The Department of Energy is expanding a biomass generation plant at its Savannah River Site. The project is part of the department’s Energy Savings Performance Contract program, in which a private company finances and maintains energy equipment in federal facilities. Framingham, Mass.-based Ameresco plans to boost output of the six-year-old 20-MW plant by 3 to 4 MW. Ameresco received $795 million to build the original plant, which uses forest residue and wood chips as fuel, and the expansion.

More: Fierce Energy

Inhofe Seeks to Trim NRC Budget

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, chairman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee, thinks it’s time to scale back the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget. He said despite a lower-than-expected workload associated with new nuclear licensing and review processes, the commission’s budget has grown by 34% and its workforce by 25% in recent years.

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s workload is decreasing, but regulations are increasing,” he said. “I am going to work with Senate appropriators to adjust the NRC’s budget.”

Inhofe said breadth of the NRC’s oversight is also increasing in an effort to drive up the cost of compliance. “Every increase in regulation makes it more difficult for nuclear energy to remain cost competitive, and I believe there’s an intention to make that happen,” Inhofe said.

More: Nuclear Energy Institute

NRC Revising Rules on Foreign Ownership of Nukes in US

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is changing how it assesses foreign ownership of U.S. nuclear reactors. Current regulations prohibit foreign ownership of commercial reactors, which is creating problems for some planned new commercial nuclear generating stations. Two years ago, NRC ruled that Unistar Nuclear Energy, a subsidiary of French company EDF, could not build a proposed plant on the site of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear station in Maryland.

The commission has told its staff to come up with a plan to set guidelines for partial foreign ownership. NRC said the decision to revise rules takes into account “the realities of today’s interconnected and global nuclear energy markets.”

More: World Nuclear News

DOE Approves Operations at Texas LNG Terminal

The Department of Energy has given final approval for the Cheniere liquefied natural gas export terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas. Houston-based Cheniere plans to have the terminal in operation by 2018. The approval grants the facility a license to export up to 2.1 billion cubic feet of LNG per day for up to 20 years to countries with which the U.S. does not have a free trade agreement. Dominion Resources’ Cove Point LNG terminal in Lusby, Md., received the same authorization last week.

More: FuelFix

DOE Warns Against Chinese Investment in LNG Projects

The Department of Energy is advising American firms against allowing Chinese investment in U.S liquefied natural gas projects, an industry executive said. Freeport LNG chief executive Michael Smith said the warning has led to a dearth of gas export deals with China. “We were advised by the DOE to be careful who our customers were, because this is very political,” Smith said.

More: China Economic Review

Feds Approve Shell Arctic Drilling Plan

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved Royal Dutch Shell’s oil-exploration plan in the Chukchi Sea after the company submitted a renewed and reinforced plan for its Arctic drilling operations.

“We have taken a thoughtful approach to carefully considering potential exploration in the Chukchi Sea, recognizing the significant environmental, social and ecological resources in the region and establishing high standards for the protection of this critical ecosystem, our Arctic communities and the subsistence needs and cultural traditions of Alaska Natives,” BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper said. “As we move forward, any offshore exploratory activities will continue to be subject to rigorous safety standards.”

Shell still needs to obtain other permits, including one to moor its equipment in Seattle’s harbor. A city-hosted hearing on that is scheduled for this week, but protests were already forming by Saturday.

More: U.S. News & World Report