Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Solar ADEPT Project: Satcon is developing a compact, lightweight power conversion device that is capable of taking utility-scale solar power and outputting it directly into the electric utility grid at distribution voltage levels—eliminating the need for large transformers. Transformers “step up” the voltage of the power that is generated by a solar power system so it can be efficiently transported through transmission lines and eventually “stepped down” to usable voltages before it enters homes and businesses. Power companies step up the voltage because less electricity is lost along transmission lines when the voltage is high and current is low. Satcon’s new power conversion devices will eliminate these heavy transformers and connect a utility-scale solar power system directly to the grid. Satcon’s modular devices are designed to ensure reliability—if one device fails it can be bypassed and the system can continue to run.

Transcript of an interview with Ronnie Roberts, a cedar chopper.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Budget Control Act of 2011, amending the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, establishes limits on discretionary spending for fiscal years 2012 through 2021. In addition, the Act specifies additional limits on discretionary spending and automatic reductions in direct spending because legislation was not enacted that would reduce projected deficits by at least $1.2 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2021. Among other things, the Budget Control Act requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to calculate, and the President to order, a sequestration of discretionary and direct spending on January 2, 2013, to achieve reductions for that fiscal year."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses data reactively and proactively to prevent accidents and manage safety risks. For instance, since 1998, FAA has partnered with the airline industry to identify precursors and contributing factors, and ensure that efforts to improve safety focus on the most prevalent categories of accidents and formulate an intervention strategy designed to reduce recurrences. Although FAA plans to continue using data reactively to understand the causes of accidents and incidents, as part of its adoption of Safety Management Systems (SMS), it is shifting to a proactive approach in which it analyzes data to identify and mitigate risks before they result in accidents."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Oversight of managed care rate-setting has been inconsistent. In August 2010, GAO reported that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had not ensured that all states were complying with the managed care actuarial soundness requirements that rates be developed in accordance with actuarial principles, appropriate for the population and services, and certified by actuaries. For example, GAO found significant gaps in CMS’s oversight of 2 of the 26 states reviewed—CMS had not reviewed one state’s rates in multiple years and had not completed a full review of another state’s rates since the actuarial soundness requirements became effective. Variation in practices across CMS regional offices contributed to these gaps and other inconsistencies in the agency’s oversight of states’ rate setting. GAO’s previous work also found that CMS’s efforts to ensure the quality of the data used to set rates were generally limited to requiring assurances from states and health plans—efforts that did not provide the agency with enough information to ensure the quality of the data used. With limited information on data quality, CMS cannot ensure that states’ managed care rates are appropriate, which places billions of …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To successfully manage AIA implementation, USPTO must consider a number of trade-offs as it sets and uses its over 340 fees, as well as maintain an effective fee review process. USPTO officials have stated that the agency’s limited fee-setting authority prior to the AIA and uncertainty about the extent to which its collections would be available contributed to a number of the agency’s operational challenges, such as the current backlog of over 640,000 patent applications and patent application processing time of over 30 months. They said fees that generated over 80 percent of USPTO’s revenues were set in statute, limiting the agency’s ability to ensure that total collections kept pace with total costs as its workload has grown. USPTO can only use its fee collections to the extent that Congress makes them available. In the past, Congress has in some years made available less than the total amount collected; there has been significant debate about the status and use of these fees collected in excess of amounts appropriated."

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage (HEATS) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses an advanced metal-hydrides-based thermal battery as part of the "A New Generation of High Density Thermal Battery Based on Advanced Metal Hydrides" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage (HEATS) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses advanced thermal energy storage as part of the "Novel Tuning of Critical Fluctuations for Advanced Thermal Energy Storage" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage (HEATS) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses an advanced thermo-adsorptive battery as part of the "New Generation of the Advanced Thermo-Adsorptive Battery Climate Control System" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the 14 projects that are a part of the Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program including project goals, innovation needs, and potential impacts.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the development of carbonic anhydrases enzymes as part of the "Low-Cost Biological Catalyst to Enable Efficient Carbon Dioxide Capture" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses a new type of magnet for power generators and motors as part of the "Discovery & Design of Novel Permanent Magnets using Non-strategic Elements having Secure Supply Chains" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the 15 projects that are a part of the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including project goals, innovation needs, and potential impacts.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses magnets made of cerium as part of the "Novel High Energy Permanent Magnet Without Critical Elements" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses turning carbon dioxide exhaust into a solid as part of the "Chemical and Biological Catalytic Enhancement of Weathering of Silicate Minerals as Novel Carbon Capture and Storage" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the development of non-water-based carbon dioxide solvents as part of the"Novel Non-Aqueous CO2 Solvents and Capture Process with Substantially Reduced Energy Penalties" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the development of a process to separate and store carbon dioxide as part of the"Electrochemically Mediated Separation for Carbon Capture and Mitigation" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the development of liquid absorbents as part of the "CO2 Capture Process Using Phase-Changing Absorbents" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the development of composite filter membranes as part of the "High Performance Metal Organic Frameworks/Polymer Composite Membranes for Carbon Dioxide Capture" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage (HEATS) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses new system architecture for a solar-electric conversion tower as part of the "High-Efficiency Solar-Electric Conversion Power Tower" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses a process for carbon capture through desublimation as part of the "Cryogenic Carbon Capture" project.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage (HEATS) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses the development of new materials to store heat in solar and nuclear power plants as part of the "Metallic Composites Phase-Change Materials for High-Temperature Thermal Energy Storage" project.