1939-1950   1951-1970    1971-1980    1981-1990    1991-2000   2001    2002    2003    2004

January 2, 2003
Los Alamos National Laboratory Director John Browne and Principal Deputy Director Joseph Salgado announce their resignations. Browne’s resignation is “a mutual decision” by him and the University of California (UC), notes UC President Richard Atkinson. Laboratory senior manager George “Pete” Nanos becomes interim director. Secretary Abraham welcomes the sweeping management changes and calls for continued action to rectify the underlying problems at Los Alamos. "For sixty years, the scientists and engineers of Los Alamos have played a vital role in ensuring the security of the United States," the Secretary says. "It is crucial that we restore public confidence in the management of the laboratory so that they can continue to play that role. The nation needs the same confidence in the business management and security at Los Alamos as it has in the Laboratory's weapons design and basic science."

January 7, 2003
The Spent Nuclear Fuel Project at DOE’s Hanford Site, located in eastern Washington, finishes moving more than two million pounds (957 metric tons) of highly radioactive spent fuel containing about 25 million curies of radioactivity out of the K Basins and further away from the Columbia River. The spent fuel is moved from underwater storage to dry storage in specially designed, vacuum-dried canisters, called multi-canister overpacks. The project is about at the halfway point of removing all the spent fuel—2,100 metric tons—from both the K-West and K-East basins by 2004.

January 8, 2003
Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow launches a new management system that will move DOE from manual, paper-based management to automated, web-based management. The Integrated Management Navigation System (I-MANAGE) program is a cornerstone of the Department's efforts to achieve improved financial performance, integrated budget and performance, and expanded electronic government in support of President Bush's Management Agenda.

January 9, 2003
The Department’s National Energy Technology Laboratory announces that a new lightweight, flexible drill pipe, engineered from space-age composites rather than steel, has passed an important field test and is being readied for its first commercial use. When used in the drilling of horizontal offshoots from existing vertical wells into oil- and gas-bearing formations that previously were deemed uneconomic, the flexible pipe can remain bent for extended periods of time without suffering fatigue damage.

January 12, 2003
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ministers meeting in Vienna agree to raise their crude production ceiling by 1.5 million barrels per day to 24.5 million barrels per day. Ministers said they anticipated that this would fill the supply shortfall created by the strike in OPEC-member Venezuela’s oil sector. They added that they hoped prices would fall back within the cartel’s $22-28 per barrel target range.

January 15, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces the first eight projects chosen by DOE in the initial phase of President Bush's Clean Coal Power Initiative. The projects, valued at more than $1.3 billion, are expected to help pioneer a new generation of innovative power plant technologies that could help meet the President's Clear Skies and Climate Change initiatives.

January 18, 2003
In a “virtual” groundbreaking ceremony in Portland, Oregon, DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oregon State University (OSU) mark the beginning of the new Microproducts Breakthrough Institute established by the two organizations. The research and educational center will develop and help market advances in the emerging field of microtechnology. Projects either underway or for future consideration include portable personal cooling systems, lapel-pin-sized biosensors to detect chemical and biological warfare agents, pen-sized chemical reactors for environmental applications, and small systems to produce hydrogen for fuel cells in automobiles. The institute will be centered at OSU.

January 21, 2003
The first U.S. contribution to the Large Hadron Collider is received at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. The superconducting magnet, built at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, is one of several advanced accelerator elements the U.S. will provide for the Collider under the terms of a 1998 agreement among CERN, DOE, and the National Science Foundation. The Collider is scheduled for startup in 2007.

January 22, 2003
The head of the International Energy Agency’s emergency planning division, Klaus Jacoby, says the agency is prepared to call for the release of emergency petroleum reserves on short notice if a supply disruption occurs in the Middle East.

January 24, 2003
As a deep freeze impacts on many parts of the nation, Secretary Abraham announces that President Bush's 2004 Budget includes $288.2 million for DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program, an increase of $11.2 million above the President's fiscal year 2003 request. “As temperatures are falling to sub-zero levels,” the Secretary remarks, “the funds for weatherization assistance are rising to help low income families across the country.” By improving the energy efficiency in homes, the program will reduce the energy bills of approximately 126,000 low-income families nationwide in 2003.

January 28, 2003
In his State of the Union address, President Bush announces a $1.2 billion Hydrogen Fuel Initiative to reverse the nation’s growing dependence on foreign oil by developing the technology needed for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells. “A single chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen,” the President tells the nation “generates energy, which can be used to power a car -- producing only water, not exhaust fumes. With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom, so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.” The initiative will include $720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop the technologies and infrastructure to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for use in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation

January 30, 2003
In remarks to employees at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Secretary Abraham announces President Bush’s decision in favor of U.S. participation in negotiations on the construction and operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a major international magnetic fusion research project. The international cooperative effort will also involve Canada, the European Union, Japan, Russia, and possibly China. The mission of ITER is to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. ITER will provide 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer during each individual fusion experiment and will be the first fusion device to produce a burning plasma and to operate at a high power level for such long duration experiments. The construction cost for ITER, including buildings, hardware, installation and personnel, is estimated to be about $5 billion. The U.S. share of the costs is expected to be about 10 percent.

February 1, 2003
The Space Shuttle Columbia breaks up over Texas upon reentry to the atmosphere.

February 3, 2003
Secretary Abraham releases the Department’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget request to Congress, calling it a “good reflection on the Energy Department, its programs and its people.” The $23.4 billion budget request, the Secretary states, demonstrates that “this Administration and Congress recognize the critical contribution our work on defense, energy security, the environment, and world-leading science and technology makes to a peaceful and prosperous future.” The $23.4 billion request is an increase from the FY 2003 request of $21.9 billion. Of DOE’s four “business lines,” the National Nuclear Security Administration is $8.8 billion, up from $8 billion in 2003; Energy programs are $2.5 billion, an increase of $9 million from 2003; Environment is $8 billion, up $354 million from 2003; and the Office of Science is $3.3 billion, an increase of $64 million from 2003.

February 6, 2003
President Bush, Secretary Abraham, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman tour hydrogen fuel cell technologies on display at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. “One of the greatest results of using hydrogen power,” the President notes in a speech to those assembled, “will be energy independence for this nation. If we develop hydrogen power to its full potential, we can reduce our demand for oil by over 11 million barrels per day by the year 2040. That would be a fantastic legacy to leave for future generations of Americans.”

February 7, 2003
The Department’s West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York completes processing liquid waste from its High-Level Waste Tank Farm. This accomplishment signals the end of Tank Farm waste processing at the site. In the next phase of operations—high-level waste tank lay-up—all the piping connections from the tanks will be isolated from adjoining systems.

February 11, 2003
Secretary Abraham says that it will not release oil from DOE’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help alleviate high prices. “We’ve put a pretty high standard in place [for releasing SPR oil],” notes the Secretary, “because we really think that it should be only used in circumstances that truly involve serious supply disruptions that have broader connotations than some price fluctuations.”

February 12, 2003
In a program at DOE headquarters, Secretary Abraham, on behalf of the Bush Administration, launches the President’s “Climate VISION” (Voluntary Innovative Sector Initiatives: Opportunities Now)—a voluntary, public-private partnership to pursue cost-effective initiatives that will reduce the projected growth in American’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Secretary is joined in the program by Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton, and business and industry leaders.

February 13, 2003
Congress approves an omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2003 that provides $20.9 billion for DOE. This is $8 million less than President Bush requested but $920 million more than the Department received in FY 2002. The bill includes a one-year renewal of the Price-Anderson Act’s indemnification of nuclear power plant operators.

February 19, 2003
The Department’s Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico sign an agreement creating a new Office for Policy, Security, and Technology at the university. The collaborative initiative seeks to nurture scholarly thought and research on policy issues linked to threats to national and international security, especially in areas where technology and security are interrelated, such as weapons of mass destruction, arms control and nonproliferation, terrorism and homeland security, environment, energy, critical infrastructures, borders, sustainable development, and region-specific issues such as water scarcity.

February 25, 2003
At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DOE’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget, Secretary Abraham states that the implementation of a “strong comprehensive energy national policy” would help lessen the impact of the repetitive cycle of high energy prices. While acknowledging that even with energy legislation price spikes would not go away completely, the Secretary asserts that “we need to take action so that we don’t have a consistently repeating cycle of high prices for energy commodities, for energy prices.”

February 27, 2003
Secretary Abraham and Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky announce the formation of an ambitious new international effort to advance carbon capture and storage technology as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Secretary states that the U.S. will lead a $1 billion, 10-year public-private-international effort to construct the world’s first fossil fuel, pollution-free power plant, known as “FutureGen.” Designed by an industrial consortium, the plant will turn coal into a hydrogen-rich gas, rather than burning it directly. The hydrogen would be used to power a turbine or fuel cell to generate electricity or for possible use in a refinery to help upgrade petroleum products. Also announced are plans for creating the “Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum,” which will bring together ministerial-level representatives to discuss the growing body of scientific research and emerging technologies for permanently isolating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

March 5, 2003
A report by the Democratic minority staff of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accuses DOE of mismanagement of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by adding to the reserve when prices were high and the market was tight. Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow responds that the report “misunderstands the facts and the purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

March 11, 2003
Secretary Abraham co-hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference on the Security of Radioactive Sources in Vienna, Austria. The conference goals are to raise international awareness about the dangers of radiological dispersal devices (RDD), or “dirty bombs”; seek a new level of international cooperation on RDD issues; and encourage nations to better identify, account for, and secure RDD-related material. More than 600 experts from 100 countries are in attendance.

March 12, 2003
Secretary Abraham and Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Aleksandr Rumyantsev sign agreements that will facilitate the shutdown of three Russian nuclear reactors. The reactors, which are the last three in Russia that produce plutonium for military purposes, also provide necessary heat and electricity to the “closed cities” of Seversk and Zheleznogorsk in Siberia. Under the agreement, the U.S. will provide support to the Russian Federation for replacement fossil energy plants.

March 19, 2003
The Senate votes to remove language in a budget resolution calling for oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

March 20, 2003
Secretary Abraham issues a statement declaring that “world energy supplies are more than adequate to compensate for any disruption” caused by the hostilities in Iraq.

March 21, 2003
The Department releases oil production figures from the Energy Information Administration that, Secretary Abraham notes in a statement, “confirm that world oil production is consistent and steady.” The Secretary adds that DOE continues to “closely monitor the world oil supply situation.”

March 25, 2003
The National Transmission Technology Research Center is dedicated at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The facility, a joint effort of ORNL, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the 3M Company, will test a conductor that may lead to more efficient and reliable transmission of electricity and enable researchers to address the problem of power outages caused by sagging lines that result from the heat of high current loads.

March 26, 2003
The Department lifts its suspension of transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

March 31, 2003
The Department’s Energy Information Administration reports that storage levels of natural gas are at record lows. Given the “narrow margin of surplus capacity,” any sudden demand increase or drop in production could result in significant short-term price increases.

April 8, 2003
At a meeting of the U.S./Russia Energy Working Group (EWG), co-chairs Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow and Deputy Minister Oleg Gordeev, Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, sign a new Protocol on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy as well as a Protocol on overall energy issues. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the EWG in their May 2002 meeting as a means to strengthen the overall relationship between the two countries, and enhance global energy security, international strategic stability, and regional cooperation.

April 9, 2003
The Department files suit against the State of Washington's Department of Ecology. In doing so, the Department moves to protect its cleanup interests as governed by the Tri-Party Agreement and counters a lawsuit filed at the end of February challenging certain DOE shipments of material to Hanford that are likewise important to DOE's accelerated cleanup plans. “Recent actions by the State of Washington could have a chilling effect on cleanup operations at Hanford and elsewhere,” notes Jessie Roberson, assistant secretary of environmental management. “We believe we can work with the state on this issue to an eventual agreement, but in light of Washington's actions, we felt we had to file this lawsuit to protect out interests.”

April 11, 2003
Department officials, back from a trip to Alaska's North Slope, announce the forerunner of a new type of onshore drilling platform termed the "Arctic Platform" that dramatically reduces impact on fragile ecosystems. The Arctic Platform is a lightweight, 100-by-100-foot aluminum drilling platform elevated a dozen feet above the frozen tundra on specially designed steel legs. Its compact and modular design allows it to be safely transported by air or with ultra-low-impact vehicles called rolligons. “The Arctic Platform could be the industry's next major step toward the day,” says Carl Michael Smith, assistant secretary for fossil energy, “when exploration and drilling would leave virtually no lasting trace on the surface.”

April 14, 2003
Representatives of DOE and the National Institutes of Health announce the successful completion of the Human Genome Project more than two years ahead of schedule. The international effort to sequence the 3 billion DNA letters in the human genome, note project officials, “is considered by many to be one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings of all time, even compared to splitting the atom or going to the moon.”

April 22, 2003
The Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announces that it has successfully made the first nuclear weapons “pit” in 14 years that meets specifications for use in the U.S. stockpile. The plutonium pit, called Qual-1 because it was built with and fully met qualified processes, is for the W88 warhead, which is carried on the Trident II D5 Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile, a cornerstone of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. A pit is the fissile core of a nuclear weapon’s physics package. The six-year effort at LANL’s plutonium processing facility restores a U.S. capability lost when DOE’s Rocky Flats Plant shut down in 1989. DOE identified LANL as the site to make nuclear weapon pits through the 1996 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Environmental Impact Statement.

April 24, 2003
Secretary Abraham, during a visit to The Institute for Genomics Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Maryland, announces that the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA), an affiliate organization to TIGR headed by J. Craig Ventner, will receive $3 million per year for the next three years for research to better understand microbial communities and to develop new, biological methods to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and to produce hydrogen. TIGR will collaborate with IBEA on the work.

April 26, 2003
Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow and Acting National Nuclear Security Administrator Linton Brooks deliver to Secretary Abraham a report on the future relationship between Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California recommending that the university continue to manage the laboratory through the end of the current contract in September 2005 but that DOE announce its intent to compete the contract when it expires.

April 28, 2003
In remarks at the International Energy Agency Ministerial meeting, Secretary Abraham calls for the development of international collaboration in advanced research and development that will support the deployment of hydrogen energy technologies. The Secretary’s proposed International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy would establish cooperative and collaborative efforts in hydrogen production, storage, transport, and end-use technologies; common codes and standards for hydrogen fuel utilization; and the sharing of information necessary to develop hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The vision of the partnership, the Secretary notes, “is that a participating country’s consumers will have the practical option of purchasing a competitively priced hydrogen power vehicle, and be able to refuel it near their homes and places of work, by 2020.”

April 30, 2003
Secretary Abraham travels to Doha, Qatar, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss international energy issues and promote international energy dialogue. While in Qatar, the Secretary tours the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visits with the troops, and meets with two DOE employees detailed to CENTCOM in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The two are providing DOE expertise in oil and gas infrastructure and energy assurance issues and nuclear/radiological emergency response actions.

May 1, 2003
In a report on the international energy outlook, DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that worldwide consumption of commercial energy will grow by 58 percent over the next two and one-half decades. The EIA expects much of the growth to occur in the developing world, with China, India, and South Korea leading the way, as their consumption increasingly resembles that of the industrialized world.

May 7, 2003
At a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Garman states that the biggest technical challenge for President Bush’s initiative to speed the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles involves the storage of hydrogen on board vehicles. “The physical nature of hydrogen makes it difficult to store without a lot of weight and bulk,” notes Garman. “Weight and bulk are the enemy of automakers.” Although the other major hurdles are bringing down the cost of producing hydrogen and lowering the cost of fuel cells and improving their durability, Garman observes, “I probably worry most about storage than any of the others. We’re going to need a technology breakthrough.” The current method of storing hydrogen is to compress it in a sturdy tank. The Department is looking at chemical hydrides and carbon nanotubes for storing hydrogen without high pressure.

May 8, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces the release of a $150 million solicitation for the Hydrogen Vehicle and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project that will spur the development of both hydrogen vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure needed to support them. The project solicitation seeks proposals for 50/50 cost shared cooperative agreements between industry and DOE for the five-year project. Project teams will consist of an automobile manufacturer and an energy company in combination with hydrogen fuel cell manufacturers, small businesses, universities and state/ local governments.

May 12, 2003
The Department’s Argonne National Laboratory hosts emergency management officials from Federal, state, and local agencies during the Top Officials 2 (TopOff 2) nationwide exercise. The Argonne site is used because of its security as a Federal facility and its distance from downtown Chicago, Illinois, which is part of the exercise. TopOff 2 begins in Washington State with a simulated “dirty bomb,” which goes off just south of downtown Seattle. Next is a simulated biological attach on the Chicago area.

May 13, 2003
In remarks at a meeting of the National Coal Council, Secretary Abraham asserts that the Bush Administration’s proposals to advance carbon sequestration, nuclear power and hydrogen research and development “will have a more profound effect on global climate and emission advancements than any other initiatives on the planet.”

May 14, 2003
In response to the GAO report on radioactive sources, the Department states that it has already recovered and secured, working together with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which licenses radioactive sources 6000 radioactive sources to date, including 1600 sources in fiscal year 2003 alone. The program, the Department declares, “is fully funded to identify and recover all the sealed sources that the Department and the NRC have identified as priorities.”

May 16, 2003
Secretary Abraham, on the second anniversary of President Bush’s unveiling of his National Energy Policy, issues a statement highlighting the progress made in achieving the goals of the plan. “The National Energy Policy offered more than 100specific recommendations to increase domestic energy, diversify energy sources, modernize conservation efforts, and upgrade our national energy infrastructure,” the Secretary observes. “We have begun developing and implementing a second wave of policy initiatives built upon the visionary principles outlined in our original plan. These include the President’s FreedomCAR and Hydrogen Fuel Initiatives, Clean Coal Power Initiatives, and investments in carbon sequestration technologies.”

May 27, 2003
At a press conference with Russian Ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakov, Secretary Abraham announces a $446 million National Nuclear Security Administration contract award to Washington Group International and Raytheon Technical Services to begin work to shutdown the last three remaining weapons-grade plutonium production reactors in Russia. Shutting down the three reactors, two located at Seversk and one at Zheleznogorsk, the Department says, will end the production of enough weapons-grade plutonium to produce approximately one nuclear weapon every day and a half. “The selection of the contractors is another significant step,” the Secretary notes, “in advancing the Bush Administration’s nonproliferation programs.” The Department will work to replace the reactors with coal-fired heat and electricity plants.

May 30, 2003
In response to a new report about lower-level management’s failure to report a potential security incident at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administrator Linton Brooks announces the dispatch of a team of senior managers to assess the management of security operations at the nuclear weapons laboratory. The team is to follow up on recent reports about security concerns at Livermore, make recommendations about necessary changes in operations, and assess whether NNSA should assume direct management of security at the laboratory. “Senior management at Lawrence Livermore and the University of California have responded aggressively to revelations about security problems,” Brooks notes, “but I am disturbed by evidence that other managers in the chain of command have been lax in identifying and reporting potentially serious security problems.”

June 2, 2003
The Department announces that a modified jet engine has been used to successfully fight a West Virginia mine fire that had been burning for nearly two months and was the cause of 300 employees being temporarily laid off when mine operations were idled. Positioned at the mouth of the one of the mineshafts, the jet engine was used to blow water vapor and inert gases into the mine to smother the fire by creating an inert environment underground. The Department and the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health provided a portion of the costs to test the innovative fire suppression system.

June 3, 2003
The Department announces the opening of a new Lexington, Kentucky, office established to implement environmental cleanup activities for the Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, gaseous diffusion sites.

June 10, 2003
The Department’s Fernald Closure Project in Ohio hosts its final public tour of the Fernald site before it reaches safe closure in 2006. The former Feed Materials Production Center was the first link in a chain of government facilities that manufactured the atomic bomb, producing high-purity uranium for the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. The site’s mission shifted from uranium production to environmental restoration in the late 1980’s.

June 16, 2003
In his keynote address to the European Commission’s (EC) Conference of the High Level Group on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell (HLG-HFC) technologies in Brussels, Belgium, Secretary Abraham notes the emphasis that both the U.S. and the EC have placed in their respective hydrogen initiatives as well as their mutual cooperation and achievements in the area. “We believe our work on hydrogen and the work being done elsewhere around the world is perhaps the most significant game-changing endeavor the energy sector will see in our lifetimes,” the Secretary asserts. “And working together with international partners, we can leverage scarce resources and advance the schedule for research, development, and deployment of hydrogen production, storage, transport, and end-use technologies.” The EC established the HLG-HFC, composed of EC auto and transport companies, utilities research institutes, and policy makers, in 2002 to advance the development of the hydrogen economy.

June 20, 2003
President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agree to launch a broad, bilateral energy partnership. In support of the partnership, Secretary Abraham and Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Dilma Rousseff sign a Memorandum of Understanding formally initiating energy cooperation. “This partnership will strengthen bilateral cooperation on energy modernization and new technologies for both countries, promoting economic growth and energy security,” states the Secretary.

June 24, 2003
A General Accounting Office report, released at a hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, documents shortcomings in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s management of its safeguards and post-September 11 security program. NNSA, the GAO states, cannot be assured that its contractors are working to maximum advantage to protect critical facilities and materials from adversaries seeking to inflict damage.

Sandia National Laboratories President C. Paul Robinson announces management changes prompted by the findings of an independent investigation looking into allegations that some internal security investigations were impeded or the investigators were retaliated against.

Secretary Abraham directs NNSA to take immediate corrective action to overhaul security at DOE’s national laboratories.

June 25, 2003
Secretary Abraham along with Energy Ministers and their representatives from around the globe today signed the first international charter in support of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). The charter sets the framework for international cooperation in research and development for the separation, capture, transportation and storage of carbon as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

June 26, 2003
Secretary Abraham, in remarks opening the National Petroleum Council's Natural Gas Summit, notes that demand for natural gas has increased over the last decade to levels that are difficult to sustain under current supply and production constraints. "But this is not just about low reserves or supply and demand imbalances," the Secretary Abraham tells the Summit audience. "This is about real people and the real problems they confront when gas prices soar. It's about senior citizens, living on fixed incomes, being forced to choose between skyrocketing heating bills or some other of life's necessities.” The Secretary adds that "our goal coming out of this summit is to take quick and decisive action where possible to diminish the immediate impact of lower-than-expected supplies of gas."

June 27, 2003
In a letter to all members of Congress following the Natural Gas Summit, Secretary Abraham calls for increased energy conservation to avert problems with gas supplies and prices later this year and through next winter. “Among the messages we received at the summit was that during the next six to18 months there are a limited number of opportunities to increase supply,” the Secretary notes, “and, therefore, our focus must be on demand, with efforts to improve energy efficiency and conservation.”

July 1, 2003
Touring DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, Secretary Abraham encourages Americans to use energy efficient technologies and practices in their homes and businesses in the wake of rising natural gas prices this year. Demand for natural gas is expected to rise by as much as 50 percent over the next 25 years.

July 2, 2003
In letters to the Senate and House Armed Services committees, Secretary Abraham proposes the consolidation of DOE’s counterintelligence activities under his office, three years after they were split between DOE and the agency’s National Nuclear Security Administration. “In my opinion,” the Secretary tells the committees, “the current bifurcation of counterintelligence elements has proven to be an impediment to coherent and effective counterintelligence activities necessary for the entire complex and, therefore, must be corrected.” The change will require an act of Congress.

July 8, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces that he will invite countries that use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as an energy resource to attend a Global Liquefied Natural Gas Summit in the U.S. later this year to take a fresh look at the world’s LNG resources and markets. The Summit will explore global natural gas resources, proposed LNG supply projects, and export and import terminal facilities, among other topics of relevance to the global LNG industry.

July 9, 2003
The Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the State of South Carolina sign a Memorandum of Agreement to accelerate cleanup at DOE’s Savannah River Site for completion by 2025.

July 15, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces that drilling has begun on a 10,000-foot well to evaluate underground rock layers in New Haven, West Virginia, as part of a DOE carbon sequestration research project underway at the American Electric Power Mountaineer plant. The goal of the project, funded primarily by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, is to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions believed to contribute to global climate change. “This project marks another step forward in our efforts to improve the environment while still making sensible use of coal, our most abundant energy source in the United States,” the Secretary states.  “Maximizing our ability to sequester carbon dioxide through environmentally safe and effective methods is a mainstay of our efforts to reduce our reliance on foreign fossil energy sources.”

July 17, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces the selection of thirteen firms and educational institutions in twelve states to receive $75 million in cost-shared awards to fund new research in advanced fuel cell technology for vehicles, buildings, and other applications.

July 18, 2003
Secretary Abraham breaks ground on the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at the Oak Ridge National Lab, a $65 million dollar research and development facility dedicated to the study of nanoscale research. “Nanoscale research will, in many respects, represent the new building blocks for new technologies and applications across the science and industry spectrum,” the Secretary notes. “Understanding the properties of materials on the tiniest scale will have an impact on everything from medicine to manufacturing,” As a national user facility for nanoscale research, serving up to 300 scientists annually from universities, industries, and federal laboratories, the center will be the first of five Energy Department centers. The others will be located at the DOE’s Argonne, Berkeley, Brookhaven, and Sandia/Los Alamos national laboratories.

July 21, 2003
In a major milestone in the High Enriched Uranium (HEU) Blend Down Program, DOE’s Savannah River Site makes the first shipment of low enriched uranium to Nuclear Fuel Services’s plant in Erwin, Tennessee, where it will prepared for fabrication into a fuel for use in TVA’s reactors. The HEU Blend Down Program takes HEU, a weapons-usable form of uranium, and blends it with natural uranium to make low enriched uranium, which cannot be used in weapons. “Today marks a big step in our nation’s nonproliferation efforts,” notes Secretary Abraham. “We have taken material that was left over from the Cold War and turned it into something that is unattractive for use in weapons. Not only that, but we’ve turned it into a material that has an important peacetime use, producing electricity.”

July 23, 2003
In a special ceremony at the White House, President Bush presents the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil honor, to Lawrence Livermore National Lab Director Emeritus Edward Teller. Teller’s daughter Wendy accepts on her father’s behalf. Teller, the President says, “helped to shape the course of human history,” and played a “pivotal role in ending the Cold War.” Over the course of his long career, Teller played an important role in the Manhattan Project, has been credited with being “the father of the Hydrogen bomb,” and was central figure in the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative. "Dr. Teller is a remarkable person,” notes Secretary Abraham. “He is regarded as one of the giant figures of the 20th century, whose contributions to winning both World War II and the Cold War are immeasurable. But I also believe that Edward Teller should be regarded as one of the most important figures of the 21st century. His unwavering support for scientific education has inspired countless men and women to pursue lives in science."

July 24, 2003
Secretary Abraham and Secretary of Commerce Don Evans unveil the Bush Administration’s strategic plan for the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) on long-term global climate variability and change at a press conference. The strategic plan for the CCSP, a joint program that brings together the resources and expertise of thirteen federal agencies, describes a plan for developing knowledge of variability and change in climate and related environmental and human systems, and for encouraging the application of this knowledge. “This plan identifies four core approaches that will serve as the backbone to achieving its mission,” notes Secretary Abraham. “Those areas are identified as science, observations, decision support and communications. By focusing in these specific areas we can focus on moving in new scientific directions, employing new research activities, filling critical data gaps through observations, developing operational tools for decision-makers and managers and communicating results across communities and across borders.”

July 28, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces that 234 small businesses in 34 states will receive DOE grants totaling $102 million to conduct innovative research. DOE chose 351 projects from among 1,450 proposals submitted under DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. DOE’s Office of Science administers both programs.

July 31, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces the release of two solicitations for research and development in hydrogen production, delivery and storage technologies. These solicitations will provide funding of up to $200 million over four to five years to support President Bush’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.

August 5, 2003
Following a meeting with Italian Minister of Productive Activities Antonio Marzano in Rome, Secretary Abraham announces Italy’s intention to join the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy. Several other countries have also shown interest.

August 12, 2003
Secretary Abraham tours Daimler Chrysler’s Nabern Fuel Cell Research Facility in Germany. “I’m pleased to visit Nabern, which is in the forefront with its cutting edge hydrogen fuel cell research technologies,” the Secretary says. “I believe our work on hydrogen in the United States, Germany and elsewhere is perhaps the most significant endeavor the energy sector will see in our lifetimes. Working together, we can leverage scarce resources and advance the schedule for research and deployment of hydrogen technology.” The U.S. has committed $1.7 billion for the first five years of a long-term research and development program for hydrogen, hydrogen infrastructure, fuel cells, and hybrid vehicle technologies. The European Union has committed up to 2 billion Euros to long-term research and development of renewable and hydrogen energy technologies.

August 13, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces that the DOE will provide over $17 million for 187 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and one territory. Funding is provided through DOE’s State Energy Program Special Projects competitive grants. The funds will be used to improve the energy efficiency of schools, homes and other buildings; promote energy-efficient industrial technologies; and support renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass.

August 14, 2003
Scientists of the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) collaboration at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, announce the official start of data-taking with the project’s 6,000 ton “far” detector. The MINOS detector, located deep in a historic iron mine in northern Minnesota, will be used to explore the phenomenon of neutrino mass. The far detector will “catch” neutrinos created at Fermilab’s Main Injector accelerator. The neutrinos will travel 450 miles straight through the earth from Fermilab to the mine.

Emergency response teams at the federal, state, and local levels go into action immediately to assess the situation and provide assistance. DOE initiates its protocol for contingency situations and works with appropriate agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and with the North American Electric Reliability Council to assess the situation. Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow coordinates the effort.

At 11:42 p.m., Secretary Abraham signs an emergency order directing the New York and New England Independent System Operators to activate, if necessary, the Cross Sound Cable connecting Shoreham, Long Island, and New Haven, Connecticut, allowing power to flow between the two states. The cable was energized a short time thereafter. Within hours, it was delivering 300 MW of energy from Connecticut to Long Island and also providing valuable voltage support and stabilization services for the electric transmission systems in both New England and New York.  Operation of the cable reportedly prevented rolling blackouts from occurring in New York in the hours immediately after electric service was restored.

August 15, 2003
Secretary Abraham advises individuals in the areas affected by the blackout to help ensure the stability of the system by reducing energy use as their electricity comes back on line. "Electric service is being restored this morning, adding to power that was restored last night,” the Secretary notes. “Utility crews are working to restore the remaining service, to determine the cause of the outage and to take steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future. While the power is being restored, we urge those who do have electricity in the affected areas to help the restoration process by conserving energy. Consumers should unplug major appliances until stable power is restored."

Secretary Abraham appears on major network and cable news shows in the days following the power outage to keep the American public informed.

August 16, 2003
Secretary Abraham meets with New York Governor George Pataki and New Jersey Governor James McGreevy in Albany, New York, to discuss the power outage.

August 17, 2003
Secretary Abraham announces that DOE has dispatched teams of investigators to the Northeast and Upper Midwest to begin on-site investigations into the cause of the power outage. “Using my authority under the Energy Supply and Environmental Coordination Act and the Federal Energy Administration Act, DOE will immediately begin collecting information and interviewing appropriate individuals—at the utilities, the North American Electric Reliability Council, and the Independent Systems Operators,” the Secretary says. “It is important that all parties preserve all relevant data so that it may be made available for review and inspection.”

August 18, 2003
Secretary Abraham conducts two conference calls with energy company CEOs as well as the heads of the various independent system operators (ISOs) in blackout-affected areas to urge their cooperation with the DOE investigation. All parties pledge their assistance.

August 19, 2003
Secretary Abraham holds a press briefing on the power outages. He announces that the North American Electric Reliability Council, which administers voluntary standards for electric transmission reliability, has agreed to work with the task force and to forego its own investigation of the incident. The Secretary adds that he has spoken with both the House and Senate Energy Committee chairs—Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-Louisiana) and Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico)—and that both chairmen are “very confident” that a comprehensive energy bill will pass and that mandatory reliability standards will be included in the final bill.

August 20, 2003
Secretary Abraham and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal meet in Detroit, Michigan, and agree on an Outline to be followed by the Task Force in its investigation of the recent power outage that affected Canada and the U.S. The Outline calls for the Task Force to determine what happened, and why the power outage was not contained. The Task Force will be supported by three Working Groups that will address electric system, security, and nuclear issues. The Outline also calls for the development of recommendations on how to prevent future power outages. The Task Force will include as U.S. members Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security, Pat Wood, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Nils J. Diaz, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Canadian members will be Deputy Prime Minister John Manley, Kenneth Vollman, Chairman of the National Energy Board, and Linda J. Keen, President and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

August 22, 2003
President Bush, touring the Ice Harbor Lock and Dam on the Snake River in Burbank, Washington, states that the Pacific Northwest should preserve its hydroelectric capacity while continuing efforts to restore salmon populations. “The economy of this part of the world has relied upon the steady supply of hydropower. And we’ve got an energy problem in America,” the President says. “We don’t need to be breaching dams that are producing electricity.”

August 26, 2003
Activist and community groups file a lawsuit in federal court to prevent DOE’s Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories from building/operating bioresearch facilities that would handle live samples of deadly viruses until the laboratories conduct full-scale environmental impact statements.

August 27, 2003
Secretary Abraham and Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal, as Co-Chairs of the U.S.-Canada Joint Task Force on the Power Outage, announce the membership of three Working Groups that will support the work of the Task Force. The Electric System Working group will be co-chaired by Alison Silverstein and David Meyer (U.S.) and Thomas Rusnov (Canada); the Security Working Group will be co-chaired by William J.S. Elliott (Canada) and Bob Liscouski (U.S.); and the Nuclear Working Group will be co-chaired by Linda J. Keen (Canada) and Nils Diaz (U.S.).

August 28, 2003
Declaring “an emergency continues to exist,” Secretary Abraham extends indefinitely his August 14 order requiring activation of the Cross Sound Cable between Connecticut and New York’s Long Island.

September 1, 2003
President Bush, in a high-profile Labor Day speech, calls on Congress to “stop politicking and get a good energy plan, so that we can make sure the economy continues to grow.” The President tells his Richfield, Ohio, audience, that they learned firsthand what it means to . . . to modernize the electricity grid, if you know what I mean. The grid needs to be modernized. First, we need to find out—and will find out—what went wrong, why you had your electricity shut down out here. But we ought to use this as an opportunity to modernize the system. They used to have -- in the law they had -- they said these electricity deliverers could have voluntary reliability standards. We don't need voluntary reliability standards, we need mandatory reliability standards. We want to make sure there's incentives for people to put new poles in the ground and invest.”

September 2, 2003
Secretary Abraham selects seven regional teams to help form the framework needed to develop carbon sequestration technologies and put them into action. The seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships include leaders from more than 140 organizations spanning 33 states, three American Indian nations, and two Canadian provinces.  Recognizing the value of flexibility and the inadequacy of a “one size fits all” approach to carbon sequestration, each team will evaluate and promote the technologies and infrastructure best suited to its unique region. "Even as we focus our attention on other aspects of our energy security—including electrical power grids and crude oil supplies—the fact remains that we must continue finding ways to ensure that coal, our most abundant power source, remains a viable energy alternative," the Secretary says.

September 3, 2003
Secretary Abraham testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the status of the joint U.S.-Canada Task Force investigating the August 14th power blackout.  He tells the committee that the task force is looking at some 10,000 individual events in a 9-second span to determine what caused the outage. The Secretary also reports that DOE’s Energy Information Administration will conduct an inquiry into recent increases in gasoline prices. Some increase in prices was expected because of higher demand due to the Labor Day holiday, the Secretary notes, but the run-up “struck me as unusually large.”