements but emphasizes the need for the U.S. to regain its competitive edge in the global clean energy race. He announces the "America's Most Affordable Rooftop Solar" competition, offering a total of $10 million in prize money to the first three U.S. teams that can install 5,000 rooftop solar PV systems at an average price of $2 per watt. He also announces up to $8 million to support nine highly innovative startups through the SunShot Incubator program. These companies are developing transformative solutions to streamline solar installation processes such as financing, permitting, and inspection.

June 13, 2012
The Department announces new investments for 21 total projects to further advance cutting-edge concentrating solar power technologies (CSP). The awards span 13 states for a total of $56 million over three years. These awards will help speed innovations in new components to lower costs, increase operating temperatures, and improve the efficiency of CSP systems. CSP technologies use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight to produce heat, which is then used to produce electricity.

June 13, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) releases its quarterly summary of experiments conducted as part of its science-based stockpile stewardship program.

June 14, 2012
The Obama Administration, at the 23rd Annual Energy Efficiency Forum, announces that six new major U.S. companies are joining the Better Buildings Challenge, which encourages private sector leaders across the country to commit to reducing the energy use in their facilities by at least 20 percent by 2020.

June 14, 2012
The Department announces that NuMat Technologies from Northwestern University wins the first-ever DOE National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. The competition aims to inspire university teams across the country and promote entrepreneurship in clean energy technologies. Regional winners were announced on May 4.

June 14, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that NNSA and the United Kingdom will continue cooperation to secure vulnerable nuclear and radiological material and reduce nuclear threats around the world. Under an agreement signed with NNSA's Office of Global Threat Reduction, the U.K. Global Threat Reduction Programme will provide the U.S. $3.5 million to support efforts in Uzbekistan, Belarus, and Afghanistan.

June 14, 2012
The Department announces that the Hanford site has completed placing N Reactor in interim safe storage, a process also known as “cocooning.” N Reactor was the last of nine plutonium production reactors to be shut down at Hanford and was unique in that it served a dual purpose; it produced plutonium for America’s defense program and steam for electricity. At its peak, the 860-megawatt reactor generated enough electricity for about 650,000 homes. During the $65 million cocooning project, the reactor building was demolished down to its concrete shield walls surrounding the reactor core. All equipment was removed and all loose contamination within the facility was stabilized. Temperature and moisture sensors were then installed for remote monitoring, the roof was constructed and all openings were sealed.

June 15, 2012
Secretary Chu addresses employees at DOE's Hanford Site, followed by a 15 minute media availability. The Secretary tells the worker that even though he is "very concerned" about the anticipated rise in cost and longer schedule to get the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant operating, cost and schedule cannot be the top priority. The top priorities have to be keeping workers safe while the plant is being built and a design that ensures a plant that can last as long as there is waste to treat and that works as intended.

June 15, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the State Border Guard of Latvia announce the commissioning of specialized radiation detection equipment at the Freeport of Riga, in an effort to prevent the illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive materials.

June 16, 2012
The Department suspends startup testing at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit located at the Idaho Site. Testing and plant heat-up was suspended to allow detailed evaluation of a system pressure event. 

June 18, 2012
President Obama and the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin hold bilateral discussions at Los Cabos, Mexico, prior to the G-20 summit, deliver remarks afterwards, and issue a Joint Statement on matters of mutual interest, including nuclear arms control and non-proliferation, implementation of the New START Treaty, and continuing research on the feasibility of converting research reactors in the U.S. and Russia to low-enriched uranium fuel.

June 18, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that a supercomputer called Sequoia at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory received the rank of the world’s most powerful computing system. The Top500 list, which annually ranks the world’s fastest supercomputers, released its list at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany. Supercomputers at four other DOE national laboratories rank in the top 20.

June 18, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the establishment of the Production Office (NPO) to provide federal oversight of nuclear production missions at the Pantex Site in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

June 18, 2012
The Department's Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) announces that it has entered into an advance funding agreement with Centennial West Clean Line LLC that outlines a working relationship to advance the development of the proposed Centennial West Clean Line Transmission Project. The proposed project would deliver 3,500 megawatts of renewable power from northeastern New Mexico to communities in California and other areas in the West, transported via an almost 900-mile overhead high-voltage direct current, or HVDC, transmission line. Due to its low electricity losses and smaller footprint, HVDC transmission is the most efficient and cost effective technology to move large amounts of electricity across long distances. The project will include an intermediate converter station in Mohave County, Arizona, to access the state’s abundant solar resource. WAPA will serve as a joint lead agency with the Bureau of Land Management in preparing the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed project.

June 19, 2012
The Departments of Energy and Commerce announce selections for three Centers for Building Operations Excellence, as part of the Better Buildings Initiative, which will receive a total of $1.3 million to create and deploy programs aimed at training and expanding current and incoming building operators. The three Centers will work with universities, local community and technical colleges, trade associations, and DOE’s national laboratories to build training programs that provide commercial building professionals with the critical skills they need to optimize building efficiency while reducing energy waste and saving money.

June 19, 2012
The Department and the National Park Service announce that five national parks around the country will deploy fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles as part of an expanded partnership within the Clean Cities initiative.

June 19, 2012
The Department issues a Draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for an Environmental Technical Services acquisition at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio. The draft RFP proposes a cost-plus-award-fee contract for three-years with a one-time extension option of five-years. The estimated cost and fee amount for the technical services contract is approximately $65 million.

June 19, 2012
The Department announces contract awards to seven small-disadvantaged businesses. Each contract will have a maximum value of approximately $4 million. The contracts will have terms of a one-year base period, with three one-year option periods. The contractors will provide a variety of technical support services to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.

June 19, 2012
The Department's Office of Environmental Management (EM) brings together the leaders of eight Tribal Nations to discuss progress in the nuclear cleanup and build partnerships to better shape the future of DOE sites. The first-ever Tribal Leader Dialogue marks the largest gathering of leaders of Tribal Nations located near EM cleanup sites with senior DOE officials for a high-level discussion.

June 20, 2012
The Department, seeking to address technical challenges facing small oil and natural gas producers, announces nine new research projects aimed at extending the life of mature oil and natural gas fields, while simultaneously reducing the environmental footprint of production operations and minimizing environmental risks. The total value of the projects is $14.2 million over 2 years, with approximately $5.7 million of cost-share provided by the research partners in addition to $8.5 million in federal funds.

June 20, 2012
Department researchers win 36 of the 100 awards given out this year by R&D Magazine for the most outstanding technology developments with promising commercial potential. The coveted awards – now in their 50th year – are presented annually in recognition of exceptional new products, processes, materials or software that were developed throughout the world and introduced into the market the previous year.

June 20, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announces the results of a 39 million acre oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. Secretary Salazar posts an article on the White House Blog.

June 21, 2012
The Department officially launches its National Training and Education Resource (NTER), an open-source platform that brings together information technologies to support education, training, and workforce development. The program facilitates training programs across a wide range of applications – from home energy audits to science, mathematics and engineering education to manufacturing industries. NTER provides public and private organizations free access to the federal resources, offering an open-source, web-based interactive learning environment for developing customizable training programs and materials.

June 21, 2012
The Department releases a slide presentation that offers "a more complete picture" of how DOE's loan program is helping accelerate America’s transition to a clean energy future. "While critics have focused their attention on the Department’s loan guarantee to Solyndra," notes Director of Public Affairs Dan Leistikow in an article on the Energy Blog, "the full story is that the Department’s loan portfolio as a whole is having a transformative impact, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and helping double America’s renewable electricity generation."

June 21, 2012
The Department releases an update to the history of the Idaho National Laboratory, documenting a decade of transformation at the laboratory, and a “decade of doing” for the Idaho Cleanup Project. “Transformed: A Recent History of the Idaho National Laboratory, 2000 to 2010,” was commissioned to update “Proving the Principle,” the book that was issued in 1999 to document the first 50 years of the lab.

June 21, 2012
The Department and Environment Canada release the U.S.-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue (CED) Action Plan II, outlining the next phase of activities the two countries will undertake to jointly advance clean energy technologies. Ongoing and new initiatives under Action Plan II will include projects to enhance collaboration to ensure the integrity of permanent CO2 storage in geological formations, an initiative to clarify U.S. and Canadian regulatory authorities for deployment of offshore renewable energy and technologies, and further investigating the potential of power storage technologies. The CED was established in 2009.

June 22, 2012
The two-day, twenty-second Plenary Meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) chaired by Deputy Secretary Poneman in Seattle issues a Public Statement. The NSG brings together 46 participating governments and aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation on a national basis of export controls for nuclear and nuclear-related material, “dual use” material, equipment, software and technology, without hindering international cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

June 25, 2012
The Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases the complete version of Annual Energy Outlook 2012 (AEO2012) which, in addition to the Reference case projections, includes 29 alternative cases which show how different assumptions regarding market, policy, and technology drivers affect projections of energy production, consumption, technology, and market trends and the direction they may take in the future. Key results highlighted include: 1) the rate of growth in energy use slows over the projection period, reflecting moderate population growth, an extended economic recovery, and increasing energy efficiency in end-use applications; 2) domestic crude oil production increases; 3) with modest economic growth, increased efficiency, growing domestic production, and continued adoption of nonpetroleum liquids, net imports of petroleum and other liquids make up a smaller share of total U.S. energy consumption; 4) natural gas production increases throughout the projection period, allowing the U.S. to transition from a net importer to a net exporter; 5) power generation from renewables and natural gas continues to increase, and 6) total energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide in the U.S. remain below their 2005 level through 2035.

June 26, 2012
The U.S. and Russian Federation jointly announce that the first stage of work defined in the Implementing Agreement of December 7, 2010, between the Russian State Corporation for Atomic Energy (Rosatom) and DOE regarding feasibility studies of the conversion to the use of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel of Russian research reactors has been completed. The announcement comes at the close of the most recent session of the Working Group on Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Security under the U.S.-Russia bilateral Presidential Commission, co-chaired by Deputy Secretary Poneman and Sergey Kiriyenko, Director General of Rosatom.

June 26, 2012
The Department, at the Better Buildings Summit for State and Local Communities in Denver, Colorado, announces 36 new states, local governments, and school districts have joined the Better Buildings Challenge. In addition, new public tax guidance issued by the Department of the Treasury will make it easier for state and local governments to access more than $2 billion in existing low-cost financing to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy projects through Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds (QECBs). QECBs provide state and local governments with access to low-cost financing to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jeff Zients posts an article on the OMBlog, the White House Blog, and the Energy Blog.

June 26, 2012
Federal, state, and county officials gather at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory to celebrate the 1000th shipment of transuranic waste from the lab to the permanent repository at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, NM. The event, which fell on the first anniversary of the Las Conchas forest fire, features remarks from New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez.

June 26, 2012
The U.S. Court of Appeals- D.C. Circuit upholds the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Endangerment Finding and greenhouse gas regulations issued under the Clean Air Act (CAA) for passenger vehicles and CAA permitting for stationary sources. The Court upholds EPA’s science-based finding that carbon pollution endangers the public’s health and welfare, noting the “substantial record evidence.” The Court also protects the Administration’s fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, adding that EPA’s implementation of the CAA was “unambiguously correct.” EPA issues a press release and the White House posts a blog article.

June 27, 2012
The Department announces the award of nearly $14 million to 22 states and territories to conduct energy efficiency upgrades in public facilities and develop local policies and programs to help reduce energy waste and save taxpayer money.

June 27, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that DOE will award new funding to 104 small businesses nationwide. The grants totaling more than $102 million will support businesses in 26 states. The 104 awards are going to developing technologies in areas ranging from large wind turbine towers to particle accelerators with medical applications, from more energy-efficient data centers to advanced imaging and X-ray technologies.

June 27, 2012
Officials of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) address the Bipartisan Policy Center Conference, Understanding the New Energy Landscape, in Washington, D.C., on fuel demand in the transportation sector, emerging oil and gas supplies, fuel use in electricity generation, and issues in the Annual Energy Outlook. New Administrator Adam Sieminski, in keynote remarks, discusses changing energy markets and the challenges facing EIA.

June 27, 2012
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), in a review of the maintenance program at DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) finds that the “WIPP physical plant is now showing considerable signs of aging, and resources are not being applied to address these issues in a timely manner. Noncritical maintenance items – some of which are potentially (and eventually) safety-related – are being deferred.”

June 28, 2012
Secretary Chu announces the release of a new Cybersecurity Self-Evaluation Survey Tool for utilities that will strengthen protection of the nation’s electric grid from cybersecurity threats. The tool is part of a broader White House initiative to develop a Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model for the electricity sector, which aims to support the private sector and utilities nationwide in determining their current cybersecurity resources and identifying additional steps to help strengthen their defenses.

June 28, 2012
The Department's Fermilab National Laboratory announces that researchers have found evidence that the Milky Way had an encounter with a small galaxy or massive dark matter structure as recently as 100 million years ago.

June 28, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Tommy Beaudreau announce the release of a proposed final offshore oil and gas leasing program for 2012-2017 that makes all areas with the highest-known resource potential – including frontier areas in the Alaska Arctic – available for oil and gas leasing.

June 28, 2012
Abound Solar, recipient of a $400 million loan guarantee from DOE in December 2010, announces that it will file for bankruptcy. The company had used about $68 million of the loan before DOE cut off its credit in September 2011.

June 29, 2012
Secretary Chu recognizes the opening of Rockwood Lithium’s expanded manufacturing facility in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Rockwood is leveraging a $28.4 million investment from the Recovery Act to expand its North Carolina lithium production facility as well as its production operations in Silver Peak, Nevada. This project will increase the capacity of the U.S. to produce lithium, which is a key material in a number of growing industries, including advanced vehicle batteries and consumer electronics.

June 29, 2012
The Department releases to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the public and the states of Nevada and Texas, and the Seneca Nation of Indians for review and comment, a Draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing Evaluation for the concentrator feed makeup tank and the melter feed hold tank (the vessels) at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP). This Draft Evaluation, which may enable the Department to dispose of the vessels as low-level radioactive waste, is a necessary step in the Department’s cleanup efforts at WVDP and meets its obligations under the WVDP Act of 1980. The current schedule calls for disposition of the vessels by 2017.

June 29, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the public release of a report that details the current plutonium inventory of the U.S. The United States Plutonium Balance, 1944-2009 serves as an update to Plutonium: the First 50 Years, which was first released by (DOE in 1996. The report provides the U.S. inventory of plutonium owned by DOE and includes material in the possession of the Department of Defense.

June 29, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General issues an Audit Report on the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Secure Transportation (OST), which is responsible for safely and securely transporting nuclear weapons, weapon components and special nuclear material. The report finds that OST "has successfully met customer shipping requests in the past and expects to have capacity to meet future requirements." Future challenges for OST include “maintaining the reliability of existing equipment; ensuring that future Federal agent overtime levels are consistent with safe operations; and, validating essential resource planning data."

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July 1, 2012
The European Union’s prohibition of all Iranian crude oil imports and other sanctions on Iran's oil industry go into full effect. The White House issues a statement.

July 1, 2012
The Department's Office of Environmental Management announces the completion of the final phase of the Building K-33 demolition project at DOE's former K-25 site at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Workers removed a 32-acre concrete slab that served as the foundation for the former 1.4 million-square-foot former gaseous diffusion plant in the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), as well as areas of contaminated soil. The superstructure’s demolition is the latest effort to convert ETTP into a private industrial park.

July 2, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) conclude in Brussels the second Joint Steering Committee meeting under a 2010 Agreement in the field of nuclear material safeguards and security research and development. The Agreement provides a framework for technical cooperation in nuclear safeguards, border monitoring, nuclear forensics, export controls, and physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities. The meeting serves as an opportunity to reinforce commitments to expand technical cooperation in these areas and advance mutual nuclear security and nonproliferation objectives.

July 2, 2012
Secretary Chu, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announce new funding available to pursue new innovations in biofuels technologies and increase production of U.S. biofuels, and strengthen American energy security, with $30 million in federal funding to match private investments in commercial-scale advanced drop-in biofuels. The Department also announces a total of $32 million in new investments for earlier stage research that will continue to drive technological breakthroughs and additional cost reductions in the industry.

July 2, 2012
Secretary Chu joins with Delaware officials at Delaware State University, a Historically Black College and University, to begin the schools program, as part of the Better Buildings Initiative, to reduce its carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2015, investing in energy efficiency improvements that will impact over two million square feet of the school’s campus.

July 2, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and three public utility districts (PUDS) sign an agreement that takes an innovative approach to regional transmission planning. They will share the costs of building a $14 million high-voltage transmission line in Central Washington developed through collaborative assessment and planning. The Northern Mid-Columbia Joint Transmission Project participants include BPA and Chelan, Douglas and Grant County PUDs.

July 2, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration announces the award of cooperative agreements to three public utilities to find out if behavior change can deliver significant energy savings to the region. Unlike traditional energy-efficiency measures that focus on the adoption of technologies such as energy-efficient appliances and lighting to save energy, behavior-based programs achieve energy savings through changes in individual or organizational behavior and decision-making.

July 3, 2012
The Department, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Department of Justice reach a Settlement Agreement with environmental groups that had filed suit against the agencies' designation in November 2008 of more than 6,000 miles of energy transport corridors on Federal lands in 11 Western States. Under the agreement, the agencies will form a working group to periodically review how the corridors are responsive to the needs of renewable energy projects and other issues.

July 4, 2012
Researchers announce in a seminar at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, that experiments by a global team of scientists using the Large Hadron Collider's CMS and ATLAS particle detectors has resulted in the discovery of a particle that is “consistent with the Higgs boson” particle. The Department's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is the host laboratory for the U.S. contingent on the CMS experiment, while DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory hosts the U.S. ATLAS collaboration. At Fermilab, 200 scientists and staffers gather at 2 a.m. in an auditorium to watch the live announcement from Switzerland. Secretary Chu issues a statement. "Scientists have been looking for the Higgs particle for more than two decades," the Secretary says. "These results help validate the Standard Model used by scientists to explain the nature of matter."

July 5, 2012
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produces a historic record-breaking laser shot. The NIF laser system of 192 beams delivers more than 500 trillion watts (terawatts or TW) of peak power and 1.85 megajoules (MJ) of ultraviolet laser light to its target. Five hundred terawatts is 1,000 times more power than the U.S. uses at any instant in time, and 1.85 megajoules of energy is about 100 times what any other laser regularly produces today. The shot validates NIF's most challenging laser performance specifications set in the late 1990s when scientists were planning the world's most energetic laser facility. Combining extreme levels of energy and peak power on a target in the NIF is a critical requirement for achieving one of physics' grand challenges--igniting hydrogen fusion fuel in the laboratory and producing more energy than that supplied to the target.

July 9, 2012
White House, DOE, and Environmental Protection Agency staff participate in the second “Energy Data Jam”--the first was held in Silicon Valley in May--at the Google offices in New York City. The event included approximately 50 private-sector leaders from energy companies, finance firms, real-estate developers, Web start-ups, and other digital innovators. One of the goals of the half-day workshop was to brainstorm how publicly available datasets might be put to use in the continuing transition to a clean energy future. The Energy Data Jam also highlighted the role energy data can play in lowering the cost of and improving access to energy financing, especially around commercial building upgrades.

July 9, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it has monitored the elimination of more than 450 metric tons (MT) of Russian highly enriched uranium (HEU) under a landmark nuclear nonproliferation program. The 1993 U.S.-Russia HEU Purchase Agreement is now 90 percent complete and by the end of 2013 a total of 500 MT of Russian nuclear weapons HEU will be eliminated by being converted into low enriched uranium, which is intended for peaceful uses.

July 10, 2012
The Department hosts its fifth annual Biomass Conference in Washington. The two-day conference brings together hundreds of diverse stakeholders in the public and private sectors to discuss the latest advances in bioenergy technology, policy news and financing strategies.

July 10, 2012
The American Petroleum Institute and America's Natural Gas Alliance release a review, prepared for the two groups by Battelle, on the Environmental Protection Agency’s multi-year study of the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking-water resources. The review criticizes the study as too broadly "including many activities commonly associated with oil and gas development" and not engaging "significant industry collaboration." Battelle manages six national laboratories for DOE. EPA releases a progress report on the study on December 21, 2012.

July 10, 2012
Former DOE officials Linda Stuntz and Dan Reicher, representing prospective Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Obama respectively, hold a debate in Washington sponsored by Business Roundtable on energy issues.

July 10, 2012
The Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory announces that scientists at the lab, using the TRIDENT laser, a unique and powerful 200 trillion-watt short-pulse laser, have created the largest neutron beam ever made by a short-pulse laser, breaking a world record. Neutron beams are commonly used in a wide variety of scientific research, particularly in advanced materials science.

July 10, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and its prime contractor National Security Technologies (NSTec) have been selected to demonstrate plug-in electric vehicle technology that could help federal vehicle fleets become more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. Eleven Chevy Volts were recently delivered to NSTec for use in the demonstration project at the NNSS and the Nevada Site Office in North Las Vegas.

July 11, 2012
A service station in Lawrence, Kansas, is the first retailer to offer E15 gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol at the pumps.

July 12, 2012
Secretary Chu and Deputy Secretary Poneman attend clean energy events to highlight President Obama’s call for the extension of clean energy tax credits and tax programs like the Production Tax Credit that support U.S renewable energy generation. The Secretary visits Ingeteam, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he tours the facilities that produce wind power generators and converters, in addition to PV solar inverters. Also in Milwaukee, the Secretary and DOE Indian Energy Policy Director Tracey LeBeau meet with Wisconsin Tribal Leaders to discuss their commitment to a clean energy economy. The Secretary, in addition, goes to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to visit DOE’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, which is pursuing cutting-edge research to develop advanced biofuels. The Deputy Secretary attends a series of clean energy events in Houston, Texas. These include an open press tour of Proinlosa Energy Corp., a company in the wind turbine manufacturing supply chain that develops tower parts. He also participates in a clean energy business roundtable and a public meeting of the National Petroleum Council, at which he announces that DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is funding 13 research projects that will receive a total of $30 million to expand the use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel. The new program, titled Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy - or “MOVE” – aims to engineer light-weight, affordable natural gas tanks for vehicles and develop natural gas compressors that can efficiently fuel a natural gas vehicle at home.

July 12, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., on the future prospects of oil production.

July 12, 2012
The Department and the National Science Foundation (NSF) sign a Memorandum of Understanding delineating agency responsibilities for the design, construction, and operation of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), an 8.4 meter wide-field telescope that will be located in Chile and will shoot pictures of the entire Southern sky about twice a week. NSF is responsible for development of the site and telescope, as well as the extensive data management system. DOE, through a collaboration led by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is responsible for development and delivery of the large-format camera. The 3.2- billion-pixel camera will be the world's largest digital camera when complete. The total construction cost of LSST is estimated to be about $665 million, approximately 70 percent from NSF, 24 percent from DOE, and 6 percent from private donors to the project.

July 12, 2012
The Department announces the grand prize winner, Leafully, in the Apps for Energy competition launched in March.

July 12, 2012
The Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), together with the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety, announce the successful completion of the Fourth International Meeting on Next Generation Safeguards meeting in Hanoi. Organized by NNSA’s Next Generation Safeguards Initiative, the meeting brought together more than 80 experts from 27 countries, two regional inspectorates, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to discuss practical steps related to the implementation of international safeguards.

July 13, 2012
The Department announces the transfer at the Hanford Site of the first large container of highly radioactive sludge from a basin next to the former K West plutonium production reactor along the Columbia River to dry storage in the center of the site. The transfer is the first of six shipments to remove the most radioactive material. At the same time, a separate system is being built to remove the rest of the sludge from the basin by the end of 2015.

July 16, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman tours Daikin McQuay’s technology center in Plymouth, Minnesota. The company is one of the world’s largest producers of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. With the help of nearly $1.4 million in Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits, the company is expanding its Minnesota facilities to deploy a new testing module that will produce more efficient, cost-saving technologies. The Deputy Secretary also visits the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 343 Union in Rochester, where he met with workers and toured the union’s clean energy job training facility. Local 343 offers a wind certification program for union members who are interested in construction, installation and maintenance jobs in the wind industry.

July 16, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of the Second Line of Defense program announces the successful completion of work with the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service (SBGS), the Polish Border Guard, and the Polish National Police in strengthening security at border crossings and airports in the lead up to the recent Union of European Football Association’s European Soccer Championship – “Euro 2012.”  Held once every four years, this sporting event is the third largest in the world, behind only the Olympics and the World Cup and was co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine from June 8 to July 1. The joint initiative was aimed at protecting Euro 2012 from nuclear and radiological threats.

July 16, 2012
President Obama, in response to a question on hydraulic fracturing at a campaign rally in Cincinnati, states that "there are a lot of folks right now that are engaging in hydraulic fracking who are doing it safely. The problem is, is that we haven’t established clear guidelines for how to do it safely, and informed the public so that neighbors know what’s going on, and your family, you can make sure that any industry that’s operating in your area, that they’re being responsible. So what we’ve said is, look, we are going to work with industry to establish best practices. We are going to invest in the basic research and science required to make sure this is done safely and in a way that protects the public health. And for responsible companies, they should be able to operate, make a profit, and we can all benefit and put people back to work.  But if you’re an irresponsible company that’s not doing the right thing, we’re going to hold you to account.  And that’s how we should develop this incredible resource -- which, by the way, if we do it properly, could end up changing the economics and politics globally of energy in a way that's actually very good for us, because we'll be less dependent on what happens in the Middle East and our economy will be less subject to the kinds of spikes that we saw earlier in the spring in terms of gas prices."

July 17, 2012
Prospective Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, in a campaign rally outside Pittsburgh, criticizes President Obama's energy policy that “says no to fracking, no to offshore, no to Alaska.” He states that "these things kill jobs."

July 17, 2012
The Department announces nearly $13 million in new nuclear energy innovation investments. $10.9 million will go to 13 projects to help solve common challenges across the nuclear industry and improve reactor safety, performance and cost competitiveness. $1.6 million will go to three university-led projects, helping to train and educate the next generation of nuclear energy scientists and engineers.

July 17, 2012
Howard Gruenspecht, Deputy Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), testifies on the outlook for light duty vehicles and the fuels used in those vehicles at a hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency Kathleen Hogan testifies on vehicle technologies and alternative fuels programs.

July 17, 2012
The FutureGen Alliance announces that Morgan County, Illinois, will remain the preferred location for the FutureGen 2.0 carbon dioxide (CO2) storage site and that the Alliance will no longer maintain alternate sites in Christian and Douglas Counties. Recent geologic testing and engineering studies confirm that the Morgan County site is a suitable location for CO2 storage.

July 17, 2012
The Department's Western Area Power Administration, in response to Secretary Chu's May 30 announcement and the formation of a Joint Outreach Team, begins a series of workshops and listening sessions, announced by Secretary Chu on May 30, to get input and recommendations from customers and stakeholders on modernizing the electric grid. The first sessions are held in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Billings, Montana.

July 17, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) announces participation with Departments of State and Defense and the European Commission in a series of field training exercises with the Republics of Armenia and Georgia from July 9-13, 2012. The exercises used realistic scenarios to demonstrate and strengthen internal, bilateral and international notification and response procedures that are activated in the event of illicit trans-border movement of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related materials.

July 18, 2012
The Department launches the “Clean Energy in Our Community” video series, which will feature small communities throughout the country that are striving to become more sustainable, are investing in the green economy, and are bringing the benefits of clean energy to local residents and workers.  The Department kicks off the series with a video from Luther College that highlights how Decorah, Iowa, is benefiting from the projects undertaken by the college to reduce their energy consumption and deploy clean, renewable energy projects campus-wide.

July 18, 2012
The Department announces a $1.4 million award to Wallingford- based Proton Energy Systems to collect and analyze performance data for hydrogen fueling stations and advanced refueling components. The projects will also help to track the performance and technical progress of innovative refueling systems to find ways to lower costs and improve operation.

July 18, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that its Office of Emergency Operations recently participated in the Arctic-2012 emergency response exercise in Russia at the Sayda-Bay branch of the Northwest Center on Radioactive Waste Management. This was the latest in a series of radiological emergency response exercises carried out by the Russian Federation and the U.S. under the auspices of a 1994 agreement between the two governments.

July 18, 2012
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), in a letter to Deputy Secretary Poneman, expresses concern for the "seismic integrity" of the 1970's-era Plutonium Facility at DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory. The facility, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur notes, is "susceptible to catastrophic structural failure." He states that the "current approach for assessing the Plutonium Facility's seismic behavior is not adequately defined, and is technically inadequate in several aspects. Timely action must be taken to fully understand if additional building modifications are required to eliminate or mitigate any remaining structural vulnerabilities in the design."

July 18, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar posts an article on the White House Blog on the recently announced five-year program for offshore oil and gas leasing, a key component of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy.

July 19, 2012
Administrator Thomas D’Agostino of the Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awards the first ever NNSA Science and Technology Excellence Award to Dr. Michel McCoy from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for his groundbreaking computer science research and leadership with the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program. The award is the highest level of recognition for science and technology achievement in NNSA.

July 19, 2012
The Navy holds a two-day demonstration in the Pacific of the Great Green Fleet, consisting of a five-ship Carrier Strike Group fueled by alternative sources of energy, including nuclear power. The demonstration successfully evaluates the performance of “drop-in replacement” advanced biofuel blends and certain energy efficient technologies in an operational setting. All systems perform at full capacity.

July 19, 2012
The Washington State Department of Ecology fines DOE $5,000 for missing a deadline to negotiate schedules for designing and building facilities to treat secondary waste that will result from the treatment of waste stored in the Hanford Sites’s underground tanks. DOE is managing construction of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at Hanford to treat 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes in 177 underground storage tanks. The WTP is being designed to turn most of waste into a stable glass form for permanent disposal. The treatment of the waste will also create byproducts called “secondary waste.” The missed deadline was to negotiate schedules for designing and building facilities to treat the secondary waste. The secondary waste will contain contaminants that could pose a long-term threat to human health and the environment.

July 20, 2012
The Department announces that a study sponsored by the Office of Fossil Energy indicates that billions of barrels of oil may be potentially recoverable from residual oil zones, which are areas of immobile oil found below the oil-water contact of a reservoir.

July 20, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General issues an Audit Report of the National Nuclear Security Administration's program to accelerate the domestic production of the critical medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) without the use of highly enriched uranium. The report finds that "progress has been made in developing a reliable domestic production capability for Mo-99" and "tests did not reveal any material internal control weaknesses in selected areas of . . . administration."

July 20, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses The Aspen Institute, Global Energy Forum, in
Aspen, Colorado, on prospects for U.S. oil and natural gas.

July 20, 2012
The laser system of DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Laser Accelerator (BELLA) sets a new world record by delivering more than one petawatt of power in a single pulse at a pulse rate of one hertz. Other lasers have produced more powerful pulses before but none has had the capability to produce subsequent pulses with a one-second turnaround time.

July 23, 2012
President Obama names 13 DOE-funded researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers, who are early in their independent research careers. The DOE scientists are among 96 researchers supported by 11 federal departments and agencies who will receive the PECASE. The President meets with the recipients at the White House on July 31.

July 24, 2012
The Portland, Maine-based Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) dedicates its first commercial-scale tidal turbine before it is deployed underwater in Cobscook Bay off the coast of Eastport. The pilot project--supported by $10 million in funding from DOE--is expected to generate enough energy to power 100 area homes. Once successfully deployed, it will be among the first commercial, grid-connected projects of its kind in the nation. After running and monitoring the initial project for a year, ORPC will expand its Maine project to nearby areas--installing additional power systems over the course of three years.

July 24, 2012
The Department of the Interior, in partnership with DOE, releases a roadmap, the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), for solar energy development in six southwestern states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The final Solar PEIS represents a major step forward in the permitting of utility-scale solar energy on public lands throughout the west. The Solar PEIS establishes solar energy zones with access to existing or planned transmission, the fewest resource conflicts, and incentives for development within those zones.

July 24, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it has successfully conducted the third seismic Source Physics Experiment (SPE-3) at the Nevada National Security Site. The seismic experiment was the third in a series of seven underground, fully-coupled, high-explosive field tests. The series is a long-term NNSA research and development effort that aims at improving arms control and nonproliferation treaty verification.

July 24, 2012
The Department of the Interior and DOE, as co-lead agencies, release the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development in six southwestern states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The final Solar PEIS is a major step forward in the permitting of utility-scale solar energy on public lands throughout the west. The Solar PEIS will serve as a roadmap for solar energy development by establishing solar energy zones with access to existing or planned transmission, the fewest resource conflicts, and incentives for development within those zones.

July 24, 2012
The Department's Savannah River Site announces the completion of a project to design, build, and relocate a new system for separating and capturing helium-3. an important byproduct of the tritium manufacturing process primarily used in radiation detectors employed by the Department of Homeland Security to detect neutron activity from nuclear material. The Tritium Responsive Infrastructure Modifications initiative will leverage technology advancements, so that the large, aging and more expensive processes will move from Cold War-era facilities into newer, smaller and less expensive accommodations, thereby reducing operating expenses by $28 million annually.

July 24, 2012
The American Petroleum Institute (API) files a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s mandated use of nonexistent cellulosic biofuels in the 2011 Renewable Fuel Standard. “EPA’s unattainable and absurd mandate forces refiners to pay a penalty for failing to use biofuels that don’t even exist,” says API Director of Downstream and Industry Operations Bob Greco. “The mandate is effectively an added tax on gasoline manufacturers that could ultimately burden consumers.”

July 25, 2012
The Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy announce a $41 million investment in 13 projects that will drive more efficient biofuels production and feedstock improvements. $31 million of funding will go to five projects that are part of the joint Biomass Research and Development Initiative to develop economically and environmentally sustainable sources of renewable biomass and increase the availability of renewable fuels and biobased products. $10 million of funding will go to eight research projects aimed at applying biomass genomics to improve promising biofuel feedstocks and drive more efficient, cost-effective energy production. These projects will use genetic mapping to advance sustainable biofuels production by analyzing and seeking to maximize genetic traits like feedstock durability, how tolerant feedstocks are to various environmental stresses, and the potential for feedstocks to be used in energy production.

July 25, 2012
Acting Under Secretary David Sandalow tours Keystone Electrical Manufacturing Company in Des Moines, Iowa, and ACCIONA Windpower’s wind turbine generator assembly plant in West Branch, Iowa – two companies in the wind energy supply chain that are benefitting from federal tax credits for renewable energy generation. The Under Secretary calls on Congress to extend clean energy tax credits for renewable energy and manufacturing. He reiterates this call in an article in the Des Moines Register on July 28.

July 26, 2012
The Department announces the selection of eight projects to advance the development of transformational oxy-combustion technologies capable of high-efficiency, low-cost carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plants. DOE's funding of $7 million is leveraged with recipient cost-share to support approximately $9.4 million in total projects.

July 26, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the approval of nearly $3 million in funding for collaborative research and development projects aimed at addressing nuclear security challenges. The projects, financed by NNSA’s Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention program, will be managed jointly through the intergovernmental International Science and Technology Center, located in the Russian Federation, and the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine.

July 26, 2012
Director of DOE's Office of Science William Brinkman does a presentation for DOE's Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee.

July 26, 2012
Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack post an article on the White House Blog on public lands as economic drivers for local communities in sectors ranging from tourism to outdoor recreation and energy development.

July 27, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration releases the Draft Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for public review and comment. The Draft Supplemental EIS analyzes the potential environmental impacts of alternatives for the disposition of 7.1 metric tons (MT) of additional weapons-­usable plutonium from pits that were declared surplus to national defense needs in 2007 but were not included in DOE's prior decisions as well as 6 MT of surplus, weapons-­usable non-pit plutonium. The preferred alternative is fabrication of pit and some non-pit plutonium into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for use in domestic commercial nuclear power reactors.

July 27, 2012
Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes posts an article on the White House Blog on the final Solar PEIS released on July 24 and the long-term game plan for solar energy development on public lands.

July 28, 2012
Three nuclear weapons protestors in the early morning hours trespass inside a zone where the use of deadly force is authorized at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and deface the walls of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. Eventually confronted by a guard, the protestors are stopped and arrested. "The protesters entry into the protected area was detected and a security response was performed," says Steve Wyatt, NNSA spokesperson at the site. "The protesters put themselves at a high risk of losing their life in performing this act. We are thankful that did not occur. There will be lessons learned from this incident that we will use to further refine and improve our security posture at Y-12."

July 30, 2012
Secretary Chu issues a statement on the death of former Secretary of Energy James Watkins.

July 30, 2012
The Department's Office of Legacy Management announces that it will conduct additional characterization work at the Riverton, Wyoming, Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act Site this summer, including extensive groundwater and soil sampling. The Department will use the sampling results to update the site conceptual model and to develop a revised groundwater flow and transport model to more accurately simulate natural flushing processes.

July 31, 2012
President Obama issues a statement announcing additional sanctions related to Iran. These include new sanctions against the Iranian energy and petrochemical sectors. The White House puts out a Fact Sheet.

July 31, 2012
USEC Inc. reports that it is "making steady progress" towards the goals of the American Centrifuge research, development, and demonstration program for producing enriched uranium at DOE's Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio. During the program’s first two months, USEC met the initial program milestone, placed additional AC100 centrifuge machines into service, and established an independent board of managers to oversee the program. USEC also met the conditions established in the cooperative agreement to continued funding in the initial budget period, and DOE has authorized continued federal cost share for the program of up to $61.3 million, for a total federal cost share of $87.7 million, which is expected to fund the program through November.

July 31-August 1, 2012
The Department's Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office hosts a two-day Industry Interest Workshop to evaluate interest in the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) currently leases the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant from DOE to enrich uranium. USEC may return most or all of the plant to DOE and terminate the lease. If that happens, other private industry may have the opportunity to continue enriching uranium or commercially use buildings, warehouses, machine shops, utilities, and other facilities as they become available.

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August 1, 2012
Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, which operates the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), orders a temporary security stand down as a result of the internal review of Y-12 security operations following the July 28 security incident. During the security stand down, all nuclear operations are put on hold, and all special nuclear materials are moved to vault-type facilities onsite. NNSA fully supports this action by the contractor.

August 1, 2012
The National Petroleum Council (NPC), a DOE advisory committee composed of oil-industry executives and other officials, releases a report, Advancing Technology for America’s Transportation Future, responding to Secretary Chu's request for advice on accelerating development of advanced fuel-vehicle systems through 2050 for passenger and freight transport, while examining ways to economically reduce the U.S. transportation sector’s 2050 life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The two-year study finds that government should "promote sustained funding . . . in pre-competitive aspects" of advanced fuel and vehicle technologies but "should be technology neutral while market dynamics drive commercialization." The NPC also found that achieving 50 percent GHG emission reductions in the transportation sector by 2050 would "require additional strategies beyond technology and infrastructure advances."

August 1, 2012
The Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases its annual U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Proved Reserves, 2010, with. proven crude oil and natural gas reserves achieved record annual volumetric increases in 2010. Proved oil reserves increased by 13 percent in 2010 to 25.2 billion barrels, marking the second consecutive annual increase and the highest volume of proved reserves since 1991. Natural gas proved reserves increased by 12 percent in 2010 to 317.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), the twelfth consecutive annual increase and the first year U.S. reserves surpassed 300 Tcf. "The use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in shale and other tight rock formations played an important role in the increase of oil and natural gas reserves," says EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski. "For both oil and natural gas, these reserves increases underscore the potential of a growing role for domestically-produced hydrocarbons in meeting current and projected U.S. energy demand."

August 1, 2012
As serious drought conditions spread, stressing the nation's corn crop, a bipartisan group of 156 House members petition Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to reduce the renewable-fuel mandate requiring refiners to blend 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol into the motor fuel supply in 2012. Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol. This follows a similar request made on July 30 by a coalition of livestock producers. Six Republican senators also send Jackson a letter, and several governors ask for a waiver of the mandate. Jackson denies the waiver request on November 16.

August 2, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), testifies on the outlook for oil and gas reserves and production and the differences between Federal and non-Federal lands before a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy and Power.

August 2, 2012
The Department announces that the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is providing a total of $43 million in funding for 19 new energy storage projects. These projects are supported through two new ARPA-E programs – Advanced Management and Protection of Energy Storage Devices and Small Business Innovation Research – and will focus on innovations in battery management and storage to advance electric vehicle technologies, help improve the efficiency and reliability of the electrical grid, and provide important energy security benefits to the nation’s armed forces.

August 2, 2012
The Department announces that Secretary Chu has assembled a group of independent technical experts to assess the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), specifically as it relates to the facility’s “black cells.” The review involves the plant’s capability, as designed, to detect equipment failure and to repair failed equipment inside the WTP’s black cells. Black cells are enclosed concrete rooms within the WTP Pretreatment facility that contain tanks and piping. Due to high levels of radioactivity once the plant begins operations, the cells are designed to be sealed with no access by personnel over the anticipated 40-year operating life span of the plant. The review will include the individual input of technical experts in a variety of fields.

August 2, 2012
The Senate Finance Committee passes a one-year extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for the domestic wind industry. Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal, in an article on the White House Blog, notes that "for months, the President has been calling on Congress to extend the PTC – which is currently slated to expire at the end of 2012 – in order to save tens of thousands of jobs in the American wind industry, manufacturing industry, as well as the associated supply chain."

August 3, 2012
Secretary Chu releases a statement on the July 28 security incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. "Safety and security at the sites where nuclear materials are stored is of the utmost importance," says the Secretary. "The incident at Y-12 earlier this week was an unacceptable and deeply troubling breach. This incident was not consistent with the level of professionalism and expertise we expect from our guard force and all of those federal employees and contractors responsible for security across the DOE complex." The Secretary states that DOE has "no tolerance for security breaches," observing that the "General Manager of the contractor protective force and two members of his leadership team were removed from their positions and all employees at the site are undergoing additional security training." He notes that a "relevant federal official" at the site has been temporarily reassigned, pending the outcome of the investigation, and General Rodney Johnson, deputy manager of NNSA's Pantex site, has been brought in to Y-12 "to help strengthen security." Secretary Chu adds that DOE's Chief of Health, Safety and Security Glenn Podonsky has sent a team to Y-12 to support NNSA's efforts and will conduct a separate independent investigation.

August 5, 2012
The mobile rover Curiosity, part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, lands on Mars with the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on the planet's surface. Unlike its predecessors, which used solar panels, Curiosity is powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, which was assembled and tested by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory with components from the Los Alamos and Oak Ridge national laboratories. Sandia National Laboratories performed the nuclear safety assessment. Curiosity also carries an instrument originally developed at Los Alamos called ChemCam, which will use blasts of laser energy to remotely probe Mars’s surface.

August 6, 2012
The Department's Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) award $62 million in research and development (R&D) contracts to five leading companies in high performance computing to accelerate the development of next-generation supercomputers vital to national defense, scientific research, energy security, and the nation’s economic competitiveness. AMD, IBM, Intel, Nvidia, and Whamcloud received awards to advance “extreme scale” computing technology with the goal of funding innovative R&D of critical technologies needed to deliver next generation capabilities within a reasonable energy footprint. DOE missions require exascale systems that operate at quintillions of floating point operations per second. Such systems would be 1,000 times faster than a 1-petaflop (quadrillion floating point operations per second) supercomputer. Currently, the world’s fastest supercomputer – the IBM BlueGene/Q Sequoia system at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – clocks in at 16.3 petaflops.

August 6, 2012
The Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announces that, for the fourth consecutive year, the lab’s TRU Waste Program has shipped a record number of transuranic (TRU) waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, NM, for permanent disposal. LANL’s 172nd shipment of TRU waste this year left Los Alamos bound for WIPP on August 2. With two months left in the fiscal year, LANL has already beaten last year’s fiscal year record of 171 shipments.

August 7, 2012
President Obama announces that seven nationally and regionally significant solar and wind energy projects will be expedited, including projects in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Wyoming, as part of Executive Order 13604 on Improving Performance of Federal Permitting and Review of Infrastructure Projects issued on March 22. Together, these infrastructure projects would produce nearly 5,000 megawatts (MW) of clean energy – enough to power approximately 1.5 million homes.

August 7, 2012
The Department's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability releases a report that reviews power outages and restoration efforts following the June 29, 2012, Derecho and compares them to outages and restoration efforts following other spring and summer storms in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic regions.

August 7, 2012
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in response to the federal appeals court ruling of June 8 ordering NRC to conduct a new environmental assessment of the impacts of storing spent fuel at reactor sites, decides not to issue final licenses for proposed new reactors as well as existing reactors needing to be re-licensed "until the court’s remand is appropriately addressed." Immediate impact on the nuclear power industry is expected to be minor since "all licensing reviews and proceedings should continue to move forward."

August 8, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issues a Request for Information that invites comments concerning competitive alternatives for the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Kansas City Plant (KCP) .In conjunction with the decision to conduct a competition for the management and operation (M&O) of SNL, NNSA is considering the potential benefits and challenges of acquisition strategies that include combining all or part of the SNL work scope with M&O work now performed at one or more other sites, including KCP. Physical relocation of facilities and mission operations is not under consideration.

August 8, 2012
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), in a review of design of the slurry transport system in the Pretreatment Facility of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site finds "a substantial number of safety issues that require resolution." Most significantly, pipeline plugging events could produce an explosion "resulting in the loss of primary confinement and damage to adjacent structures, systems, and components."

August 9, 2012
A123 Systems, a developer and manufacturer of advanced lithium iron phosphate batteries and systems, announces that it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Wanxiang Group Corporation establishing the framework for a strategic investment through which Wanxiang would invest up to $450 million in A123. Wanxiang is China's largest automotive components manufacturer and one of China's largest non-government-owned companies. With revenues falling due to production problems, A123 CEO David Vieau says the agreement should "remove the uncertainty regarding A123's financial situation." DOE awarded A123 a $249 million Recovery Act advanced battery grant in August 2009.

August 9, 2012
Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Danielson hosts a roundtable at the White House with leading high-tech manufacturers, research centers, academia, think tanks, and federal agencies to discuss opportunities for--and challenges to--U.S. competitiveness in advanced, clean energy manufacturing.

August 9, 2012
Richard Kauffman, senior advisor to Secretary Chu posts an article on "Seizing a Clean Energy Opportunity" on Huffington Post.

August 9, 2012
The Department announces the launch of the second part of a DOE-sponsored technology project to capture carbon dioxide and produce biofuels. The project consists of several indoor and outdoor ponds at a farm in Ohio that are being used to determine how an innovative phase-change material tackles three challenges inherent in algae biofuels production: maintaining temperature, minimizing water evaporation, and protecting against invasive species. The phase-change material absorbs infrared solar radiation during the day as latent heat and releases it to the water at night when temperatures drop. The algae in the ponds will photosynthesize CO2 captured from a small, coal-fired combustor used to heat greenhouses and will naturally produce lipids (oils) as it grows.

August 9, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the FBI announce the completion of the Bearcat Thunder counterterrorism table-top exercise at the University of Cincinnati, the 100th exercise of its kind. The exercise is part of NNSA’s Silent Thunder table-top series, which is aimed at giving federal, state and local officials, first responders, and law enforcement critical, hands-on experience in responding to a terrorist attack involving radiological materials.

August 9, 2012
The Department of the Interior announces that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) in the assessment of a proposed project to demonstrate floating offshore wind technology on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Maine. Statoil North America has requested a commercial wind lease to build a demonstration project of full-scale floating wind turbine technology, located about 12 nautical miles off the coast, which would have a 12-megawatt production capacity through four wind turbine generators.

August 10, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration issues a "show cause notice" to Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, operating contractor of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, requiring the contractor explain why its contract should not be terminated following the July 28 security incident.

August 10, 2012
The Department in a ceremony at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, attended by representatives of federal, state, and local historic preservation groups, announces the formal completion of a memorandum of agreement that will preserve the historic contributions of Oak Ridge’s K-25 site to the World War II Manhattan Project. The agreement between the DOE, Tennessee State Historic Preservation, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, City of Oak Ridge, East Tennessee Preservation Alliance and other consulting parties has been under negotiation for nearly a decade. The K-25 complex, which produced the uranium-235 used in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, was closed in 1987. The original buildings are in the process of being demolished by DOE as part of the largest environmental remediation project in Tennessee’s history.

August 10, 2012
A routine remote-camera inspection of AY-102, a double-walled tank storing high-level nuclear waste at DOE's Hanford Site, finds a mound of dry, white material in the area between the two walls of the tank. The Department subsequently confirms that the material is waste leaking from the tank. This is the first instance of a double-walled tank leaking at Hanford.

August 13, 2012
The Department announces the winners of the Max Tech and Beyond Design Competition for Ultra-Low-Energy-Use Appliances and Equipment. The competition supports faculty-lead student design teams at U.S. universities to design, build, and test ultra efficient product prototypes to reduce energy consumption in buildings and/or prototypes that greatly reduce the cost of such ultra-efficient products. The dual objectives of the competition are to support the development of next-generation prototypes and the next generation of scientists and engineers who will design them.

August 13, 2012
Secretary Chu announces seven new projects to accelerate the development and deployment of stronger and lighter materials for the next generation of American-made cars and trucks. These projects include the development and validation of modeling tools to deliver higher performing carbon fiber composites and advanced steels, as well as research into new lightweight, high-strength alloys for energy-efficient vehicle and truck engines.

August 13, 2012
The Department's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory announces that it has transformed the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) into a more precise tool for exploring the nanoworld. The improvements yield laser pulses focused to higher intensity in a much narrower band of X-ray wavelengths, and may enable experiments that have never before been possible. The increased intensity in each pulse could be used to probe deep into complex materials to help answer questions about exotic substances like high-temperature superconductors or intricate electronic states like those found in topological insulators.

August 14, 2012
The Department releases the 2011 Wind Technologies Market Report highlighting strong growth in the U.S. wind energy market in 2011. “This report shows that America can lead the world in the global race to manufacture and deploy clean energy technologies,” says Secretary Chu. “The wind industry employs tens of thousands of American workers and has played a key role in helping to more than double wind power over the last four years.” President Obama, on a visit to a family farm in Iowa, discusses the importance of wind energy. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Danielson posts an article on both the Energy and White House blogs.

August 14, 2012
Director of DOE's Office of Science William Brinkman does a presentation for DOE's Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee.

August 15, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration authorizes the resumption of nuclear operations at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Operations had been temporarily suspended on August following the July 28 security incident.

August 15, 2012
The Department announces that the Oak Ridge site's Environmental Management program has begun operations at a newly constructed facility that will accelerate the completion of remote-handled transuranic (TRU) waste processing at the site by two years and save more than $20 million. The new Cask Processing Enclosure facility is located at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center (TWPC). TWPC processes, repackages, and ships the site’s legacy TRU waste offsite.

August 15, 2012
A coalition of electric-motor manufacturers, energy efficiency advocates, and environmental groups file a petition with DOE recommending both new and more robust energy efficiency standards for the types of electric motors used in commercial and industrial applications such as pumps, conveyors, and fans.

August 16, 2012
The Obama Administration announces the selection of the first public-private pilot institute for manufacturing innovation in Youngstown, Ohio, to help revitalize American manufacturing and encourage companies to invest in the U.S. This new partnership, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII), was selected through a competitive process to receive an initial investment of $30 million in federal funding and matched by $40 million from the winning consortium of manufacturing firms, universities, community colleges, and non-profit organizations from the Ohio-Pennsylvania ‘Tech Belt.’ DOE is one of five agencies providing funding.

August 16, 2012
The Department releases its second video in the “Clean Energy in Our Community” video series featuring investments by the University of Minnesota, Morris, in clean energy that are benefitting local residents and workers.

August 17, 2012
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a 2 to 1 decision, rules against a coalition of trade groups representing the food, engine, and oil industries that had brought suit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 decision approving use of gasoline blends containing 15 percent ethanol, commonly known as E15, under the Clean Air Act. Food producers and livestock groups contended the EPA decision would increase the price of corn. Engine manufacturers were concerned users would put E15 into engines not designed for it. The oil industry asserted that E15 would be difficult to manufacture and market. The court finds that the groups lack standing--they did not prove that they were directly injured by the decision.

August 21, 2012
The Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory announces that researchers have developed a material that can rapidly, selectively, and economically extract valuable and precious dissolved metals from water, including uranium from seawater. "We have shown that our adsorbents can extract five to seven times more uranium at uptake rates seven times faster than the world's best adsorbents," notes a lab scientist. The development eventually could make it possible to economically extract some of the ocean's estimated 4.5 billion tons of uranium. Dissolved uranium in seawater exists in concentrations of just 3.2 parts per billion.

August 22, 2012
The Department announces that carbon dioxide (CO2) injection has begun at the world’s first fully integrated coal power and geologic storage project in southwest Alabama, with the goals of assessing integration of the technologies involved and laying the foundation for future use of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. The "Anthropogenic Test"--conducted by the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, one of seven partnerships in DOE’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships program--uses CO2 from a newly constructed post-combustion CO2-capture facility at Alabama Power’s 2,657-megawatt Barry Electric Generating Plant. Once captured, the CO2 is transported approximately 12 miles west to the southern flank of a geologic structure.  Injection will take place over 2 years at a rate of up to 550 metric tons of CO2 per day.

August 22, 2012
The Department's cleanup contractor at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant begins removal of more than 1,500 panels of cement-asbestos siding from the 65,000-square-foot facility known as the C-340 Metals Plant, which produced uranium metal during the Cold War. Demolition work will begin in September and is projected to last through the end of 2012.

August 23, 2012
The Department announces the results of a study by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory evaluating the role of natural gas in the energy supply of the U.S. Natural gas is evaluated with respect to resource base, market growth, environmental profile, costs, barriers, risks, and what others are saying.

August 23, 2012
Prospective Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney at a rally in Hobbs, New Mexico, outlines his energy policy calling for U.S. energy independence by 2012. He calls for increased domestic oil and natural gas drilling and a reduction in federal regulations. The candidate also says he supports renewable sources of electricity, such as wind power, and the federal mandate to blend ethanol into the gasoline supply.

August 23, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General issues an Audit Report on DOE's progress in completing the waste feed delivery system to support operations of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site. The report finds that DOE "had completed a number of waste feed delivery subprojects earlier than planned and was on track to complete other critical path activities" but "that a number of challenges remain for completing the construction and operation of the waste feed delivery system."

August 23, 2012
Gary Brunson, DOE engineering division director at the Hanford Site's Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), in a memo to Scott Samuelson, DOE's director of the WTP, cites 34 design and construction failures on the part of Bechtel National Inc. (BNI), the contractor with design authority for the WTP. "The number and significance of these issues indicate that Bechtel National Inc. is not competent to complete their role as the Design Authority for the WTP," Brunson states, and the role "should be immediately removed from BNI." DOE, in the "interest of transparency," makes the memo available to the public and says that it is reviewing the memo.

August 24-25, 2012
In a two-day event, DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory commemorates the 50th anniversary of the lab. The event began with a daylong scientific symposium exploring research opportunities for the lab's next half century and continued the next day with tours and a barbecue luncheon and live band on the main quad for current and retired employees and their families. The event culminated with an anniversary ceremony featuring remarks by Secretary Chu, Stanford University President John Hennessy, SLAC's current and former directors, and other distinguished guests.

August 27, 2012
The Department releases information on customer power outages and other impacts on the energy sector as Tropical Storm Isaac threatens the Gulf Coast. DOE is the designated Federal Sector-Specific agency directing Emergency Support Function12 (ESF-12) activities for the Energy Sector under the National Response Framework. DOE has teams of responders specializing in energy infrastructure and coordinating with deployed personnel, other Department offices, and Federal and State and local agencies in responding to the emergency.

August 27, 2012
The Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory announces that three lab scientists have teamed with an Oak Ridge engineering services firm to form a subsidiary and market an award-winning text analysis system. The lab researchers are the inventors of Piranha, software used by the military and Department of Homeland Security to analyze large sets of streaming data. Piranha can find similar documents to a document of interest, remove duplicated documents such as identical news stories from different sources, and automatically classify documents by topic. The technology has been used to find and arrest child predators and to uncover illicit activities.

August 27, 2012
A MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change research study finds that a carbon tax starting at $20 per ton would raise $1.5 trillion in revenue, which could then be used to reduce personal or corporate income taxes, extend the payroll tax cut that expires this year, maintain spending on social programs—or some combination of these options—while reducing the deficit. The tax on carbon would cut carbon dioxide releases by 20 percent by 2050 and keep oil imports from rising.

August 28, 2012
Secretary Chu announces, as part of the SunShot Initiative, new investments totaling $10 million over five years for two university-led projects to advance innovative concentrating solar power (CSP) system technologies. CSP technologies use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect solar energy and convert it to heat that can be used to produce electricity. The two projects focus on making dramatic improvements to heat transfer fluids that gather thermal energy from the sun and transport it to the power block, where the energy is used to drive a turbine that generates electricity.

August 28, 2012
Acting Under Secretary David Sandalow addresses the U.S.-Brazil Wind Workshop Rio de Janeiro. "Wind power has arrived," he says in his opening words. "For many years, widespread wind power was a distant dream. No longer. Today, wind power is shaping energy markets around the world."

August 28, 2012
The Obama Administration finalizes fuel efficiency standards that will increase fuel economy to the equivalent of 54.5 mpg for cars and light-duty trucks by Model Year 2025. When combined with previous standards set by this Administration, this move will nearly double the fuel efficiency of those vehicles compared to new vehicles currently on the roads. “These fuel standards represent the single most important step we’ve ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” says President Obama. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood posts an article on the White House Blog.

August 29, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) issues a Special Report on the July 28 "security breach" at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Y-12 National Security Complex. The IG review finds that "the Y-12 security incident represented multiple system failures on several levels. We identified troubling displays of ineptitude in responding to alarms, failures to maintain critical security equipment, over reliance on compensatory measures, misunderstanding of security protocols, poor communications, and weaknesses in contract and resource management. Contractor governance and Federal oversight failed to identify and correct early indicators of these multiple system breakdowns. When combined, these issues directly contributed to an atmosphere in which the trespassers could gain access to the protected security area directly adjacent to one of the Nation's most critically important and highly secured weapons-related facilities."

August 29, 2012
The Department updates information on customer power outages and other impacts on the energy sector as Hurricane Isaac makes landfall on the Louisiana coast.

August 29, 2012
The Department announces five new research projects to accelerate innovations that could lower the cost of photovoltaic and concentrating solar power technologies. These investments will enable collaborative research teams from industry, universities, and national laboratories to work together at DOE’s Scientific User Facilities, a national network of unique facilities that provide over 10,000 scientists and engineers each year with open access to some of the best instruments and tools in the world, including x-ray sources, accelerators, supercomputers, and nanoscale research centers.

August 29, 2012
F.M. Russo, project director for Bechtel National Inc. (BNI), the contractor with design authority at the Hanford Site's Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), responds to the August 23 DOE memo citing 34 BNI design and construction failures and recommending that BNI be removed from its role due to incompetence. Russo calls the memo "dangerously misleading about these specific issues and about the important work we are doing in general for this project and mission."

August 30, 2012
President Obama signs an Executive Order to facilitate investments in industrial energy efficiency. The order directs the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency, to coordinate actions at the Federal level while providing policy and technical assistance to states to promote investments in industrial energy efficiency. The Executive Order also directs agencies to foster a national dialogue through ongoing regional workshops to encourage the adoption of best practice policies and investment models that overcome barriers to investment, provide public information on the benefits of unlocking investment in industrial energy efficiency, and use existing Federal authorities that can support these investments.

August 30, 2012
The Department's Idaho National Laboratory (INL) announces that it is demonstrating for energy industry stakeholders a suite of cybersecurity tools that provides situational awareness of networks and control systems. Such awareness enables an energy utility to further safeguard its systems from cyberattack. "We're trying to help people better understand their computer networks so they can better protect them," an INL spokesperson says.

August 30, 2012
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) informs the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) that it has identified systemic deficiencies related to the adequacy of the development, review, and approval of safety control strategies for nuclear operations at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Citing a number of issues, the DNFSB states that NNSA and LLNL are applying "insufficient rigor and conservatism" in the development, review, and approval of safety control strategies.

August 30, 2012
Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire and Attorney General Rob McKenna in a letter to Secretary Chu request that DOE avoid or minimize delays to the current court-ordered schedule for construction and initial operations of the Waste Treatment Plant as further delay continues to put Washington state at risk. “Waste held in unfit underground single-shell tanks, many of which have already leaked, threatens the ground water, the river and our public health,” the officials write. The October 2010 court order allows the state to take DOE back to court if it believes the federal government is not complying with requirements.

August 30, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency in a Federal Register Notice requests comments on petitions it has received to waive the federal ethanol mandate due to extensive drought.

August 30, 2012
A Gallup poll finds that energy is a top issue in the presidential election for less than one percent of Americans.

August 30, 2012
Mitt Romney accepts the Republican Party nomination for president. His speech contains several energy references. He faults President Obama for his "assault on coal and gas and oil [that] will send energy and manufacturing jobs to China." He lays out a five-step plan for creating 12 million jobs. The first step is that "by 2020 North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables."

August 31, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that DOE, following a request from Marathon Petroleum Company, has agreed to lend 1 million barrels of sweet crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s (SPR) Bayou Choctaw site in Louisiana to address the short term impact on the company’s refining capacity caused by Hurricane Isaac, which is resulting in limited crude oil shortages.

August 31, 2012
The Department announces the selection of 14 new research projects across 11 states that will be a part of an expanding portfolio of projects designed to increase understanding of methane hydrates’ potential as a future energy supply. Methane hydrates are 3D ice-lattice structures with natural gas locked inside, and are found both onshore and offshore – including under the Arctic permafrost and in ocean sediments along nearly every continental shelf in the world. The projects build on the completion of a successful, unprecedented test, announced on May 2, that was able to safely extract a steady flow of natural gas from methane hydrates on the North Slope of Alaska.

August 31, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) finds that DOE has not always effectively identified and implemented energy-saving opportunities through facility evaluations and electricity metering. Three of the five sites reviewed--the Brookhaven, Oak Ridge, and Los Alamos national laboratories--have not always identified or implemented low- and no-cost, quick payback energy conservation measures discovered during facility evaluations. In addition, two of the five sites--the Oak Ridge lab and the Y-12 National Security Complex--have not fully evaluated existing buildings to determine, among other things, whether building systems such as heating and lighting were operating as intended, despite specifically identified savings and recommendations to do so. The IG "conservatively estimates" that DOE could save approximately $6.6 million annually if it more proactively assesses and repairs building systems through facility evaluations.

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September 5, 2012
Secretary Chu gives a speech on "How Technology Can Change the World" commemorating DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on its 50th Anniversary on August 24.

September 5, 2012
Secretary Chu arrives at Richland, Washington, for a 3-day stay meeting with his recently formed group of independent technical experts to assess the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), specifically as it relates to the facility’s “black cells.”

September 5, 2012
Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, operating contractor at the Y-12 National Security Complex, issues a release summarizing the recent moves to "improve security, maintenance and staffing" following the July 28 security incident.

September 5, 2012
TransCanada Corporation announces it has submitted a Supplemental Environmental Report to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality for a new preferred alternative route for the Keystone XL Pipeline in Nebraska. The new route covers approximately 210 miles of the previous proposed route in Nebraska and increases the length of the pipeline in the state by 20 miles to a new total length of approximately 275 miles. The route "crosses fewer miles of threatened and endangered species habitat, fewer streams and rivers and considerably fewer miles of severely wind erodible soils."

September 6, 2012
The Department announces that it has exercised its option to extend the current Savannah River Site Management and Operating contract with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC (SRNS) for an additional 38 months, from August 1, 2013, to September 2016. The SRNS contract was competitively awarded January 10, 2008. The total value of the SRNS contract with the extension is approximately $8 billion.

September 6, 2012
The Department announces that workers at the Hanford site have completed the retrieval of radioactive and chemical waste from single-shell tank (SST) C-104, an underground storage tank that held 259,000 gallons of waste left over from nuclear weapons production at Hanford. Tank C-104 once contained the second-highest waste volume of the 16 SSTs in Hanford’s C Farm, including a significant amount of plutonium and uranium.

September 6, 2012
The Department's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announces that technicians in Minnesota are beginning to position the first block of a detector that will be part of the largest, most advanced neutrino experiment in North America. The NuMI Off-Axis Neutrino Appearance experiment (NOvA) will study the properties of neutrinos, such as their masses, and investigate whether they helped give matter an edge over antimatter after both were created in equal amounts in the big bang. The experiment is on track to begin taking data in 2013.

September 6, 2012
The Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory announces that a neutron detector developed by the lab has been licensed to move the technology toward the commercial marketplace. The Neutron-Sensitive Anger Camera allows researchers to study a wider variety of crystalline structures, supporting studies in biology, earth science, geology, materials science and condensed matter physics. The advances in biological research could affect the development of novel drugs for many types of disease.

September 6, 2012
President Obama is nominated by the Democratic Party for a second term. In his acceptance speech, the President boasts of his energy accomplishments: "After 30 years of inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. We have doubled our use of renewable energy, and thousands of Americans have jobs today building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries. In the last year alone, we cut oil imports by 1 million barrels a day -- more than any administration in recent history. And today, the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in the last two decades." He states that the American people have a choice "between a strategy that reverses this progress, or one that builds on it. We’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we’ll open more. But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. We’re offering a better path. We’re offering a better path, where we -- a future where we keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal; where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and trucks; where construction workers build homes and factories that waste less energy; where we develop a hundred-year supply of natural gas that’s right beneath our feet.  If you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone. And, yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet -- because climate change is not a hoax."

September 7, 2012
The U.S. and the Czech Republic announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that is intended to strengthen efforts in the fight against nuclear terrorism. Deputy Secretary of Energy Poneman and Czech First Deputy Minister of the Interior Jaroslav Hruška sign the MOU, which lays the foundation to begin work to prevent the illicit trafficking of special nuclear and other radioactive material.

September 7, 2012
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issue a joint memorandum calling for department and agency commitment to the goals identified in the Memorandum on Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution, and the goals identified in related policy guidance. This memorandum supersedes an OMB/CEQ joint memorandum issued in November 28, 2005, on Environmental Conflict Resolution.

September 10, 2012
Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, operating contractor at the Y-12 National Security Complex, responds to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s August 10 "show cause letter" regarding concerns at Y-12 following the July 28 security incident.

September 10, 2012
Secretary Chu, in an article on the Energy Blog, announces the relaunching of DOE's EnergySaver.gov website. The site offers practical tips and advice on making homes more energy efficient.

September 11, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the National Association of State Energy Officials on the short-term energy outlook. Deputy Administrator Howard Gruenspecht addresses the LDC Gas Forum in Chicago, Illinois on recent changes in natural gas markets.

September 12, 2012
The Department announces, as part of the SunShot Initiative, the start of a new competition to make it faster, easier, and cheaper to install rooftop solar energy systems. The SunShot Prize makes a total of $10 million in cash awards available to the first three teams that repeatedly demonstrate the non-hardware costs, or price to plug in, can be as low as $1 per watt for small-scale photovoltaic systems on American homes and businesses. This ambitious target represents a decrease in the “soft costs” of solar energy systems – including permitting, licensing, connecting to the grid and other non-hardware costs – by more than 65 percent. By breaking a significant price barrier that was considered unachievable only a decade ago, the winning teams will demonstrate that solar energy is an affordable solution for American families and businesses.

September 12, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman and Inspector General Gregory Friedman testify before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on oversight of the nuclear weapons complex. "As the recent incident at Y-12 demonstrates," the Deputy Secretary says, "the Department has at times fallen short of our own expectations and faces continuing challenges in our journey of continuous improvement. This recent incident, as the Secretary has made clear, is unacceptable, and we have taken and will continue to take steps not only to identify and correct issues at Y-12, but across the DOE complex." Friedman notes that his office found "troubling breakdowns" in security at Y-12 and "Federal oversight failed to identify and correct early indicators of the breakdowns." During follow-up questioning, Friedman notes that “There were a huge number of false alarms ongoing on a regular basis. They are due to critters and squirrels and other things. So they were somewhat, from my point of view, numbed by the number of false alarms. There was a delay in the response. The response of the first responder was less than adequate.”

September 12, 2012
The Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) open the nation’s first zero net-energy residential test facility. Located on NIST’s Gaithersburg, MD, campus, the laboratory will demonstrate its ability to generate as much energy from renewable energy sources as it uses annually--living up to the definition of zero net-energy. Although the two-story, four-bedroom, three-bath facility looks like a traditional house, the structure is not intended for human habitation. Computer simulations using software and mechanical controls will carefully mimic the activities of a four-person, energy-efficient household. The structure will be used as a testing facility for both new and existing energy efficient technologies. DOE provided architectural design, training, and construction management support for the project.

September 12, 2012
The Department announces completion of initial steps toward developing a solar energy facility on a uranium mill tailings disposal site in southwestern Colorado. The DOE Office of Legacy Management and American Capital Energy have agreed to a three-year option on a lease of up to 25 years on the surface of the Durango Disposal Site near Durango, Colorado, to establish a solar photovoltaic power generating facility. Upon completion, the site could accommodate a system generating up to 4.5 megawatts, or enough energy to power approximately 1,000 homes.

September 12, 2012
The Department's Sandia National Laboratories releases the findings of a national poll, “The Goals of Energy Policy,” showing that the vast majority--more than 85 percent--of the 884 energy professionals surveyed prefer policymaking that pursues simultaneously security of its energy supply, economic stability, and reduced environmental impacts.

September 12, 2012
The first pictures are taken using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), constructed by DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and mounted on a telescope at the National Science Foundation’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The DECam is the most powerful survey instrument of its kind. With this device, weighing 4 to 5 tons and roughly the size of a phone booth, astronomers and physicists will probe the mystery of dark energy, the force they believe is causing the universe to expand faster and faster. DECam can capture light from more than 100,000 galaxies up to eight billion light years away with each picture.

September 12, 2012
The Department's Argonne National Laboratory announces that a project led by two lab physicists will do a computer simulation of the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years forward to the present. The program will run on the lab's Mira supercomputer, the third-fastest computer in the world, and will use trillions of "particles"-- elements in the simulation that stand in for small bits of matter. The computer will let time run, and watch as the particles move through space in response to the forces acting on them. As the simulation progresses over a two week period, these bits of matter will clump together under gravity to form larger and larger blobs representing galaxies, galaxy clusters, and superclusters. The laboratory also announces that scientists are using levitation to improve the drug development process, eventually yielding more effective pharmaceuticals with fewer side effects. They have discovered a way to use sound waves to levitate individual droplets of solutions containing different pharmaceuticals and, at the molecular level, getting the drugs to form amorphous rather than crystalline structures. Drugs with crystalline structures are less efficiently taken up by the body.

September 13, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman testifies before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces on the security incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex. "The incident at Y-12 was unacceptable," states the Deputy Secretary, "and it served as an important wake-up call for our entire complex. As a result, NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration] will use this event to review the security at all of our NNSA sites."

September 14, 2012
In a special livestream presentation hosted by Secretary Chu, Joe Incandela, head spokesperson for the CMS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, delivers a lecture about the Higgs boson.

September 14, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency announces that it will require refiners to blend 1.28 billion gallons of bio-based diesel into the nation’s fuel supply in 2013. The requirement for 2012 was one billion gallons.

September 15, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) celebrates the 75th anniversaries of BPA and the Bonneville Dam. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Bonneville Lock and Dam and signed the Bonneville Project Act in 1937, bringing clean, efficient hydropower to the Northwest.

September 17, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Rio Oil and Gas Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on global oil geopolitics.

September 17, 2012
The Department's Sandia National Laboratories announces that magnetically imploded tubes called liners, intended to help produce controlled nuclear fusion at scientific “break-even” energies or better within the next few years, have functioned successfully in preliminary tests. To exceed scientific break-even is the most hotly sought-after goal of fusion research, in which the energy released by a fusion reaction is greater than the energy put into it — an achievement that would have extraordinary energy and defense implications. That the liners survived their electromagnetic drubbing is a key step in stimulating further Sandia testing of a concept called MagLIF (Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion), which will use magnetic fields and laser pre-heating in the quest for energetic fusion.

September 18, 2012
Secretary Chu addresses the International Atomic Energy Agency's General Conference in Vienna. In his remarks, the Secretary shares a message from President Obama and discusses efforts to create a new international framework for peaceful nuclear energy. He says the U.S. is working with its partners in the international community to enhance security at facilities with sensitive nuclear material around the world and mentions the July 28 security incident at DOE's Y-12 National Security Complex. "Last month, when protestors breached the security perimeter of one of our most important nuclear security facilities," he notes, "we took swift and strong action to redouble security at all of our nuclear sites. While they never posed a threat to any sensitive materials, this unfortunate incident was an important wake up call for our entire complex, and an important reminder that none of us can afford anything but the highest level of vigilance."

September 18, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) participates in a commissioning ceremony at the Port of Marsaxlokk, Malta, to launch the operation of specialized radiation detection equipment installed by NNSA’s Megaports Initiative. The new installation can detect the presence of nuclear or radiological material that could be used in a nuclear or radiation dispersal device as well as other radioactive materials and will help to secure cargo containers passing through the port.

September 18, 2012
The Department announces that a collaboration of five DOE national laboratories has completed first-generation risk profiles that, for the first time, offer a means to predict the probability of complications that could arise from specific carbon dioxide (CO2) storage sites.

September 18, 2012
USEC Inc. announces that it has accomplished the second of five technical milestones, in the American Centrifuge research, development, and demonstration program for producing enriched uranium, with DOE certification of the successful completion of 20 years of centrifuge run-time on the commercial plant AC100 centrifuge machine.

September 19, 2012
The Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (ICCS) project in Decatur, Illinois, a major clean coal project and DOE’s first large-scale industrial carbon capture and storage demonstration project, opens of the National Sequestration Education Center. The Center was funded in partnership with the Richland Community College and will contain classrooms, training, and laboratory facilities, offering students associate degrees in sequestration technology.

September 20, 2012
The Department releases its third video in the “Clean Energy in Our Community” video series, highlighting clean energy investments by Allegheny College, located in northwest Pennsylvania. The school’s investments in energy efficiency and sustainability, along with its support for clean, renewable fuels, are benefiting residents and workers across Meadville, a town of about 13,000 people.

September 20, 2012
The Department's Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announce that 46 research grants totaling $14 million have been awarded as part of the Joint Program in High Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas (HEDLP). Contemporary advances in laser, particle beam, and pulsed power technologies have made possible the creation of increasingly high energy density states in the laboratory. Studies of such states of matter are providing insights into fields ranging from astrophysics to fusion energy.

September 20, 2012
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announces the creation of a new office that will help the Commission focus on potential cyber and physical security risks to energy facilities under its jurisdiction.

September 21, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that the last of the Security Category I/II special nuclear material items that required the highest level of security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have been removed.

September 21, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the commissioning of the Abramovo Counterterrorism Training Center (ACTC). Located in the city of Abramovo, the ACTC will be used by the Russian Ministry of Defense (RF MOD) to train personnel for Russia’s nuclear sites in security tactics and measures. This will allow RF MOD to assure a new level of nuclear material protection against terrorist threats. This center was built in joint partnership with NNSA, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense.

September 21, 2012
President Barack Obama announces his intent to nominate eight new members to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.

September 23, 2012
The Department marks the 20th anniversary of the last full-scale underground nuclear explosive test. The test, conducted by DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory and code named “Divider,” was the last of an eight-test series called “Julin.” The test had an announced yield less than the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT. The purpose of the test, also announced at the time, was “to ensure the safety of U.S. deterrent forces.” Divider was the last of 1,030 nuclear tests carried out by the U.S. Since then, the U.S. has developed the capability to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of its stockpile through the use of state-of-the-art technology and research while maintaining a moratorium on nuclear explosive testing.

September 25, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), working in partnership with the Polish and Russian governments and the National Center for Nuclear Research, announces the successful conversion of the Maria Research Reactor in Otwock, Poland. As a result of the conversion, the research reactor at the National Center for Nuclear Research was converted from highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. In total, 27 kilograms of Russian-origin HEU fresh fuel and 61.9 kilograms of HEU spent fuel from the facility were returned to Russia.

September 25, 2012
The Department announces that it has extended by three years its contract with CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC, the company currently operating the Idaho Cleanup Project at the DOE’s Idaho Site. The current contract ends September 30, 2012. DOE extended the contract through September 30, 2015, and the anticipated dollar value of this extension is $730 million.

September 25, 2012
The Department's Nevada National Security Site conducts the 100th experiment of the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) Facility used to help assess the reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. The experiment to determine how plutonium will react under specific pressures, temperatures, and strain-rates is conducted using a two-stage gas gun to fire projectiles into plutonium targets in a highly controlled environment.

September 25, 2012
The Department's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, Ohio, hosts about 900 high school juniors and educators from 20 regional high schools for its third annual Science Alliance, a science fair with hands-on demonstrations related to science, technology, engineering, and math.

September 26, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General issues a follow-up Audit Report on the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) refurbishment program of the aging W76 nuclear warhead with the goal of extending the warhead life by 30 years. The program has experienced significant delays in startup and in achieving production goals. The report finds that "NNSA may be unable to complete the W76 [program] within established scope, cost and schedule parameters, unless it adopts a more effective approach to reducing unit costs."

September 27, 2012
The Department announces more than $13 million in new investments for university-led nuclear innovation projects. The three awards, under DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP), will support nuclear energy R&D and student investment at U.S. colleges and universities across the country.

September 27, 2012
The Department’s Weatherization Assistance Program. marks the one millionth home weatherized since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act work began in April 2009. Weatherizing the homes has supported tens of thousands of American construction jobs--an average of more than 12,000 direct jobs per quarter from 2009 to 2012. More than 90 percent of the materials used to weatherize homes--like insulation and high efficiency windows--are made in the U.S., helping support thousands of domestic manufacturing jobs. In addition, every home that is weatherized saves that family an average of up to $400 a year on their heating and cooling bills.

September 27, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Federal Forecasters Conference, The Value of Government Forecasts, in Washington, D.C., on Energy Forecasting in Volatile Times.

September 27, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the successful completion of the Qinhuangdao Radiation Detection Training Center (RDTC) and the commencement of the center’s first class for China Customs officers. The opening of the RDTC is part of the longstanding cooperation between NNSA and the General Administration of Customs, China, in their joint efforts to counter nuclear terrorism.

September 27, 2012
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) releases a report on the effects on federal research and development (R&D) funding if Congress fails to prevent the automatic budget cuts required by "sequestration" in the Budget Control Act of 2011. DOE could see R&D cuts of 7.6% over five years. “Cuts of this scale would actually push most agency budgets back at least a decade,” says an AAAS spokesperson. “It is pretty clear that most labs would be impacted, no doubt, from these cuts. They may have to scale back individual projects or programs; there may be fewer partnership opportunities.”

September 28, 2012
Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, operating contractor at the Y-12 National Security Complex, announces that it will terminate Wackenhut Services, Inc.–Oak Ridge's contract for security services and take direct responsibility for security at Y-12, following the recommendation from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Security activities will be transitioned beginning October 1.

September 28, 2012
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosts the first ever U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Women in Clean Energy Symposium. C3E  was created in 2010 by DOE and eight partner governments to advance women’s participation in the clean energy. The symposium brings together women from all career levels and paths working in clean energy to network and drive ongoing discussions around current issues in the field. Acting Under Secretary David Sandalow gives closing remarks.

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October 1, 2012
The Department celebrates its 35th anniversary.

October 1, 2012
President Obama proclaims October 2012 as National Energy Action Month. He calls on Americans "to recognize this month by working together to achieve greater energy security, a more robust economy, and a healthier environment for our children."

October 1, 2012
The White House hosts the “Energy Datapalooza,” the first annual showcase of the Energy Data Initiative, where dozens of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs and innovators celebrate new products, mobile phone applications, and services that lower energy costs, improve energy efficiency, and protect the environment. The Energy Data Initiative is an administration-wide effort launched in May 2012 to “liberate” government data and voluntarily contributed non-government data as fuel to spur entrepreneurship, create value, and create jobs in the transition to a clean energy economy. Secretary Chu, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, and Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley post an article on the Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog, later updated on the Energy Blog.

October 1, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Carbon Forum - North America in Washington, D.C., on Energy-Related Carbon Emissions.

October 1, 2012
The Energy Data Initiative announces a further expansion of the Green Button Initiative to include 12 new or expanded commitments from utilities and also the first steps toward allowing customers to directly transfer their electricity usage data to third parties, such as app developers.

October 1, 2012
The Department issues an Award Fee Determination Scorecard stating that Bechtel National Inc., the contractor responsible for managing, designing, and building the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford site, would receive a $3.12 million award fee out of a possible $6.3 million. “DOE uses an award fee process to provide motivation for excellence in contract performance,” a DOE spokesperson says. “The determination also recognizes a decline in performance in engineering, quality management, and procurement performance.”

October 2, 2012
The Department provides preliminary notice that it will extend the contract for management and operation of its National Renewable Energy Laboratory by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. The original contract period was from Oct. 1, 2008, through Sept. 30, 2013. It was valued at $1.1 billion over the five years, and could be extended up to an additional five years.

October 2, 2012
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) holds a public hearing and meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, on factors that could affect the timely execution and safety of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) Project at the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur begins the hearing by noting that "the Board is concerned that NNSA has not yet adequately integrated safety into the design of the Uranium Processing Facility."

October 3, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) issues a Management Alert on the DOE proposal known as the 2020 Vision One System that would implement a phased approach to commissioning the $12.2 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site, including making the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) facility operational approximately 15 months before commissioning the remainder of the project. The IG finds that "Although the implementation of the phased approach offers potential benefits, early operation of the LAW facility presents significant cost, technological and permitting risks that could adversely affect the overall success of the Office of the River Protection Project's mission of retrieving and treating Hanford Site's tank waste in the WTP and closing the tank farms to protect the Columbia River."

October 4, 2012
The Department issues a Preliminary Notice of Violation (PNOV) to Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC for two radiological incidents which occurred at the Idaho National Laboratory in 2011 that violated DOE’s nuclear safety and radiation protection regulations. The PNOV proposes a civil penalty of $412,500 for the violations.

October 4, 2012
The Sequoia supercomputer housed at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory receives a 2012 Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics magazine. Sequoia, an IBM BlueGene/Q machine, is ranked No. 1 on the industry-standard TOP500 list of the world's fastest high performance computing systems. The annual Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards recognize the 10 top "world-changing" innovations each year in fields ranging from computing and engineering to medicine, space exploration and automotive design.

October 4, 2012
The White House releases a video that outlines the progress made by President's Obama's all-of-the-above strategy.

October 4, 2012
President Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, meet in the first of three presidential debates. Both candidates in their opening two minute presentation on domestic issues refer to the significance of energy. The President says that it is important "to develop new sources of energy here in America." Governor Romney cites a five point plan to get the nation moving again, the first of which is "get us energy independent -- North America energy independent.  That creates about 4 million jobs." In a follow-up, the President says he and Governor Romney "both agree that we've got to boost American energy production. And oil and natural gas production are higher than they've been in years. But I also believe that we've got to look at the energy sources of the future like wind and solar and biofuels, and make those investments." Governor Romney says "Energy is critical, and the President pointed out correctly that production of oil and gas in the U.S. is up -- but not due to his policies, in spite of his policies. Mr. President, all of the increase in natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on government land. On government land, your administration has cut the number of permits and licenses in half. If I’m President, I’ll double them and also get the oil from offshore in Alaska, and I’ll bring that pipeline in from Canada. And by the way, I like coal. I’m going to make sure we can continue to burn clean coal. People in the coal industry feel like it’s getting crushed by your policies. I want to get America and North America energy independent so we can create those jobs."

October 9, 2012
President Obama signs an Executive Order that approves the framework for implementing portions of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 signed into law August 10. The order builds on the sanctions that have been imposed on the Iranian government and provides for additional sanctions on activities related to Iran’s energy and financial sectors and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

October 9, 2012
The Obama Administration announces that 10 public-private partnerships across America will receive $20 million in total awards to help revitalize American manufacturing and encourage companies to invest in the U.S. The 10 partnerships were selected through the Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, which is a competitive multi-agency grant process announced in May 2012 to support initiatives that strengthen advanced manufacturing at the local level.

October 9, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announces the approval of the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project site as suitable for wind energy development. The Project is a proposed complex that could generate up to 3,000 megawatts of power in southeastern Wyoming. The project developers expect the proposal to generate enough energy to power nearly 1 million homes. The project would consist of two sites encompassing up to 1,000 wind turbines on approximately 219,707 acres of land and would be the largest wind farm in the U.S. to date.

October 10, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), releases the EIA Outlook at a press conference as part of the 2012 Winter Fuels Outlook Conference.

October 10, 2012
The Department of Commerce announces its affirmative final determinations in the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (solar cells) from the People’s Republic of China. Commerce determines that Chinese producers/exporters have sold solar cells in the U.S. at dumping margins ranging from 18.32 to 249.96 percent. Commerce also determines that Chinese producers/exporters have received countervailable subsidies of 14.78 to 15.97 percent. The U.S. International Trade Commission will make final determination on the matter.

October 10, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces that it has paid the U.S. Treasury $886.1 million for fiscal year 2012. This marks the 29th consecutive year that BPA has made its scheduled annual payment on time and in full. The annual Treasury payments include principal and interest primarily on the federal investment in the Federal Columbia River Power System’s power and transmission facilities.

October 11, 2012
Secretary Chu congratulates Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka for winning the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for studies of G-protein–coupled receptors” and Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland for winning the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics for “ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.” Dr. Kobilka and his fellow researchers used the Advanced Photon Source at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory to reveal a high-resolution structure of a cell receptor in the act of signaling.

October 12, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense (RF MOD) announce the commissioning of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Training Center (KRTC) near Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The KRTC will provide training for personnel who maintain or operate security systems at RF MOD nuclear sites. The KRTC is part of a national network of regional training and technical centers, and is the third and final training center completed and commissioned through cooperation between NNSA and RF MOD.

October 12, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it has awarded $4 million in grants to 22 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and six DOE sites in key Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas. This funding launches NNSA’s new Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program, a consortium program organized to build a sustainable STEM pipeline between DOE plants and laboratories and HBCUs.

October 15, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., on the outlook for energy markets.

October 15, 2012
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issues a report on DOE cleanup projects funded by the Recovery Act. GAO finds that, although most projects have been completed, project management guidance could be strengthened.

October 16, 2012
A123 Systems, a developer and manufacturer of advanced lithium iron phosphate batteries and systems, announces that Johnson Controls has offered to purchase for $125 million two Michigan manufacturing facilities built by A123 along with other assets in A123’s automotive battery business. As part of a bankruptcy filing, A123 says that it has obtained bridge financing from Johnson Controls to continue operation of its facilities. DOE awarded A123 a $249 million Recovery Act advanced battery grant in August 2009. DOE Director of Public Affairs Dan Leistikow posts an article on the Energy Blog.

October 17, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses ReTech 2012 in Washington, D.C., on Trends in Utility Scale Renewable Electricity

October 17, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration issues a Preliminary Notice of Violation (WEA-2012-03) to Los Alamos National Security, LLC for violations associated with four electrical safety-related events that occurred between October 2010 and January 2011 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The PNOV proposes a civil penalty of $262,500 for the violations.

October 17, 2012
President Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, meet in the second of three presidential debates, a town hall format with questions from 82 uncommitted voters from the New York area. A questioner notes that Secretary Chu "has now been on record three times stating it's not policy of his department to help lower gas prices," and he asks the candidates if they agree "that this is not the job of the Energy Department." The candidates engage in an exchange on energy policy.

October 19, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General (IG), in its annual Special Report on management challenges at DOE, finds that the list of
challenges for 2013 remains "largely consistent" with that of 2012. These include: operational efficiency and cost savings, contract and financial assistance award management, cyber security, energy supply, environmental cleanup, human capital management, nuclear waste disposal, safeguards and security, and stockpile stewardship. Safeguards and security, previously on the "watch list," is now a key management challenge "primarily due to the recent events at the Y-12 National Security Complex." Federal budgetary concerns, the report notes, "have actually intensified over the past year. . . . [and] Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings should be a top priority for management. As we outlined in last year's report, we know of no other time in recent memory when there was such a broad, bipartisan consensus regarding the need to reduce Federal spending and address the Nation's mounting debt. Significant reductions in Federal budgets appear likely and the impact on the Department's operations may be equally significant. In this context, we are reiterating the series of operational efficiency and cost reduction initiatives offered for management's consideration in last year's report."

October 22, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it has closed its Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) in Novouralsk, Russia ahead of schedule. The early closure was made possible by the successful use of U.S.-designed unattended monitoring technology in Russia and will save U.S. taxpayers approximately $1 million. The TMO provided a long-term capability for U.S. technical experts to monitor the conversion of Russian weapons-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) into low enriched uranium (LEU) at the Ural Electrochemical Integrated Enterprise under the 1993 U.S.-Russia HEU Purchase Agreement.

October 22, 2012
The Department announces that its Office of River Protection, working with its Hanford tank operations contractor, has determined that there is a slow leak of chemical and radioactive waste into the annulus space in Tank AY-102, the approximately 30-inch area between the inner primary tank and the outer tank that serves as the secondary containment for these types of tanks. This is the first time a double-shell tank (DST) leak from the primary tank into the annulus has been identified.  There is no indication of waste in the leak detection pit outside the DST, which means that no waste has leaked out of the annulus and into the environment. The material in the annulus was discovered on August 10.

October 23, 2012
The Department releases the annual U.S. Offshore Wind Market and Economic Analysis, authored for DOE by the Navigant Consortium, showing progress for the U.S. offshore wind energy market in 2012, including the completion of two commercial lease auctions for federal Wind Energy Areas and 11 commercial-scale U.S. projects representing over 3,800 megawatts (MW) of capacity reaching an advanced stage of development. The report highlights global trends toward building offshore turbines in deeper waters and using larger, more efficient turbines in offshore wind farms, increasing the amount of electricity delivered to consumers.

October 23, 2012
The Department of the Interior announces that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has reached agreement on a lease for commercial wind energy development in federal waters that covers 96,430 acres approximately 11 nautical miles off the coast of Delaware.

October 23, 2012
President Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, meet in the third of three presidential debates, which is on foreign policy. The President states that his administration is "doing everything we can to control our own energy. We’ve cut our oil imports to the lowest level in two decades because we’ve developed oil and natural gas, but we also have to develop clean energy technologies that will allow us to cut our exports in half by 2020." Governor Romney says that his administration would "have North American energy independence. We’re going to do it by taking full advantage of oil, coal, gas, nuclear, and our renewables."

October 24, 2012
Chi-­Chang Kao, an associate laboratory director at DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is named as the lab's fifth director,

October 24, 2012
The National Research Council releases a report, Sustainable Development of Algal Biofuels in the United States, produced at DOE's request, on biofuels made from algae. The report finds that "scaling up production of algal biofuels to meet even 5 percent of U.S. transportation fuel needs could create unsustainable demands for energy, water, and nutrient resources." Nonetheless, the report indicates, continued research and development could yield innovations to address these challenges.

October 24, 2012
BP announces it is cancelling plans to build a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Florida and refocusing its biofuels strategy on research and development as well as licensing its biofuels technology. BP originally planned to build the Florida facility in 2008 with the intention of turning thousands of acres of energy crops into 36 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol.

October 26, 2012
The Department, working closely with FEMA, and in support of state and local officials, announces plans to deploy emergency response personnel in advance of Hurricane Sandy as it threatens the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.

October 26, 2012
President Obama issues Executive Order 13629 establishing the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council to maximize the Federal government's ability to develop local partnerships in the U.S. to support homeland security priorities.  The Council will provide advice and information to the White House and Federal departments and agencies in support of the development of homeland security partnerships. DOE is a member of the council. The White House issues a fact sheet.

October 27, 2012
President Obama is briefed on Hurricane Sandy.

October 29, 2012
The Department awards a combined 4.7 billion supercomputing core hours to 61 science and engineering projects with high potential for accelerating discovery and innovation through its Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. The allocation of resources at DOE's Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, enabled by the deployment of next-generation high-performance computers, will provide researchers in industry, academia and government access to some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to address challenges from advancing sustainable energy to understanding environmental consequences of energy use.

October 29, 2012
The Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) announces the launch of Titan, a supercomputer capable of doing more than 20,000 trillion calculations each second—or 20 petaflops. Titan will be 10 times more powerful than ORNL's last world-leading system, Jaguar, while overcoming power and space limitations inherent in the previous generation of high-performance computers. Titan will proved computing power for research in energy, climate change, efficient engines, materials, and other disciplines

October 29, 2012
Hurricane Sandy makes landfall as a post-tropical cyclone on the southern coast of New Jersey near Atlantic City at 8 p.m. with top sustained winds of 80 mph. DOE reports that more than 3.6 million customers are without power in the affected states.

October 30, 2012
Secretary Chu participates with President Obama and other officials in a morning video-teleconference on Hurricane Sandy. The President asks the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to continue to work in support of FEMA in assisting state, local, and private sector efforts to restore power. Later in the afternoon, the President, Secretary Chu, and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate participate in a call in the White House Situation Room with utility executives to underscore that restoring power to the millions of Americans who lost electricity during Sandy is a top priority and explore areas where FEMA and federal partners can provide additional assistance as companies and states work towards this goal.

October 31, 2012
The Department updates DOE and other Federal efforts to support utility power restoration efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. President Obama visits areas of New Jersey hit hard by Sandy.

October 31, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that the agency has saved taxpayers $519.3 million since 2007 through strategic sourcing. The majority of the savings was achieved using basic strategic sourcing tools. NNSA’s seven management and operating (M&O) contractors analyze their purchases to identify common commodities. They then combine their purchasing power to achieve savings by awarding multi-site commodity contracts and eCatalogues from which all the M&O contractors may place orders. Examples of commodities include commercial software, travel services, laboratory supplies, ammunition, and safety glasses.

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November 1, 2012
Secretary Chu meets with Pepco line workers in Maryland as they prepare to go out for the day to continue power restoration efforts in the state. Utility companies from across the country have mobilized in support of the recovery in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, deploying 64,000 linemen and utility staff to the front lines to repair downed power lines and bring electricity back online. DOE is working in close coordination with FEMA, the Department of Transportation, and other federal agencies to support these utility crews.

November 1, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the successful removal of 72.8 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent fuel from the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This marks the 50th shipment under NNSA’s cooperative program with Russia to return Russian-origin HEU.

November 1, 2012
USEC Inc. reports that it will likely cease uranium enrichment operations in May 2013 at the Paducah, Kentucky, plant. The plant is owned by DOE but leased and operated by the United States Enrichment Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of USEC Inc.

November 2, 2012
President Obama declares that Hurricane Sandy has created a severe energy supply interruption and directs DOE to loan the Department of Defense ultra-low sulfur diesel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve. The fuel, which will be distributed to state, local and federal responders in the New York/New Jersey area, will be used to provide additional supplies to ensure continued response and recovery efforts. This includes fuel for emergency equipment and buildings, including electrical generators, water pumps, GSA buildings, trucks and other vehicles.

November 3, 2012
President Obama convenes a briefing at that National Response Coordination Center at FEMA headquarters to receive the latest update on federal efforts to support state and local response and recovery activities. The President is joined by Secretary Chu and other officials. The President notes that "Number one . . . it is critical for us to get power back on as quickly as possible."

November 3, 2012
The Department works in conjunction with other federal agencies to help local agencies facilitate the delivery of additional gasoline, diesel, and home heating oil to the region affected by Hurricane Sandy. Activities include the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with DOE and other agencies issuing a waiver of the Jones Act allowing foreign vessels to ship petroleum products from the Gulf of Mexico to Northeastern ports, and the Environmental Protection Agency in coordination with DOE issuing a number of waivers that allow for fuel flexibility in using of a variety of fuel products.

November 4, 2012
The Department announces that it has established a team that is helping state and local officials identify gas stations that are in need of emergency generators to restore power or are running short on fuel supplies in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

November 5, 2012
Secretary Chu travels to New York and New Jersey where he meets with state and local leaders and industry officials to discuss ongoing response and recovery efforts to Hurricane Sandy. In Hoboken, New Jersey, he visits two electrical power substations and meets with utility crews from Dayton, Ohio, who have come to Hoboken to assist in recovery efforts. The Secretary also travels to Staten Island and Long Island, New York. The Secretary posts an article on the Energy Blog about DOE activities.

November 6, 2012
President Obama is reelected.

November 7, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the U.S. Association for Energy Economics in Austin, Texas, and discusses energy impacts of Hurricane Sandy and the U.S. Energy Market Outlook.

November 7, 2012
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) determines that the U.S. solar industry is materially injured by reason of imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China that the Department of Commerce determined on October 10 are subsidized and sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. All six Commissioners vote in the affirmative. As a result of the USITC's affirmative determinations, Commerce will issue antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of these products from China.

November 8, 2012
Secretary Chu, in a letter to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, discusses the Hanford Site's Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) and the group of independent subject matter experts he assembled in August to assess specific aspects of W'TP. "While the group's initial focus was particularly on the plant's designed capability to detect equipment failure and to repair failed equipment inside the WTP black cells," the Secretary says, "the review group identified several other issues that need additional analysis. Technical teams are being established to work: collaboratively to resolve these issues. These teams will consist of DOE Federal and contractor employees and will draw on expertise from the National Laboratories, academia, and industry. These technical teams will revise the strategy for the verification of the design of the black cells." The Secretary also sends a more detailed memo to site employees.

November 8, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes a 9.6 percent average wholesale power rate increase to compensate for reduced revenue expectations from surplus power sales and to continue funding needed investments in the Federal Columbia River Power System. BPA also proposes a 13 percent increase in its transmission rates mainly due to continued efforts to maintain system reliability and meet increasing demands for transmission in the Pacific Northwest. BPA initially managed these increasing costs without rate increases. If adopted, it would be the first transmission rate increase in eight years.

November 8, 2012
The Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) issues an Evaluation Report on DOE's unclassified cyber security program. The IG finds that although DOE has taken corrective actions to address potential cyber security threats, types and severity of weaknesses continue to persist. Ongoing weaknesses in the program include problems with access controls, vulnerability management, integrity of web applications, planning for continuity of operations, and change control management.

November 9, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Internal Affairs-Internal Troops (MVD-IT) announce the commissioning of the Ozersk Training Center during a ceremony held in Ozersk, Russia. The training center will be used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to train personnel for Russia’s civilian nuclear sites in protective force tactics and procedures. This will allow the MVD-IT to assure a new level of nuclear material protection against theft and diversion of nuclear material.

November 9, 2012
The Department issues a Preliminary Notice of Violation to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC (SRNS), for violations of DOE’s worker safety and health regulations.  The violations are associated with a July 1, 2011, incident that occurred while a worker was using a Tele-Tower® scaffold to perform facility modifications in the Purification Area Vault of Building 105-K in the K-Area Complex at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The SRNS worker fell from the scaffold and was hospitalized with injuries to his head and torso.

November 9, 2012
The Department announces that it is providing the Department of Defense with additional ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve in response to a request from the State of Connecticut. DOE will be loaning diesel fuel to the Defense Logistics Agency, who in turn will provide emergency loans to fuel distributors in Connecticut to address fuel shortages in the state. This is a continuation of the agreement announced on November 2.

November 12, 2012
The International Energy Agency (IEA) releases its World Energy Outlook 2012, providing projections of energy trends through to 2035 and analysis into what they mean for energy security, environmental sustainability and economic development. The global energy map is "changing in dramatic fashion," notes the IEA. “North America is at the forefront of a sweeping transformation in oil and gas production that will affect all regions of the world, yet the potential also exists for a similarly transformative shift in global energy efficiency,”

November 12, 2012
Secretary Chu announces that Titan, a new supercomputer located at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named the world’s most powerful according to the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers. Ten times more powerful than its predecessor, the Jaguar system, Titan will provide unprecedented power to accelerate scientific discoveries using technologies first developed for video game systems like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. DOE now has five systems out of the fastest 20 in the world, with Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in second place; Mira at Argonne National Laboratory in fourth place; Cielo, located in Los Alamos, New Mexico and operated jointly by Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, ranked 18th, and Hopper at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ranked 19th.

November 13, 2012
The Department's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) releases its I-5 Corridor Reinforcement Project Draft EIS and preferred alternative. BPA identifies the Central Alternative using Central Option 1 as its preferred alternative. The current cost estimate for the preferred alternative is $459 million—not the lowest-cost or highest-cost alternative. However, the preferred alternative avoids many small, rural parcels of private land by crossing significant lengths of land held by large public and private landowners, as well as avoiding the most environmentally, mission-sensitive and high impact lands these entities manage on the East Alternative. The primary driver for the proposed 79-mile line that would connect a new substation north of Castle Rock, Washington, with another new substation in Troutdale, Oregon, is to maintain system reliability in the area.

November 13, 2012
The Union of Concerned Scientists releases a study that finds that as much as 18 percent of the country’s coal generating capacity should be considered for closure because the electricity it produces will be more expensive than energy from lower cost natural gas or wind power.

November 14, 2012
In his first press conference since his reelection, President Obama is asked what he will do in his second term to address the issue of climate change and whether he would consider a tax on carbon. The President responds that in his first term "we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars and trucks. That will have an impact. That will take a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere. We doubled the production of clean energy, which promises to reduce the utilization of fossil fuels for power generation. And we continue to invest in potential breakthrough technologies that could further remove carbon from our atmosphere. But we haven't done as much as we need to. So what I'm going to be doing over the next several weeks, next several months, is having a conversation, a wide-ranging conversation with scientists, engineers, and elected officials to find out what can -- what more can we do to make a short-term progress in reducing carbons, and then working through an education process that I think is necessary -- a discussion, a conversation across the country about what realistically can we do long term to make sure that this is not something we're passing on to future generations that's going to be very expensive and very painful to deal with."

November 15, 2012
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tells reporters "We would never propose a carbon tax, and have no intention of proposing one."

November 15, 2012
The Department’s Office of Fossil Energy announces that researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a groundbreaking new hybrid membrane that combines the separation performance of inorganic membranes with the cost-effectiveness of polymer membranes. The breakthrough technology has vast commercial potential for use at coal-fired power plants with carbon capture, utilization, and storage. The project was funded by DOE and managed by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory.

November 15, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it delivered, as part of its W76-1 Life Extension Program, all of its scheduled W76-1 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile warhead units to the Navy in FY 2012. The primary goal of the program is to extend the original warhead service life from 20 to 60 years.

November 15, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the award of a cooperative agreement to further accelerate the establishment of accelerator-based technology to produce the critical medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) in the U.S. The agreement with NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC, is important to ensuring a reliable domestic supply of Mo-99 for U.S. patients, produced without the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU).

November 15, 2012
The Department of Justice announces that BP Exploration and Production Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to felony manslaughter, environmental crimes, and obstruction of Congress and pay a record $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties for its conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people and caused the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. BP states that it has resolved "all federal criminal charges and all claims" by the federal government but will "vigorously defend itself against remaining civil claims."

November 16, 2012
The Department releases its third video in the “Clean Energy in Our Community” video series, highlighting clean energy investments by Southern Oregon University. The school’s investments in renewable energy, sustainability, and purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates are benefiting residents and workers across Ashland, a city of about 20,000 people.

November 16, 2012
The Solar Foundation releases the 2012 National Solar Jobs Census tracking the steady growth of America’s solar jobs market. Now in its third iteration, the report finds that the solar industry is one of the fastest growing job markets in the country--employing more than 119,000 skilled solar workers and growing at an annual rate of 13.2 percent. Minh Le, program manager of DOE's solar program, posts an article on the Energy Blog.

November 16, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it recently completed two milestones towards production of early plutonium oxide feedstock for its Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility. In its second year in production, NNSA exceeded the FY 2012 goal of 200 kilograms of plutonium oxide production by disassembling nuclear weapons pits and converting them into plutonium oxide at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). NNSA also initiated operations at H-Canyon and HB-Line at the Savannah River Site (SRS) to begin plutonium oxide production. The oxide production at both LANL and SRS provides the initial feedstock for the MOX facility and demonstrates the first steps towards permanent plutonium disposition.

November 16, 2012
The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board's Subcommittee on Small Modular Reactors (SMR) releases a report that finds that "if SMRs are to play an important role in achieving U.S. civil nuclear leadership, the U.S must develop a domestic robust SMR industry that will produce, in time, numerous SMRs that are both cost competitive with electricity generation alternatives and meet stringent U.S. regulatory standards. Such an SMR industry could provide the United States with important, perhaps critical, contributions to the U.S. national goals in clean energy, reducing carbon emissions, non-proliferation, energy security, and international industrial competitiveness. But developing that SMR industry will be both costly and financially risky and the U.S. government will likely have to play a significant financial role in that industrial development beyond the current licensing cost-share program."

November 16, 2012
The Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases an article on how population shifts to western and southern tier states affects the need for heating and cooling and explains some of the flattening in per-capita residential energy consumption over the past several decades. Space heating accounts for more energy consumption than space cooling, and the decreased need for space heating as a result of population shifts to warmer areas of the country is only partially offset by increased energy consumed for space cooling.

November 19, 2012
The Illinois Basin-Decatur Project, the first demonstration-scale project in the U.S. to use carbon dioxide (CO2) from an industrial source and inject it into a saline reservoir, completes its first year of CO2 injections. The CO2 is being captured from an ethanol production facility operated by the Archer Daniels Midland Company in Decatur, Illinois, and is being injected in a compressed "supercritical" state into the Mount Simon Sandstone reservoir some 7,000 feet below the surface, with an average injection rate of 1,000 metric tons daily. Analysis of data collected during the characterization phase of the project indicate the formation has the necessary geological characteristics to be a good injection target, a conclusion supported thus far by data accumulated from continuous monitoring of the site. DOE supports the project through both the Recovery Act and the Clean Coal Power Initiative.

November 19, 2012
The Department announces 20 new projects to help states and local governments cut red tape and develop the infrastructure, training and regional planning needed to help meet the demand for alternative fuel cars and trucks, including vehicles that run on natural gas, electricity, and propane. Through DOE’s Clean Cities initiative, these projects address a range of community infrastructure and training needs, such as providing safety and technical training for fleet operators, mechanics, first responders and code officials; streamlining permitting and procurement processes; and helping public and private fleets integrate petroleum reduction strategies into their operations.

November 19, 2012
The Department announces 10 small business-led projects to speed solar energy innovation from the lab to the marketplace. Through DOE's SunShot Initiative, this $10 million investment will help significantly reduce the total installed cost of solar energy systems.

November 20, 2012
President Obama attends the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The President announces the U.S.-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Partnership for a Sustainable Energy Future. This White House initiative will bring together in a comprehensive framework U.S. energy-related cooperation in multilateral and bilateral channels, focusing on providing technical assistance and financing for renewables, energy interconnectivity and markets, natural gas, and sustainable development. The White House issues a fact sheet on the initiative.

November 20, 2012
The Department announces an award to support a new project to design, license, and help commercialize small modular reactors (SMR) in the U.S.  This award follows a funding opportunity announcement on March 22, 2012. The project supported by the award will be led by Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bechtel. The project represents a significant investment in first-of-a-kind engineering, design certification and licensing for small modular reactors through a five-year cost-share agreement. DOE will invest up to half of the total project cost, with the project’s industry partners matching this investment by at least one-to-one. The DOE investment will help B&W obtain Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing and achieve commercial operations by 2022.

November 20, 2012
The Department announces that a promising post combustion membrane technology that can separate and capture 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from a pulverized coal plant has been successfully demonstrated and received DOE approval to advance to a larger-scale field test.

November 20, 2012
The Department's Western Area Power Administration, following up on Secretary Chu's memo of March 16 and announcement of May 30 and a series of workshops beginning July 17, issues draft recommendations to facilitate the transition of the power transmission system to a more resilient and flexible grid while reducing costs to consumers.

November 26, 2012
The Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory announces that a team of researchers has demonstrated a new concept for a reliable nuclear reactor that could be used on space flights. The team demonstrated the first use of a heat pipe to cool a small nuclear reactor and power a Stirling engine at the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility. The Demonstration Using Flattop Fissions (DUFF) experiment produced 24 watts of electricity. DUFF is the first demonstration of a space nuclear reactor system to produce electricity in the U.S. since 1965.

November 27, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman participates in a discussion at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Washington, D.C., marking the release of the IEA's World Energy Outlook 2012. The Deputy Secretary addresses the evolving picture of U.S. energy production and use.

November 27, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it recently sponsored the installation of a 336-processor computing cluster at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC). This new cluster allows consequences predictions for hazardous material releases to be completed approximately 50 times faster than with the previous cluster. NARAC provides critical atmospheric modeling predictions and analysis to emergency managers and decision makers throughout the country.

November 27, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a Federal Register Notice denies the requests by several states to waive the federal ethanol mandate due to extensive drought. The EPA determines that the evidence does not support the contention that continuing the mandate "would severely harm the economy of a State, region, or the United States."

November 27, 2012
The Department's Sandia National Laboratories announces that it is collaborating with DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the development of five U.S. Regional Test Centers (RTCs) where industry can assess the performance, reliability, and bankability of large-scale photovoltaic energy systems. Sandia manages four of the five locations with local partners: Albuquerque, NM; Orlando, FL, Burlington, VT.; and Las Vegas, NV. The fifth location is Denver, managed by NREL.

November 27, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory releases Tracking the Sun, it's annual photovoltaic (PV) cost-tracking report, and finds that the installed price of solar PV power systems in the U.S. fell substantially in 2011 and through the first half of 2012. The median installed price of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2011 fell by roughly 11 to 14 percent from the year before, depending on system size, and, in California, prices fell by an additional 3 to 7 percent within the first six months of 2012. These recent installed price reductions are attributable, in large part, to dramatic reductions in PV module prices, which have been falling precipitously since 2008.

November 27, 2012
The Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) Strategic Energy Policy Initiative releases recommendations developed as part of a broader report to be published in 2013. With energy-related responsibilities falling under at least 20 distinct federal agencies and departments, the BPC notes, no single entity is in a position to implement, coordinate and assess all of the federal government’s energy-related activities and initiatives. The BPC proposes that a National Energy Strategy Council be set up to lead cross-agency coordination for all major energy-related decisions, including those that address short-term energy crises, and for resolving interagency disputes.

November 28, 2012
Secretary Chu announces 66 cutting-edge research projects selected by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to receive a total of $130 million in funding through its “OPEN 2012” program. The projects focus on a wide array of technologies, including advanced fuels, advanced vehicle design and materials, building efficiency, carbon capture, grid modernization, renewable power, and energy storage. The projects were selected through a merit-based process from thousands of concept papers and hundreds of full applications. The projects are based in 24 states, with approximately 47 percent of the projects led by universities, 29 percent by small businesses, 15 percent by large businesses, 7.5 percent by national labs, and 1.5 percent by non-profits.  The new projects bring ARPA-E’s total portfolio of projects to about 285 projects for a total of approximately $770 million in awards.

November 28, 2012
The Department announces that fifteen research projects aimed at addressing the technical challenges of producing natural gas from shales and tight sands, while simultaneously reducing environmental footprints and risks, have been selected to receive a total of $28 million in funding.  The projects will address research needs primarily in four categories: 1) reduced environmental impacts, 2) improved water handling and treating methods, 3) enhanced characterization of shales, and 4) improved understanding of the hydraulic fracturing process.

November 28, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces that it has temporarily suspended BP Exploration and Production, Inc. (BP) from new contracts with the federal government. EPA notes that it is "taking this action due to BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of criminal information."

November 28, 2012
The Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announces the breaking of new ground in scientific computing, with two teams of DOE scientists having for the first time exceeded a sustained performance level of 10 petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations per second) on the Sequoia supercomputer.

November 29, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses The Energy Forum in New York City on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the U.S. Energy Market Outlook.

November 29, 2012
The Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory releases the 2011 edition of their annual report on the state of the renewable energy industry, the 2011 Renewable Energy Data Book. The report contains more than 100 pages of charts, maps, and tables describing current trends in renewable energy.

November 29, 2012
The Department's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory announces that an international group of scientists using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) have mapped a weak spot in the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, pinpointing a promising new target for treating a disease that kills tens of thousands of people each year.

November 29, 2012
A team of climate scientists led by researchers at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory publish online a study demonstrating some of the clearest evidence yet of a discernible human influence on atmospheric temperature. The study compared 20 of the latest climate models against 33 years of satellite data. When human factors were included in the models, they followed the pattern of temperature changes observed by satellite. When the same simulations were run without considering human influences, the results were quite different. The new climate model simulations analyzed by the team will form the scientific backbone of the upcoming 5th assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

November 30, 2012
Secretary Chu is joined by Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to announce that a multi-partner team led by DOE's Argonne National Laboratory has been selected for an award of up to $120 million over five years to establish a new Batteries and Energy Storage Hub. The Hub, to be known as the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), will combine the R&D firepower of five DOE national laboratories, five universities, and four private firms in an effort aimed at achieving revolutionary advances in battery performance.

November 30, 2012
Acting Under Secretary of Energy David Sandalow delivers remarks on Hurricane Sandy and energy infrastructure at the Columbia University Energy Symposium.

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December 3, 2012
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after meeting with the Czech foreign minister in Prague, discusses a Westinghouse bid to build two nuclear power reactors in the country. "The Obama Administration strongly supports Westinghouse’s bid to help expand the Temelin Nuclear Power Plant," the Secretary notes. "Given how long term and strategic this investment is, the Czech people deserve the best value, the most tested and trustworthy technology, an outstanding safety record, responsible and accountable management, and job opportunities for Czech companies and workers. Westinghouse offers all of these things."

December 3, 2012
President Obama, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., marks the 20th anniversary of what he calls "one of the country’s smartest and most successful national security programs" -- the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program for the destruction of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. "We simply cannot allow the 21st century to be darkened by the worst weapons of the 20th century," he says in his remarks. "And that’s why, over the past four years, we’ve continued to make critical investments in our threat reduction programs -— not just at DOD, but at Energy and at State. In fact, we’ve been increasing funding, and sustaining it. And even as we make some very tough fiscal choices, we’re going to keep investing in these programs —- because our national security depends on it."

December 3, 2012
The Department's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability releases the final situation report regarding power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy. All customers who are able to receive electricity and who lost power due to Sandy have had their electricity restored. The total peak customer electricity outages from Hurricane Sandy (reported in the DOE Situation Reports) is 8,511,251.

December 3, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it has accomplished 112 percent of its goal for planned stockpile dismantlements in FY 2012. NNSA successfully dismantled a number of B61 and B83-0/1 bombs and W76-0, W80-0, W84, and W78 warheads.

December 3, 2012
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announces the publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of a special collection of 15 papers about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill providing the first comprehensive analysis and synthesis of the science used in the response effort by the government, academia, and industry. Papers present a behind-the-scenes look at the extensive scientific and engineering effort — teams, data, information, and advice from within and outside the government — assembled to respond to the disaster. The papers evaluate the accuracy of the information that was used in real-time to inform the response team and the public. Secretary Chu is co-author of two of the papers.

December 3, 2012
The Energy Security Leadership Council, a group of prominent business and military leaders formed by Save America's Future Energy, propose a detailed oil security plan, A National Strategy for Energy Security, to improve the U.S. economy, promote fiscal stability, and protect national security. The proposal supports expanding domestic energy supplies and technology to address the dangers created by the near-total reliance of the nation’s transportation sector on petroleum-based fuels. ESLC members are joined by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council, for a rollout panel discussion.

December 4, 2012
The Department issues the Designation Program for Solar Energy Stakeholders Request for Information (RFI) soliciting feedback from the solar community at large on standardized information and common expectations within the solar market. Nationally-recognized designation programs such as EPA’s ENERGY STAR® label and U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification provide consistent and rigorous criteria and labeling to help consumers recognize trusted products and services.

December 4, 2012
Director of DOE's Office of Science William Brinkman does a presentation on "Energy Independence with Sustainability" for the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

December 5, 2012
Deputy Secretary Poneman and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton represent the U.S. at the fourth EU-U.S. Energy Council in Brussels. The council promotes transparent and secure global energy markets, fosters co-operation on regulatory frameworks that encourage the efficient and sustainable use of energy, and identifies joint research priorities that promote clean energy technologies. The council issues a Joint Press Statement.

December 5, 2012
The Department, at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, announces two new initiatives aimed at driving increased energy production and sustainable economic development in Indian Country. As part of DOE’s efforts to support Tribal renewable energy production, Secretary Chu issues a policy statement and guidance that gives preference to Indian tribes when its facilities contract to purchase renewable energy products or by products. DOE also announces new training and education resources to help America’s Tribal Nations advance local renewable energy project financing and development. Tracey A. LeBeau, director of DOE's Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs, posts an article on the conference on the Energy Blog.

December 5, 2012
The Department's Vehicle Technologies Program launches the Apps for Vehicles Challenge looking for the best business plans, app ideas and product designs that use open vehicle data to help vehicle owners save fuel, save money and stay safe.

December 5, 2012
The Department announces that it is issuing its Final Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement Hanford Site, Richland, Washington, prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.  The Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology are cooperating agencies on this Final EIS, which analyzes alternatives for three programmatic areas relevant to future cleanup of the Hanford Site. The three areas are: retrieve and treat waste from 177 underground storage tanks at Hanford, including closure of 149 single-shell tanks; final decontamination and decommissioning of the Fast Flux Test Facility and its support structures; and ongoing and expanded waste management operations on the Hanford Site, including the disposal of Hanford’s low-level radioactive waste and mixed low-level radioactive waste, as well as that from other DOE sites, in an Integrated Disposal Facility. 

December 5, 2012
The Department's Energy Information Administration's (EIA) releases the Annual Energy Outlook 2013 (AEO2013) Reference case presenting updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2040. "EIA's updated Reference case shows how evolving consumer preferences, improved technology, and economic changes are pushing the nation toward more domestic energy production, greater vehicle efficiency, greater use of clean energy and reduced energy imports," says EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski in his rollout presentation. "This combination has markedly reduced projected energy-related carbon dioxide emissions."

December 5, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) successfully conducts Pollux, a subcritical experiment, at its Nevada National Security Site. The experiment gathered scientific data that will provide crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons. Pollux was the 27th subcritical experiment to date. The previous subcritical experiment, Barolo B, was conducted on February 2, 2011.

December 5, 2012
Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), delivers a speech on the security incident at the Y-12 facility before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission International Regulators Conference on Nuclear Security.

December 5, 2012
Science.gov, known for its groundbreaking search and retrieval of government science information, celebrates its 10thAnniversary. Through federated one-stop search of U.S. government science information, the portal offers free access to research and development results from 17 organizations within 13 federal science agencies.

December 5, 2012
The Department's Office of Fossil Energy releases for comment a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export study commissioned by DOE and prepared by NERA Economic Consulting. Federal law generally requires approval of natural gas exports to countries that have a free trade agreement with the U.S. For countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the U.S., DOE is required to grant applications for export authorizations unless the Department finds that the proposed exports "will not be consistent with the public interest." Factors for consideration include economic, energy security, and environmental impacts. DOE has 15 pending export application dockets. Following the close of the comment period on the study, DOE will begin to act on the 15 applications on a case-by-case basis. The study released will be one of the inputs considered during evaluation of those applications.

December 6, 2012
The Department and the Environmental Protection Agency release the 2013 Fuel Economy Guide, providing consumers with information about estimated mileage and fuel costs for model year 2013 vehicles.

December 6, 2012
The Department of Energy releases the 2012 Better Buildings Progress Report at a meeting at the White House of Administration and DOE officials with invited partners in the Better Buildings Challenge. The report provides an update of the key strategies the Administration is using to overcome the barriers to energy efficiency, highlights the success of leading organizations in the Better Buildings Challenge, and shares the future plans for Better Buildings—providing a framework for meeting the goal of 20 percent savings by 2020.

December 6, 2012
Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), delivers a speech on lessons learned from the Y-12 security incident before the Energy Facility Contractors Group.

December 6, 2012
USEC Inc. announces that it recently amended its cooperative agreement with DOE to provide for additional federal funds of $45.7 million for the American Centrifuge research, development, and demonstration program through February 23, 2013.

December 7, 2012
The Department announces a $29 million investment in four projects that will help advance affordable, reliable clean energy. A $21 million investment over five years goes to designing plug-and-play photovoltaic systems that can be purchased, installed, and operational in one day. These systems will make the process of buying, installing. and connecting solar energy systems faster, easier and less expensive for homeowners. An $8 million investment goes to helping utilities and grid operators better forecast when, where, and how much solar power will be produced at U.S. solar energy plants. Enhanced solar forecasting technologies will help power system operators to integrate cost-competitive, reliable solar energy into the electricity grid.

December 10, 2012
The Department's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory announces that researchers using the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) have revealed a potential new way to attack common stomach bacteria that cause ulcers and significantly increase the odds of developing stomach cancer.

December 11, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the successful return of all remaining U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) nuclear reactor fuel from Austria to the U.S.

December 12, 2012
Secretary Chu announces seven offshore wind awards for projects in Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Virginia. These engineering, design, and deployment projects will support innovative offshore installations in state and federal waters for commercial operation by 2017. In the initial phase, each project will receive up to $4 million to complete the engineering, design, and permitting phase of this award. DOE will select up to three of these projects for follow-on phases that focus on siting, construction, and installation and aim to achieve commercial operation by 2017. These projects will receive up to $47 million each over four years.

December 12, 2012
The Department releases the report U.S. Offshore Wind Manufacturing and Supply Chain Development, authored for DOE by the Navigant Consortium, providing an assessment of the domestic supply chain and manufacturing infrastructure supporting the offshore wind market.

December 12, 2012
Adam Sieminski, Administrator of DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA), addresses the Morgan Stanley Global Commodities Conference in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, on natural gas demand and U.S. petroleum exports.

December 12, 2012
The Department's Nevada National Security Site commemorates the 20th anniversary of the last U.S. underground nuclear explosive test and highlights the successes of the NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program.

December 12, 2012
Glenn Podonsky, DOE's chief health, safety and security officer, forwards to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recently completed independent safety culture assessments for five DOE projects/organizations.

December 12, 2012
The Department's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory announces that scientists have used powerful X-rays from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to study and measure, in atomic detail, a key process at work in extreme plasmas like those found in stars, the rims of black holes and other massive cosmic phenomena. The results explain why observations from orbiting X-ray telescopes do not match theoretical predictions, and pave the way for future X-ray astrophysics research using free-electron lasers such as LCLS.

December 17, 2012
Local, company, and DOE officials join in for the ribbon cutting ceremony and tour of the ArcelorMittal steel manufacturing plant in East Chicago, Indiana. ArcelorMittal unveils a new energy recovery and reuse boiler that recycles waste gas generated through its ironmaking process and uses it to generate electricity to help power the plant. DOE awarded ArcelorMittal $31.6 million--matched by the company--for their boiler project under the Recovery Act.

December 17, 2012
The World Trade Organization establishes a panel to examine the complaint by China against U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping measures applied to Chinese exports, including solar panels.

December 18, 2012
The Department's Office of Science releases its annual evaluation of the scientific, technological, managerial, and operational performance of the contractors who run the 10 national laboratories.

December 18, 2012
President Obama signs into law H.R. 6582, the "American Energy Manufacturing Technical Corrections Act," which modifies the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, with regard to energy efficiency standards for appliances and National Energy Conservation Policy Act provisions on advanced electricity metering.

December 18, 2012
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announces its finding that there is no competitive interest in an area offshore Maine where Statoil North America has requested a commercial wind lease. The decision clears the way under BOEM’s non-competitive leasing process for Statoil to submit a plan for a pilot project to demonstrate floating wind turbine technology. The project is among the seven innovative offshore wind projects that received funding awards from DOE on December 12.

December 18, 2012
The Department of Commerce announces its affirmative final determinations in the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of imports of utility scale wind towers from China and Vietnam. Commerce determines that producers/exporters from China and Vietnam have sold utility scale wind towers in the U.S. at dumping margins of 44.99 percent to 70.63 percent and 51.50 percent to 58.49 percent, respectively. Commerce also determined that producers/exporters from China have received countervailable subsidies of 21.86 percent to 34.81 percent. The U.S. International Trade Commission will make final determination on the matter.

December 19, 2012
Soitec Solar opens the world’s largest concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) manufacturing facility in San Diego. The project is supported by a $25 million SUNPATH award from DOE.

December 19, 2012
The Department releases the 2012 edition of the Carbon Utilization and Storage Atlas (Atlas IV), providing an update on the carbon dioxide (CO2) storage potential in the U.S. Over 225 billion metric tons of storage capacity has been identified in depleted oil and gas fields which could accommodate storage of several decades of emission from stationary sources.

December 19, 2012
Secretary Chu and Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) hold a livestreamed conversation on energy.gov/live on the future of the U.S. wind industry. They take questions from both in-person and online audiences.

December 20, 2012
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denies a petition for rehearing in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the EPA's authority to regulate industry greenhouse-gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

December 21, 2012
The Department announces a $9 million investment in leading-edge building envelope technologies, including high-efficiency, high-performance windows, roofs, and heating and cooling equipment. The investment supports six advanced manufacturing projects in California, Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee, including about $6.5 million in four projects to develop highly-efficient, cost-effective heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; and about $3 million to two projects that focus on building envelope materials.

December 21, 2012
The Department's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability issues a Notice of Intent (NOI) to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Plains & Eastern Clean Line Transmission Project on behalf of DOE and Southwestern Power Administration.

December 21, 2012
Thomas D’Agostino, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator and DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, announces his retirement from Federal service. Secretary Chu issues a statement that D'Agostino will continue in his current role until January 18, 2013. Neile Miller, the Principal Deputy Administrator for NNSA, will serve as Acting Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Acting Administrator of NNSA.

December 21, 2012
The Department’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) announces that it has joined with researchers in South Korea to develop a pre-conceptual design for a pioneering fusion facility in that nation. The proposed device, called K-DEMO, could be completed in the mid-to-late 2030s as the final step before construction of a commercial fusion power plant that would produce clean and abundant electricity. The cooperative agreement stands to enhance the development of fusion energy in both the U.S. and South Korea. K-DEMO will be a two-stage project. The first stage, called K-DEMO 1, will develop components for the second stage, K-DEMO 2, to use to produce fusion energy and generate electricity. Construction of a commercial fusion generating station would follow completion of the overall K-DEMO project.

December 21, 2012
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) releases a progress report on its ongoing national study currently underway to better understand any potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. Results of the study, which Congress requested EPA to complete, are expected to be released in a draft for public and peer review in 2014.

December 26, 2012
The Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that it will be flying a helicopter over portions of Washington, D.C., for a two-week period to measure naturally occurring radiation in the Washington, D.C., area. The measurement of naturally occurring radiation to establish baseline levels is a normal part of security and emergency preparedness.

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