Washington (Platts)--18Jun2008

A US House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee unanimously
approved a Department of Energy funding bill Tuesday that would fully fund a
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, while eliminating funding
for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the international spent fuel
reprocessing program.

The bill, which would fund DOE along with a variety of other federal
agencies for the fiscal year beginning October 1, would provide $495 million
for the permanent nuclear waste repository 90 miles from Las Vegas, which
would house waste from the nation's nuclear power reactors.

This is the same amount requested by President George Bush in his fiscal
2009 budget.

"I support Yucca," said US Representative Pete Visclosky, the Indiana
Democrat who heads the Energy and Water subcommittee. Visclosky acknowledged,
however, that he and Representative David Hobson, an Ohio Republican,
influenced only half of the legislative process that would create the final
energy spending bill.

The Senate subcommittee, headed by Chairman Byron Dorgan of North
Dakota, is likely to grant DOE a much smaller allocation for Yucca. The site
is opposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Visclosky's panel made no provision for the GNEP, which the chairman
called "counterproductive, poorly designed and poorly executed."

The bill did set aside an unrequested $500 million for Energy
Independence and Security Act programs including grants to help corn-based
biorefineries convert to cellulosic biorefineries, $295 million for energy
efficiency block grants, and "sufficient funding" to provide $1 billion in
direct loans for an EISA advanced vehicles incentive program.

The measure would also fully fund a weatherization assistance program for
low-income residents which is popular with both House and Senate Democrats,
but for which the Bush administration did not request any fiscal 2009 funding.
It would receive $250 million. The bill would also provide $4.86 billion for
DOE science and research efforts, $140 million more than the president
requested and $844 billion more than was provided for the current fiscal year.

The committee also accepted the administration's proposal to extend a
loan guarantee program for new energy technologies through fiscal 2011.

Visclosky expressed regret that his subcommittee could not fully fund
environmental cleanup at DOE, blaming the necessary constraints of the
congressional budget.

"Nobody got everything they needed," he said.

The bill does provide $463.5 million for cleanup, up from an
administration-requested $242 million.

--Jean Chemnick, jean_chemnick@platts.com