Washington (Platts)--15Mar2013/614 pm EDT/2214 GMT

The US Department of Energy is still considering 13 loan guarantee applications for energy projects totaling $15.1 billion, according to a congressional audit released Friday.

Three of those applications are for a nuclear project, totaling $8.3 billion, while eight are for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, totaling $2 billion, the Government Accountability Office said in a report to lawmakers. One application is for a fossil energy project totaling $2.8 billion, and another is a $2 billion loan guarantee for a front-end nuclear project.

GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, did not name all of the projects. It did say the nuclear applications are from Southern Company and two other utilities to support the construction of two reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia, while the front-end nuclear project is Areva's currently-shelved Eagle Rock uranium enrichment plant in Idaho.

The energy efficiency and renewable energy projects would qualify for $170 million in credit subsidy fees, which DOE would pay to support their applications. Those fees work like points on a mortgage, as protection against a default.

GAO compiled the report for top lawmakers on the House of Representatives and Senate appropriations subcommittees that oversee DOE funding.

Another 27 loan guarantee applications are considered "inactive" by DOE, according to GAO.

If all of the applications under consideration are approved, DOE will have $10.2 billion in loan guarantee authority remaining for nuclear projects, $5.2 billion for fossil energy projects, $4 billion for undifferentiated energy projects, and $300 million for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

DOE would have no remaining credit subsidy funding.

The loan guarantee program was created under the Bush administration to finance energy projects that the private markets were unwilling or unable to underwrite. But it languished without approving any applications until President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

Since then, the program has come under political fire after the first loan guarantee recipient, solar panel-maker Solyndra, went bankrupt despite a $535 million loan guarantee.

--Herman Wang, herman_wang@platts.com

--Edited by Carla Bass, carla_bass@platts.com

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