Secretary Brouillette details budget request for House appropriations subcommittee

Photo courtesy of the House Committee on Appropriations

On February 27, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette appeared before the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee to explain President Trump's FY 2021 budget request for DOE. ECA highlighted some of the key takeaways from the budget request upon its release on February 10.

Environmental Cleanup

Brouillette offered new insight into some of the cuts to defense environmental cleanup funding. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) asked whether the proposed $700 million decrease from current levels of funding for Hanford cleanup will still allow the Department to meet federal obligations at the site. Brouillette explained, “The reductions that you see in our budget are taken primarily from what we refer to as carryover funding.”

He also addressed ongoing expansion at WIPP, explaining that while construction will be completed in 12 to 15 months, it will continue to accept shipments of transuranic waste from Idaho during that period.

Yucca Mountain

Several committee members asked for details about the administration’s plans for Yucca Mountain. Brouillette reiterated that the administration does not plan to move forward with licensing Yucca Mountain, and DOE has not begun a process for finding interim storage solutions. He stated, “We will wait for approval from Congress to do that,” noting that current law prohibits DOE from licensing an interim storage site if there is no construction at Yucca Mountain.

While DOE does not plan to send any legislation to Capitol Hill to change the law, the Department is requesting $27 million to begin research on alternatives for storage.

New Nuclear

Secretary Brouillette reiterated the administration’s support for new nuclear technologies, highlighting small modular reactor companies like NuScale that are moving forward in the regulatory process. In response to Chairwoman Marcy Kaptur’s (D-OH) concerns about climate change, Brouillette pointed out that advanced nuclear reactors “are absolutely critical to any climate goal we may have in the future.”

Secretary Dan Brouillette's full testimony is available here.