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DOE Reports on Tidal & Wave Energy

The Department of Energy today released two reports assessing US ocean wave and tidal energy resources along the US Coasts. DOE reports that the two assessments, combined with ongoing analyses of technologies and other resource assessments, show that water power, including conventional hydropower, and wave, tidal, and other water power resources, can potentially provide 15 percent of our nation’s electricity by 2030.

The reports are the most rigorous assessments thus far undertaken by DOE and its collaborative partners, including the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Georgia Tech Research Corporation.

The DOE reports may be accessed here:

“Mapping and Assessment of the United States Ocean Wave Energy Resource”

“Assessment of Energy Production Potential from Tidal Streams in the United States”

FINAL FY12 Appropriations

Avoiding yet another threat of government shutdown, the Senate on Saturday approved the FY12 conference report after the House adopting it Friday.   The final package completes the work on the FY12 appropriations bills.  It includes the text of the underlying Military Construction-VA bill and eight other spending measures: Defense, Energy-Water, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State-Foreign Operations.  The President is expected to sign this bill sometime this week.  In November, a smaller package containing the other three annual spending bills was enacted (Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Financial Services).  See our December 15th posting for information how programs will be funded for the year.

As an aside, it had been reported that the final FY12 deal included an across-the-board cut of 1.8 percent to provide for disaster funding.  That legislation, however, was not approved so there will not be an across-the-board cut for FY12. 

The Office of Federal Relations is signing off for the year.  We will resume posting to this blog after the New Year.  Happy Holidays!

FY12 “Megabus” Bill

House and Senate appropriations members are close to an agreement on their $900 billion-or-so “megabus” appropriations deal on the remaining nine FY12 bills.  Agreement has been reached on all but two of the remaining nine bills:  Labor-HHS-ED and Interior-Environment.   There’s still a chance that the conferees will reach enough of an impasse on those two that they’ll propose a special CR just for them lasting until September 2012 (end of the federal fiscal year), while coming to a comprehensive agreement on the other seven.  We hope to see that draft later today or early tomorrow.  The House will take action on Wednesday followed by Senate action on Friday – probably just hours before the current continuing resolution (CR) expires at midnight.

Congress this Week

The Week Ahead

The House is in at noon today, though no votes are expected.  Eight bills will be considered under suspension of the rules.  House Republicans will try to move forward on a deal to extend the expiring payroll tax cut and could hold a vote this week.  The Senate’s in at 2 pm and will consider the nominations of four judges for district courts in New York, Texas, and Montana.  There will be a vote on one of the nominations; the other three are expected to be confirmed by unanimous consent.  Other than that, both chambers of Congress will continue to work on wrapping up the year’s business before adjourning for the holidays.  The biggest item on the agenda is funding the federal government for FY12.  The current continuing resolution (CR) expires December 16th.  Appropriators will spend the week working on an omnibus bill with a tentative plan to release a package on December 12th for a December 15th vote. 

Appropriations

Appropriators expect to make progress this week on wrapping the nine remaining FY12 appropriations bills into a year-end omnibus package.  Appropriators say that work on many of the remaining appropriations bills is nearly complete and their goal remains to clear the roughly $900 billion package before the current continuing resolution expires December 16th.  

Payroll Taxes, Unemployment Benefits, and the “Doc Fix”

Lawmakers also want to deal with proposals for extending an expiring payroll tax break, continuing unemployment benefits, and maintaining the current Medicare physician reimbursement rate, all of which are likely to be negotiated into a single legislative package.   The Obama administration is pushing for extending and expanding last year’s payroll tax, with a cost estimate of $120 billion for 12 months, and would pay for it by creating a new surtax on the top-earning Americans.  Senate Republicans blocked that proposal (S 1917) last week.  The GOP then countered with their own plan (S 1931), which called for paying for the break by extending the current pay freeze for federal workers and shrinking the federal civilian workforce through attrition.  That proposal was rejected by Democrats.  Meanwhile, House conservatives are skeptical of any extension.  The White House has indicated it may be willing to negotiate alternative financing, but any offsets would have to satisfy a significant number of Democrats, who will be needed to pass the bill in the House and the Senate.

A plan to block pending cuts to Medicare physician payments due to take effect early next year is also on the table.  This is an issue faced annually by Congress.  House Republicans want to freeze current reimbursement rates for two years at a cost of $38.6 billion, while senators from both parties say a one-year “doc fix” may be more feasible at a lower cost of $21 billion.  A longer fix would buy more time for members to come up with a replacement for the current payment formula, known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR), but Congress would prefer the lower price since it’s not usually offset.

The Office of Federal Relations continues to monitor and weigh in on these issues with our Congressional delegation.  At the same time, we are looking ahead to the FY13 process and how we can best protect major federal research funding.

Future of SBE Sciences at NSF

NSF released a new report this morning that outlines their research priorities in the coming decade in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.  The report, titled “Rebuilding the Mosaic, Fostering Research in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation in the Next Decade,” can be downloaded here.  

Read more about the development of this NSF report.