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US House passes FY'19 energy spending bill

The U.S. House of Representatives voted June 8 to pass a fiscal-year 2019 energy and water appropriations bill that would fund the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository while cutting spending on renewable energy and efficiency research.

The bill, which the House passed by 235-179, would provide $44.7 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers and related agencies, up $1.5 billion from prior-year enacted levels and $8.17 billion above President Donald Trump's request.

According to a House Appropriations Committee report on the bill, the legislation would set aside roughly $35.5 billion for the DOE, rising $974.2 million from the fiscal year 2018 and $5.3 billion higher than the White House's request.

The legislation proposed $267 million for the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, $100 million above the amount Trump sought. The bill also ignored Trump's calls to defund the DOE's Title 17 innovative technology loan guarantee program and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, known as ARPA-E.

But the House bill would lower ARPA-E funding by $28 million to a total of $325 million, and cut appropriations for the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to $2.08 billion, off by $243 million from the 2018 fiscal year.

Despite those cuts, the House bill would lift funding for the DOE's fossil and nuclear energy research and development and set aside $146 million for the agency's new Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, up $50 million from last year after accounting for the structural changes.

Prior to approving the overall bill, the House voted on several proposed amendments. It narrowly adopted an amendment from U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, to prohibit the use of funds to prepare, propose or promulgate any guidance or regulation related to the social cost of carbon, a calculation the government uses to estimate the climate change-related impacts of federal regulations and policies.

The House also approved an amendment from Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., that would block the sale of transmission assets owned by three federal power marketing administrations and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Newhouse submitted the amendment in response to the Trump administration's proposal to sell the transmission assets of TVA, as well as those owned by the Bonneville Power Administration, Southwestern Power Administration and Western Area Power Administration.

But the GOP-controlled House rejected several amendments from Democratic lawmakers. The House voted down an amendment from Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., that would have struck $190 million from the bill for licensing the Yucca Mountain repository. House lawmakers also rejected an amendment from Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., that would have removed a section of the bill that seeks to prohibit funds from being used to require a permit for the discharge of dredged or fill material under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.

The energy and water spending bill is part of a "mini-bus" package of three fiscal-year 2019 appropriations that the House approved June 8. The House will now have to reconcile the bills with the U.S. Senate's legislation.

On May 24, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal-year 2019 energy and water bill. The Senate's bill differed in several ways from the House legislation, including by providing more money for ARPA-E, holding funding steady for DOE's renewable energy and efficiency office and setting aside no funds for Yucca Mountain.