Funding challenges ahead for Yucca Mountain
Last month, the Secretary of Energy submitted proposed legislation to Congress that would authorize the reclassification of fees paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund as offsetting collections. The proposal would in essence take the Trust Fund "off budget" and thereby remove it from the pressure of competing for funding with other programs contained in the annual Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Recognizing that the funding required for the program to remain on schedule is increasing each year, the legislative proposal is an effort to better tie the annual amounts collected by ratepayers to the annual obligations to the program. To date, the amounts collected for the program exceed the appropriated levels by billions of dollars.
Rep. Joe Barton, new Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced the Administration's legislative proposal on March 17. There has been no Senate companion introduced and no hearings have been scheduled on the House bill.
While the 2005 Department of Energy request for Yucca Mountain is $880 million, the largest amount ever requested for activities at the site, the budget request assumes the legislation authorizing the off budget treatment would be enacted by the start of the fiscal year on October 1. Therefore, $749 million of the $880 million request is assumed to be off budget and not technically part of the Department's 2005 request of $24.3 million. (The $749 million figure represents the amount provided by ratepayers; the remaining $131 million requested for 2005 is supported by the Department's defense program activities and is not included in the off budget treatment).
If the legislation which gives the Trust Fund off budget treatment is not enacted, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will be forced to find the $749 million shortfall from other programs funded in the bill, including those from the Department of Energy. While Chairman Barton suggested last week that the legislation could be enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1, those prospects remain doubtful due to a compressed congressional schedule and the fact that no companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.
The House Energy and Water Appropriations Committees will be forced to find the $749 million shortfall from other programs funded in the bill, including those from the Department of Energy. While Chairman Barton suggested last week that the legislation could be enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1, those prospects remain doubtful due to a compressed congressional schedule and the fact that no companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.
Nevertheless, during last week's hearing by the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee on the 2005 Yucca Mountain request, Chairman David Hobson (R-OH) clearly stated his desire to find the full request of $880 million for 2005. During that same hearing, Margaret Chu, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said the $880 million request is essential to ensuring the repository opens by 2010. The DOE application to the NRC for the repository is scheduled to be forwarded at the end of 2004. Much of the current year funding level of $577 million is being used to develop that application.
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will be moving the 2005 Energy and Water Appropriations bills later this spring and summer. As was the case last year, it is very likely the funding level for the Yucca Mountain program will be a major sticking point in the conference negotiations between the House and Senate on a final appropriations bill.
