We catch up on energy news that may have slipped through the tines of the barbecue fork over the last days of summer, at least as Washington, D.C., understands the season.

Jobs …. Just thought we should mention the word.

Los Angeles Times (blog), Sept. 4, “Salazar: Arctic oil drilling must wait“:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is making it clear that he’s in no hurry to open the door to new exploratory oil and gas drilling in the offshore Arctic — not, he said, until more is known about the potential pitfalls.

Winding up a two-day trip to Alaska’s North Slope that included a town hall in Barrow, a stop at the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and a flight over the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, Salazar said reports on what caused the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico will have to be in before Shell Alaska can be allowed to commence drilling new wells off Alaska’s northern shores.

Politico, Sept. 3, “More Democrats call for oil drilling investigation“: “House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) on Friday sent Interior Secretary Ken Salazar a letter requesting a slew of documents, saying he is “alarmed” by the disaster aboard the Mariner Energy rig in the Gulf of Mexico. This follows on the heels of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s request that Mariner brief committee members.”

Bloomberg, Sept. 3, “Crude Futures Seen Falling Next Week as Refineries Do Seasonal Maintenance“: “U.S. crude oil production increased 1.7 percent to 5.6 million barrels a day last week, the highest level since May 2004, the [Energy] department said.”

Houston Chronicle, Sept. 3, “Energy workers speak out“: “More than 5,000 energy sector workers flocked to three Texas rallies Wednesday to protest what they view as an onslaught of punitive measures from Washington that threaten oil and gas jobs and domestic energy supplies.”

And on the nuclear front …

Der Spiegel, Sept. 6, “Merkel’s Government Extends Nuclear Plant Lifespans“: “The German government has agreed to extend the operating lives of the country’s nuclear power plants by up to 14 years. Energy companies will make payments to promote the expansion of renewable energy in return.” (continue reading…)

A good description from McClatchy on the judicial rebuff to the Obama Administration’s attempt to unilaterally withdraw the licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository (which opponents and headline writers insist on calling a “dump”). From “Judges rule Obama can’t close Yucca Mountain nuclear dump“:

Three administrative judges within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled last week that Congress had designated Yucca Mountain in 1987 to receive highly toxic waste from the Savannah River Site on the S.C.-Georgia border and other complexes that built atom bombs during the Cold War.

The panel found that President Barack Obama and Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a nuclear physicist, lacked the power to close the Yucca repository unilaterally; doing so, it ruled, would require another act of Congress.

“Unless Congress directs otherwise, DOE may not single-handedly derail the legislated decision-making process by withdrawing the (Yucca repository) application. DOE’s motion must therefore be denied,” the judges wrote, adding that the DOE had weakened its arguments by “conceding that the application is not flawed nor the (Yucca) site unsafe.”

• Nevada News Bureau — Group Seeking To Turn Yucca Mountain Into Research Site Applauds Ruling Against U.S. Energy Department – Sean Whaley
• Pahrump Valley Times — Judges keep Yucca breathing – Steve Tetreault
• BLT: Blog of Legal Times — Fight Over Yucca Mountain Site Moves to NRC
• The Oregonian — Editorial: Yucca remains an option

The National Association of Manufacturers has joined a broad group of supporters of nuclear power in urging Congress to maintain the Yucca Mountain site as a viable repository for nuclear waste.

From the news release, “Eighteen Organizations Urge Continued Funding for Yucca Mountain; Ask for Release of Documents on Proposed Termination“:

WASHINGTON, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – A coalition of leading national and regional organizations — representing energy and individual taxpayers; state elected and regulatory officials; communities and energy-related businesses — expressed vigorous support for the continuation of the Yucca Mountain repository program in letters to key Congressional appropriators.  The group urged release of all documents associated with the Obama Administration’s decision to cancel the program while advocating “immediate suspension” of payments to the Nuclear Waste Fund in the event the U.S. Congress agrees to implement the Department’s termination request.

“This proposed action will unnecessarily leave the United States with no path forward or operative ‘Plan B’ for the Nation’s nuclear waste, violate the provisions of the bipartisanly-enacted Nuclear Waste Policy Act, represent unjustified intrusion into an ongoing review by the NRC, contradicting the President’s Memorandum on Scientific Integrity; result in wholly inadequate funding to preserve the integrity of the taxpayers’ $10 billion investment; and continue to siphon approximately $770 million annually from electricity consumers in 41 states,” the organizations said in letters to Senate and House leaders of the energy and water development appropriations subcommittees.

The letter is available here, via the Sustainable Fuel Cycle Task Force.

With all the efforts being made on behalf of expanded domestic energy production, especially OCS oil and gas, we’ve been letting the nuclear sector slip a little in terms of attention. But many good things are happening in what must be a key industry in ensuring an adequate, affordable supply of baseload power.

NEI Nuclear Notes is always a good place for updates, like this one:

A $200 billion pool to finance and drive private investment in carbon-free energy infrastructure is one cornerstone of a comprehensive action plan that the next U.S. president should implement in his first 100 days to secure America’s energy supplies, the Council on Competitiveness said in a report [PDF] issued today.

A “clean energy bank,” modeled after the U.S. Export/Import Bank, would provide financing for the development of energy solutions that avoid, reduce or sequester carbon as well as supporting infrastructure. Among the options: nuclear, renewable and biofuels.

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and chair of the Council’s Energy Security, Innovation and Sustainability Initiative, said jumpstarting energy infrastructure investments is the “unaddressed element to date to transforming our energy sector.” Absent the investment stimulus needed to build nuclear power plants, renewable projects and infrastructure such as a “smart” electric grid, U.S. energy policy will continue to languish, Jackson said.

Other recent headlines:

• NRC Renews FitzPatrick Plant License for 20 Years
• The NRC Dockets the Yucca Mountain License Application
• The Safety of US Nuclear Plants Continues to Improve

And they keep a good watch on the politicking and positions on nuclear energy of the major candidates.