Reposting below those questions as posted by Willis Escenbach, The DOE vs. Ugly Reality last December 10, 2016, also Willis' comments on some of them. Good work, Willis.
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Questions for DOE
This memo, as you might expect, is replete with acronyms.
“DOE” is the Department of Energy. Here are the memo questions and my comments.
1. Can you provide a list of all boards, councils,
commissions, working groups, and FACAs [Federal Advisory Committees] currently
active at the Department? For each, can you please provide members, meeting schedules,
and authority (statutory or otherwise) under which they were created?
If I were at DOE, this first question would indeed set MY
hair on fire. The easiest way to get rid of something is to show that it was
not properly established … boom, it’s gone. As a businessman myself, this
question shows me that the incoming people know their business, and that the
first order of business is to jettison the useless lumber.
2. Can you provide a complete list of ARPA-E’s projects?
Critical information for an incoming team.
3 Can you provide a list of the Loan Program Office’s
outstanding loans, including the parties responsible for paying the loan back,
term of the loan, and objective of the loan?
4 Can you provide a list of applications for loans the
LPO has received and the status of those applications?
5 Can you provide a full accounting of DOE liabilities
associated with any loan or loan guarantee programs?
6 The Department recently announced the issuance of $4.5
billion in loan guarantees for electric vehicles (and perhaps associated
infrastructure). Can you provide a status on this effort?
Oh, man, they are going for the jugular. Loan Program
Office? If there is any place that the flies would gather, it’s around the
honey … it’s good to see that they are looking at loan guarantees for electric
vehicles, a $4.5 billion dollar boondoggle that the government should NOT be
in. I call that program the “Elon Musk Retirement Fund”.
Folks, for $4.5 billion dollars, we could provide clean
water to almost half a million villages around the world … or we could put it
into Elon Musk’s bank account or the account of some other electric vehicle
manufacturer. I know which one I’d vote for … and I am equally sure which one
the poor of the world would prefer.
7 What is the goal of the grid modernization effort? Is
there some terminal point to this effort? Is its genesis statutory or something
else?
Asking the right questions about vague programs …
8 Who “owns” the Mission Innovation and Clean Energy
Ministerial efforts within the Department?
I love this question. Orphan departments are legendary in
big bureaucracies … nobody owns them and they can do what they want. I don’t
predict a long future for this Mission Impossible—Clean Energy effort..
9 What is the Department’s role with respect to the
development of offshore wind?
Given that offshore wind is far and away the MOST
EXPENSIVE of all the renewable options, the answer should be “None”.
10 Is there an assessment of the funds it would take to
replace aging infrastructure in the complex? Is there a priority list of which
facilities to be decommissioned?
Another critical question, about the state of their own
facilities.
11 Which Assistant Secretary positions are rooted in
statute and which exist at the discretion and delegation of the Secretary?
Like I said … these guys know how to do what they plan to
do, which is to change the direction of the agency. All discretionary Assistant
Secretaries must be sweating …
12 What is the statutory charge to the Department with
respect to efficiency standards? Which products are subject to statutory
requirements and which are discretionary to the Department?
Same thing. They want to find out what they can just cut,
where the low-hanging fruit might be. I suspect this is about Obama’s ludicrous
CAFE standards mandating a 50+ mile-per-gallon average for all car
manufacturers.
13 Can you provide a list of all Department of Energy
employees or contractors who have attended any Interagency Working Group on the
Social Cost of Carbon meetings? Can you provide a list of when those meetings
were and any materials distributed at those meetings, emails associated with
those meetings, or materials created by Department employees or contractors in
anticipation of or as a result of those meetings?
Now, this is the one that has the “scientists” involved
most concerned. Me, I think they damn well should be concerned because what
they have been doing all this time is HALF OF A COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS!!
This is a pet peeve of mine. You can’t just talk of costs
in a vacuum. To do that without considering the accompanying benefits is
scientific malfeasance. To do it as a policy matter is nothing less than
deliberately lying to the public. As a result, I hope that everyone engaged in
this anti-scientific effort gets identified and if they cannot be fired for
malfeasance then put them to work sweeping the floors. Talk about “fake news”,
the so-called “social cost of carbon” is as fake as they come.
14 Did DOE or any of its contractors run the integrated
assessment models (lAMs)? Did they pick the discount rates to be used with the
lAMs? What was DOE’s opinion on the proper discount rates used with the lAMs?
What was DOE’s opinion on the proper equilibrium climate sensitivity?
Cuts to the core, and lets the people know that vague
handwaving is not going to suffice. These folks want actual answers to the hard
questions, and they’ve definitely identified the critical points about the
models.
15 What is the Department’s role with respect to JCPOA?
Which office has the lead for the NNSA?
The JCPOA is usually a “Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action”. In this case, however, it refers to the Iran nuclear deal, and is
an interesting question. The NNSA is the
National Nuclear Security Adminstration.
16 What statutory authority has been given to the
Department with respect to cybersecurity?
Critical in these times.
17 Can you provide a list of all Schedule C appointees,
all non-career SES employees, and all Presidential appointees requiring Senate
confirmation? Can you include their current position and how long they have
served at the Department?
Here’s the deal. It’s basically impossible to fire a
government worker unless they held up a bank and were caught in the act, and
even then you’d have to have full-color video to make it stick. Public employee
unions are among the world’s stupidest and most destructive idea … the
government unions use their plentiful funds to affect the election of the
people who set their pay scale. Yeah, that should go well …
BUT … if you can get rid of their position, then you’re
not firing them, you just don’t have further work for them. They are trying to
figure out who they can cut. Hair is catching fire on all sides with this one.
18 Can you offer more information about the EV Everywhere
Grand Challenge?
Never heard of it, but then I never heard of a lot of
things in this memo … which just shows that the memo makers did their homework.
Turns out that the EV Everywhere Grand Challenge is another clumsy attempt to
get Electric Vehicles Everywhere regardless of the fact that the public mostly
doesn’t want Electric Vehicles Anywhere.
19 Can you provide a list of Department employees or
contractors who attended any of the Conference of the Parties (under the
UNFCCC) in the last five years?
An IPCC Conference of Parties is much more party than
conference—it’s basically an excuse to party in some lovely location (think
Bali, Cancun, …), with the party occasionally interrupted by the pesky
conference. It is a meaningless exercise which ends up with an all-night
session that finishes by announcing that everyone has signed on to the latest
non-binding fantasy about how to end the use of fossil fuels, drive up energy
prices, and screw the poor. And yes, if I were appointed to run the DOE, I
would definitely want to know who has gone on these useless junkets.
Now, I know that people are going to complain about
“scientific freedom” regarding the memo asking who worked on what … but if you
don’t want to tell the incoming team what you’ve worked on … why not? Are you
ashamed of what you’ve done? Look, every job I’ve had, if a new boss came in,
they wanted to know what I had worked on in the past, and I simply answered
them honestly. Scientists are no different.
Finally, government scientists presumably work on what
their agency directs them to work on … so the issue of “scientific freedom” is
way overblown in this context where they are NOT free to work on projects of
their own choice.
20 Can you provide a list of reports to Congress or other
external parties that are due in 2017?
Again, a critical question when you take over an
organization—what deliverables is it contracted to produce? Like I said, these
folks know what they are doing.
21 Can you provide a copy of any Participation Agreement
under Section 1221 of EP Act signed by the Department?
We’re way down in the weeds now. This section of the EP
Act allows three or more contiguous states to establish a regional transmission
siting agency. Not sure why they’ve asked this, but it does add to their
knowledge of the projected vague transmission grid actions, which appears like
it could be a big money drain.
22 What mechanisms exist to help the national
laboratories commercialize their scientific and technological prowess?
A forgotten task at the DOE, I’m sure.
23 How many fusion programs, both public and private, are
currently being funded worldwide?
Huh … looking for duplication of activities.
24 Which activities does the Department describe as
commercialization programs or programs with the specific purpose of developing
a technology for market deployment?
Incoming administrations, if they’re smart, look for low
hanging fruit. In this case if there are commercial programs near completion,
they can be fast-tracked to provide evidence that the new administration is on
the job.
25 Does or can the Department delineate research
activities as either basic or applied research?
This is a critical distinction, and one that they
possibly have never made.
26 Can you provide a list of all permitting authorities
(and their authorizing statutes) currently held by DOE and their authorizing
statutes?
Again, the local denizens will not like this a bit, more
hair will spontaneously ignite. In part any bureaucracy prides itself on its
power to stop people from doing things … in other words, they demand a permit
for an action and then they can refuse to issue it. This asks not just for the
permitting authorities, but once again for their authorizing statutes. Again,
the easiest way to get rid of something is to show it was built without
authorization …
27 Is there a readily available list of any technologies
or products that have emerged from
programs or the labs that are currently offered in the market without
any subsidy?
Quite possibly not, but if so it would be an interesting
list.
28 Are there statutory restrictions related to
reinvigorating the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management?
29 Are there any statutory restrictions to restarting the
Yucca Mountain project?
These two questions show us that they plan to restart
Yucca Mountain, the shuttered nuclear waste repository.
30 Which programs within DOE are essential to meeting the
goals of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan?
Because you can kiss them goodbye along with the CAP …
31 If DOE’s topline budget in accounts other than the 050
account were required to be reduced 10% over the next four fiscal years (from
the FY17 request and starting in FY18), does the Department have any
recommendations as to where those reductions should be made?
This is brilliant. It’s like my gorgeous ex-fiancee
regarding colors. She asks me what color I like so she can cross it off the
list of possibilities … and rightly so given my color sense. This strikes me as
the same deal. The new Administration asks where the current denizens would cut
ten percent … then when they are told it, they know they might want to cut
somewhere else … useful info either way.
32 Does the Department have any thoughts on how to reduce
the bureaucratic burden for exporting U.S. energy technology, including but not
limited to commercial nuclear technology?
Likely not … but worth asking …
33 Is the number of Assistant Secretaries set by statute?
Does the statute establish the number as a minimum or a maximum, or is it
silent on the question?
Assistant Secretaries are now on DEFCON 1, or DEFCON 0.5,
their hair is totally engulfed in flames …
34 Can you provide a list of all current open job
postings and the status of those positions?
35 Can you provide a list of outstanding M&O
contracts yet to be awarded for all DOE facilities and their current status?
36 Can you provide a list of non-M&O
procurements/awards that are currently pending and their status?
Open jobs, outstanding Maintenance and Operation
contracts, non-M&O procurements, they want to find out just exactly what is
the current state of play. It will also allow the incoming folks to see what
last-minute hires they’ve tried to jam through before the changeover.
37 Does DOE have a plan to resume the Yucca Mountain
license proceedings?
They may have shelved or previous plans, good to know if
so.
38 What secretarial determinations/records of decisions
are pending?
Have they made decisions that are not written down? If
so, what? Man, these people are thorough, I wouldn’t have thought to ask that
one.
39 What should the incoming Administration do to balance
risk, performance and ultimately completion in contracting?
40 What should this Administration do differently to make
sure there are the right incentives to attract qualified contractors?
An interesting pair of questions.
41 What is the plan for funding cleanup of Portsmouth and
Paducah when the current uranium inventory designated for barter in exchange
for cleanup services, is no longer available (excluding reinstating the
UED&D fee on commercial nuclear industry or utilizing the USEC fund)?
Back into the weeds, proving that these folks have done
their homework. Right now, those shuttered nuclear plants are trading uranium,
a valuable resource, for cleanup … what happens when the uranium runs out? Who
is on the hook for the costs?
42 What is the right funding level for EM to make
meaningful progress across the complex and meet milestone and regulatory
requirements?
According to the Energy.gov glossary, “EM” is
environmental management. I’m not sure what the DOE is required to do in this,
and that’s what they are asking.
43 What is the greatest opportunity for reduction in life
cycle cost/return on investment?
44 Describe your alternatives to the ever increasing WTP
cost and schedule, whether technical or programmatic?
45 With respect to EM, what program milestones will be
reached in each of the next four years?
47 How can the DOE support existing reactors to continue
operating as part of the nation’s infrastructure?
48 What can DOE do to help prevent premature closure of
plants?
49 How do you recommend continuing to supporting the
licensing of Small Modular Reactors?
50 How best can DOE optimize its Advanced Reactor R&D
activities to maximize their value proposition and work with investors to
development and commercialize advanced reactors?
All of these questions are concerned with the regulation
and waste disposal of nuclear plants, suggesting strongly that the new
administration is interested in keeping existing plants open and licensing new
plants.
Questions for EIA
EIA is the Energy Information Agency charged with
collecting and maintaining energy-related data.
51 EIA is an independent agency in DOE. How has EIA
ensured its independence in your data and analysis over the past 8 years? In
what instances do you think EIA’ s independence was most challenged?
Now this is a fascinating two-part question, especially
the second part. Basically they are asking, can we trust the EIA, and what
pressures is it subject to?
52 Part of EIA’s charter is to do analyses based on
Congressional and Departmental requests. Has EIA denied or not responded to any
of these requests over the last ten years?
53 EIA customarily has or had set dates for completions
of studies and reports. In general, have those dates been adhered to?
54 In the Annual Energy Outlook 2016, EIA assumed that
the Clean Power Plan should be in the reference case despite the fact that the
reference case is based on existing laws and regulations. Why did EIA make that
assumption, which seems to be atypical of past forecasts?
Uh-oh … caught messing with the books …
55 EIA’s assessments of levelized costs for renewable
technologies do not contain back-up costs for the fossil fuel technologies that
are brought on-line to replace the generation when those technologies are down.
Is this is a correct representation of the true levelized costs?
Since this is an issue I’ve raised publicly in my posts
on levelized costs, I’m overjoyed to see them ask it.
56 Has EIA done analysis that shows that additional
back-up generation is not needed? How does EIA’s analysis compare with other
analyses on this issue?
This seems like they’re talking about some EIA analysis
that says that such generation isn’t needed, and asking them to justify it. If
not, they are simply forcing them to admit that yes, backup is needed, and no,
they haven’t been including those costs … good on them.
57 Renewable and solar technologies are expected to need
additional transmission costs above what fossil technologies need. How has EIA
represented this in the AEO forecasts? What is the magnitude of those
transmission costs?
Again, excellent questions that the EIA has not been
posing, much less answering.
58 There are studies that show that your high resource
and technology case for oil and gas represents the shale gas and oil
renaissance far better than your reference case. Why has EIA not put those
assumptions in your reference case?
Yes, they definitely should put those in … but then from
all appearances they hate fracking with a passion …
59 Can you describe the number of personnel hired into
management positions at EIA from outside EIA and compare it to the number of
personnel hired into management positions at EIA who were currently serving at
EIA?
Hiring outside vs promoting inside … interesting
question.
60 How does EIA ensure quality in its data and analyses?
61 Where does EIA think most improvement is needed in its
data and analyses?
I’d love to see the answer to this one.
62 We note that EIA added distributed solar estimations
to your electricity data reports. Those numbers are not part of your
supply/demand balance on a Btu basis. Why has that not been updated
accordingly?
Uh-oh again … someone finally asking the hard questions.
63 How many vacancies does EIA have in management and
staff positions? What plans, if any, does EIA have to fill those positions
before January 20?
64 Is the EIA budget sufficient to ensure quality in data
and analyses? If not, where does it fall short?
More questions to clarify the fiscal landscape.
65 Does EIA have cost comparisons of sources of
electricity generation at the national level?
Not that I know of … but then they may have them and have
not released them. We’ll see.
Questions on labs
DOE labs are separate from the DOE itself … I knew the
DOE had labs but I had no idea they had seventeen of them, viz:
National Energy Technology Laboratory at Albany, Oregon
(2005)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at Berkeley,
California (1931)
Los Alamos National Laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico
(1943)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee
(1943)
Argonne National Laboratory at DuPage County, Illinois
(1946)
Ames Laboratory at Ames, Iowa (1947)
Brookhaven National Laboratory at Upton, New York (1947)
Sandia National Laboratories at Albuquerque, New Mexico
and Livermore, California (1948)
Idaho National Laboratory between Arco and Idaho Falls,
Idaho (1949)
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton, New
Jersey (1951)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at Livermore,
California (1952)
Savannah River National Laboratory at Aiken, South
Carolina (1952)
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Menlo Park,
California (1962)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at Richland,
Washington (1965)
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory at Batavia,
Illinois (1967)
National Renewable Energy Laboratory at Golden, Colorado
(1977)
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility at Newport
News, Virginia (1984)
Let me say that as a businessman looking at that list, it
screams “Duplication Of Effort” at about 180 decibels. Hence the following
questions:
66 What independent evaluation panels does the lab have
to assess the scientific value of its work? Who sits on these panels? How often
do they hold sessions? Do they publish reports?
67 Can you provide a list of cooperative research and
development grants (CRADAs) for the past five years? Please provide funding
amounts, sources, and outcomes?
68 Can you provide a list of licensing agreements and
royalty proceeds for the last five years?
69 Can you provide a list of the top twenty salaried
employees of the lab, with total remuneration and the portion funded by DOE?
70 Can you provide a list of all peer-reviewed
publications by lab staff for the past three years?
71 Can you provide a list of current professional society
memberships of lab staff?
72 Can you provide a list of publications by lab staff
for the past three years?
73 Can you provide a list of all websites maintained by
or contributed to by laboratory staff during work hours for the past three
years?
74 Can you provide a list of all other positions
currently held by lab staff, paid and unpaid, including faculties, boards, and
consultancies?
Well, it sure sounds like the gravy train ride is over,
and the labs will be asked to justify their existence. I would not be surprised
to see some closed and some merged.
See also:
Energy 81, Trump's climate and energy policies, November 12, 2016
Energy 82, Jarius Bondoc on FIT for renewables, November 14, 2016
Energy 83, The PEMC-NGCP Electricity Summit 2016, low ESSPs last October and high FIT-All next year, November 22, 2016
Energy 84, CCC's anti-coal, anti-fossil fuel lobbying, December 02, 2016
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