Energy Secretary Janet Granholm could be doing a lot of traveling following her Thursday appearance at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy, Water Development and Related Agencies.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) invited her to visit the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to see the facility’s high flux isotope reactor. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) wants Granholm to visit the Department of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site to see ongoing cleanup efforts and speak with leaders of local communities most affected by management of the facility.

Still another Washington congressman, Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), asked Granholm to visit the Marine and Coastal Research Lab at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the nation’s only marine lab working on sustainable energy and the impact of climate on coastal areas.

Beyond accepting all the invitations, Granholm was at the virtual hearing to talk about the Department of Energy’s 2022 discretionary budget request for $46.2 billion, a proposed 10% increase above the $41.8 billion the DOE received for 2021.

The secretary’s pitch for President Biden’s clean energy programs as a massive economic opportunity and job creator has become a standard part of these congressional presentations. But a focus on local issues — particularly nuclear facilities in different regions — seemed to offer a glimpse of common ground between Democrats and Republicans.
Fleischmann’s questions on whether the budget includes ongoing support for Oak Ridge’s isotope reactor, which produces isotopes used in medical research and space exploration, was followed by Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada), who wanted an update on the DOE’s efforts to develop an alternative nuclear waste site to Yucca Mountain. Lee noted that she and Fleischmann are going to co-chair a nuclear waste caucus in the House.

The isotopes got a quick “yes” from Granholm, while Yucca Mountain received a more detailed reply.

Located on federal land in southern Nevada, the site was intended to be a nuclear waste storage facility, but after strong local opposition, the project was abandoned by former President Barack Obama.

Granholm said the DOE hopes to announce the next steps in its plan for an interim federal storage facility “in the coming months.”

“The possible steps the department might take include requests for proposals, engaging with stakeholders and tribal governments [and] establishing a funding mechanism for interested communities {and] organizations to explore the concept of siting of a federal interim storage facility,” she said.

‘Place-based’ Solutions

Granholm’s written testimony for the hearing — and the “skinny” budget outline the White House released in April — provide a high-level view on proposed spending but are light on putting dollar figures on specific programs. The few details available in Granholm’s statement include $1.9 billion for DOE’s Building Clean Energy Projects and Workforce Initiative, $8 billion to spur clean energy innovation and $7.4 billion for the Office of Science “to better understand our changing climate, identify and develop novel materials and concepts for clean energy technologies of the future.”

Other highlights include:

• Increased funding for a “revitalized Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management” that will help advance “technologies and methods such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and direct air capture.”
• Enhanced research funding for historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions to help build labs and upgrade computer systems, while also creating opportunities for students to develop careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
• Funding for DOE programs that “support fossil fuel workers translating their skills to new positions in various areas, from extracting critical minerals from coal mine sites and upgrading pipelines to reduce methane to building carbon capture and hydrogen systems on existing industrial and power plant facilities.”

In responding to the local concerns of individual representatives, Granholm also stressed the importance of “place-based” solutions, for example, bringing clean energy manufacturing to regions with a strong manufacturing base, such as subcommittee chair Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s (D-Ohio) Toledo-area district.

“We have to think about what assets a community brings to bear and what natural resources they can draw upon, what their geography looks like,” Granholm said. “In this energy realm, there are all kinds of jobs for all kinds of people in all pockets of the country. I want this place-based work, designed to make sure than nobody is left behind, to be the core of this clean energy deployment strategy.”

Nuclear’s Moment

Rep. Michael Simpson (R-Idaho), the subcommittee’s ranking member, challenged Granholm on the absence of any mention of cybersecurity in her budget overview, saying the omission suggests the issue is not being “sufficiently prioritized by the administration.”

“It’s definitely a focus of ours,” Granholm said. The DOE is taking steps to “refocus the [Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response] on being a service to the grid operators, providing them with the tools and the intelligence and cyber response capabilities they need.”

Returning to the topic of nuclear energy, Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) asked if any funds in the budget would go to maintaining the existing nuclear plants, especially those at risk of closure, such as the Byron and Dresden plants in Illinois that Exelon is planning to close this year. (See Biden’s Support for Nuclear ‘Too Late’ to Save Exelon Plants.)

While the DOE has not, to date, supported existing nuclear plants, Granholm said, Biden’s $2-trillion American Jobs Plan does establish a clean energy standard that includes nuclear. The 93 plants in operation in the U.S. provide 52% of the country’s emissions-free power, and “we’re not going to be able to achieve our climate goals if our nuclear power plants shut down,” she said.

“I think this is a moment to consider [how] to make sure that we keep the current fleet active,” she said. “Some direct subsidy or some way to support these plants to stay open, that’s still an open question. But I know that this administration would be eager to work with Congress on it.”