The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) and the Federal Power Act (FPA) were enacted to eliminate unfair practices and other abuses by electricity and gas holding companies by requiring federal control and regulation of interstate public utility holding companies. Comprehensive energy legislation has passed the House and Senate. The House passed H.R. 6 on April 11, 2003. On July 31, 2003, the Senate suspended debate on S. 14, inserted the text of H.R. 4 (107th Congress) as a substitute, and passed H.R. 6. A conference agreement was reached November 17, 2003, and passed by the House the next day. H.R. 6 includes an electricity title that would, in part, repeal PUHCA, would prospectively repeal the mandatory purchase requirement under PURPA, and would create an electric reliability organization. On June 15, 2004, H.R. 4503, a comprehensive energy policy bill, passed the House.

The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) and the Federal Power Act (FPA) were enacted to eliminate unfair practices and other abuses by electricity and gas holding companies by requiring federal control and regulation of interstate public utility holding companies. Comprehensive energy legislation has passed the House and Senate. The House passed H.R. 6 on April 11, 2003. On July 31, 2003, the Senate suspended debate on S. 14, inserted the text of H.R. 4 (107th Congress) as a substitute, and passed H.R. 6. A conference agreement was reached November 17, 2003, and passed by the House the next day. H.R. 6 includes an electricity title that would, in part, repeal PUHCA, would prospectively repeal the mandatory purchase requirement under PURPA, and would create an electric reliability organization. On June 15, 2004, H.R. 4503, a comprehensive energy policy bill, passed the House.

This report details the constitutional standards that currently apply to indirect aid programs and summarizes all of the pertinent state and federal court decisions, including the Ohio case that will be heard by the Supreme Court. On September 25, 2001, the Supreme Court agreed to review a case raising the controversial issue of the constitutionality of education vouchers. In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris the Sixth Circuit held Ohio’s Pilot Scholarship Program, which provided up to $2500 to help low-income students in Cleveland’s public schools attend private schools in the city, to violate the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment.

This feasibility study sought to demonstrate several necessary steps in a research program whose ultimate goal is to detect coherent scattering of reactor antineutrinos in dual-phase noble liquid detectors. By constructing and operating a Argon gas-phase drift and scintillation test-bed, the study confirmed important expectations about sensitivity of these detectors, and thereby met the goals set forth in our original proposal. This work has resulted in a successful Lab-Wide LDRD for design and deployment of a coherent scatter detector at a nuclear reactor, and strong interest by DOE Office of Science. In recent years, researchers at LLNL and elsewhere have converged on a design approach for a new generation of very low noise, low background particle detectors known as two-phase noble liquid/noble gas ionization detectors. This versatile class of detector can be used to detect coherent neutrino scattering-an as yet unmeasured prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics. Using the dual phase technology, our group would be the first to verify the existence of this process. Its (non)detection would (refute)validate central tenets of the Standard Model. The existence of this process is also important in astrophysics, where coherent neutrino scattering is assumed to play an important role in energy …

Report on results of research on the catalytic macrocyclization reactions of thietane and thiolactones by metal carbonyl complexes.

This report provides an overview of Lebanese politics, recent events in Lebanon, and current issues in U.S. - Lebanon relations.

This report discusses the free trade agreement (FTA) between United States and Morocco. The United States and Morocco reached agreement on March 2, 2004 to create a free trade agreement.

None

The overall objective of this project is the three phase development of an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP) which uses petroleum coke to produce at least one product from at least two of the following three categories: (1) electric power (or heat), (2) fuels, and (3) chemicals. The objective is to have these products produced by technologies capable of using synthesis gas derived from coal and/or other carbonaceous feedstocks. The objectives of Phase I were to determine the feasibility and define the concept for the EECP located at a specific site; develop a Research, Development, and Testing (RD&T) Plan for implementation in Phase II; and prepare a Preliminary Project Financing Plan. The objective of Phase II is to implement the work as outlined in the Phase I RD&T Plan to enhance the development and commercial acceptance of coproduction technology that produces high-value products, particularly those that are critical to our domestic fuel and power requirements. The work performed under Phase II will resolve critical knowledge and technology gaps on the integration of gasification and downstream processing to coproduce some combination of power, fuels, and chemicals from coal and/or other carbonaceous feedstocks. The objective of Phase III is to develop an …

None

This Annual report summarizes the research performed from 17 April 2005 through 16 April 2006. Major portions of the research in several of the project's current eight tasks have been completed. We have successfully developed the meteorological inputs using the best possible modeling configurations, resulting in improved representation of atmospheric processes. The development of the variable-grid-resolution emissions model, SMOKE-VGR, is also completed. The development of the MAQSIP-VGR has been completed and a test run was performed to ensure the functionality of this air quality model. We have incorporated new emission data base to update the offshore emissions. However, we have faced some bottleneck problems in the testing the integrity of the new database. For this reason, we have asked for a no cost extension of this project to tackle these scientific problems. Thus, the project is on a one-year delay schedule. During the reporting period, we solved all problems related to the new emission database. We are ready to move to developing the final product, implementation and testing of the variable grid technology into the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) to develop the CMAQ-VGR. During the upcoming months we will perform the first CMAQ-VGR simulations over the Houston-Galveston region …

This semiannual report summarizes the research performed from 17 April through 16 October 2004. Major portions of the research in several of the project's current eight tasks have been completed, and the results obtained are briefly presented. We have successfully developed the meteorological inputs using the best possible modeling configurations, resulting in improved representation of atmospheric processes. Ingestion of satellite-derived sea surface temperatures in conjunction with the use of our new surface data assimilation technique have resulted in largely improved meteorological inputs to drive the MAQSIP-VGR. The development of the variable-grid-resolution emissions model, SMOKE-VGR, is also largely complete. We expect to develop the final configuration of the SMOKE-VGR during the upcoming reporting period. We are in the process of acquiring the newly released emissions database and offshore emissions data sets to update our archives. The development of the MAQSIP-VGR has been completed and a test run was performed to ensure the functionality of this air quality model. During the upcoming reporting period, we expect to perform the first MAQSIP-VGR simulations over the Houston-Galveston region to study the roles of the meteorology, offshore emissions, and chemistry-transport interactions that determine the temporal and spatial evolution of ozone and its precursors.

This research project has two primary objectives: (1) to further develop and refine the Multiscale Air Quality Simulation Platform-Variable Grid Resolution (MAQSIP-VGR) model, an advanced variable-grid-resolution air quality model, to provide detailed, accurate representation of the dynamical and chemical processes governing the fate of anthropogenic emissions in coastal environments; and (2) to improve current understanding of the potential impact of onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) emissions on O{sub 3} and particulate matter nonattainment in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding states.

This research project will determine the T-cell receptor (TCR) gene usages of beryllium reactive T-lymphocytes isolated directly from the peripheral blood of individuals exposed at a U.S. Department of Energy site. The objective is to develop a sensitive and novel biomarker for identifying early human sensitization to environmental beryllium. This is a collaborative project involving the Genetics Laboratory of the University of Vermont and both the Center for Epidemiological Research and the scientific staff of the Cytogenetics Program at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). The > 2000 beryllium exposed workers who have been contacted for participation in the ORISE study ''Follow-up of Beryllium Workers at the Y-12 Plant/Efficacy of the Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Proliferation (LPT) and other Non-Invasive Procedures for Diagnosis of Chronic Beryllium Disease'' will provide the pool of potential participants for the proposed study. Beryllium reactive T-lymphocytes will be directly isolated from peripheral blood using a novel antigen-independent method of surrogate selection for in vivo arising hprt mutants as representatives of clones that are undergoing chronic proliferation. The T-cells undergoing chronic proliferation in beryllium sensitized individuals will be enriched for beryllium reactive cells. The TCR gene usage of these T-cell isolates will be determined …

None

The overall objective of this project is the three phase development of an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP) which produces at least one product from at least two of the following three categories: (1) electric power (or heat), (2) fuels, and (3) chemicals using ChevronTexaco's proprietary gasification technology. The objective of Phase I is to determine the feasibility and define the concept for the EECP located at a specific site; develop a Research, Development, and Testing (RD&T) Plan to mitigate technical risks and barriers; and prepare a Preliminary Project Financing Plan. The objective of Phase II is to implement the work as outlined in the Phase I RD&T Plan to enhance the development and commercial acceptance of coproduction technology. The objective of Phase III is to develop an engineering design package and a financing and testing plan for an EECP located at a specific site. The project's intended result is to provide the necessary technical, economic, and environmental information needed by industry to move the EECP forward to detailed design, construction, and operation. The partners in this project are TES (a subsidiary of ChevronTexaco), General Electric (GE), Praxair, and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) in addition to the U.S. Department …

The overall objective of this project is the three phase development of an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP) which produces at least one product from at least two of the following three categories: (1) electric power (or heat), (2) fuels, and (3) chemicals using ChevronTexaco's proprietary gasification technology. The objective of Phase I is to determine the feasibility and define the concept for the EECP located at a specific site; develop a Research, Development, and Testing (RD&T) Plan to mitigate technical risks and barriers; and prepare a Preliminary Project Financing Plan. The objective of Phase II is to implement the work as outlined in the Phase I RD&T Plan to enhance the development and commercial acceptance of coproduction technology. The objective of Phase III is to develop an engineering design package and a financing and testing plan for an EECP located at a specific site. The project's intended result is to provide the necessary technical, economic, and environmental information needed by industry to move the EECP forward to detailed design, construction, and operation. The partners in this project are TES (a subsidiary of ChevronTexaco), General Electric (GE), Praxair, and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) in addition to the U.S. Department …

Soil CO{sub 2} flux surveys have been conducted over known CO{sub 2} reservoirs at Farnham Dome, Utah, Crystal Geyser-Ten Mile Graben in Utah and Springerville-St. Johns, Arizona. No anomalous CO{sub 2} flux was detected at the Farnham Dome and Springerville-St. Johns. At Crystal Geyser-Ten Mile Graben, localized areas of anomalously high CO{sub 2} flux ({approx}100 g m{sup -2} day{sup -1}) occur along a fault zone near visibly degassing features. Isotopic measurements on CO{sub 2} collected from nearby springs indicate that it originated at depth. Evidence of widespread vein calcite at the surface (Farnham Dome) and travertine deposits at the other two areas suggests that discharge of CO{sub 2}-rich fluids has occurred in the past. Despite the lack of evidence for significant present day leakage of CO{sub 2} to the atmosphere at Springerville-St. Johns and Crystal Geyser-Ten Mile Graben, there are significant outflows of high-bicarbonate water in both areas suggesting continuous migration of CO{sub 2} in the aqueous phase from depth. The very localized nature of the CO{sub 2} flux anomalies, and the outflow of ground water containing dissolved CO{sub 2} present challenges for effective, long term monitoring of CO{sub 2} leakage.

Quality-assured meteorological and tracer data sets are vital for establishing confidence that indoor and outdoor dispersion models used to simulate dispersal of potential toxic agents in urban atmospheres are giving trustworthy results. The U.S. Department of Defense-Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security joined together to conduct the Joint Urban 2003 atmospheric dispersion study to provide this critically-needed high-resolution dispersion data. This major urban study was conducted from June 28 through July 31, 2003, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with the participation of over 150 scientists and engineers from over 20 U.S. and foreign institutions. The Joint Urban 2003 lead scientist was Jerry Allwine (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) who oversaw study design, logistical arrangements and field operations with the help of Joe Shinn (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Marty Leach (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Ray Hosker (Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division), Leo Stockham (Northrop Grumman Information Technology) and Jim Bowers (Dugway Proving Grounds). This report gives a brief overview of the field campaign, describing the scientific objectives, the dates of the intensive observation periods, and the instruments deployed. The data from this field study is available to the scientific community through an on-line database that is managed by …

This report discusses the responsibilities of the AOC, traces the statutory evolution of the office, summarizes the status of current and recent projects, and reviews selected issues before the 110th congress.

None

This report is a brief summary of House and Senate procedures for reaching agreement on legislation. It discusses the provisions of House Rule XXII and Senate Rule XXVIII as well as other applicable rules, precedents, and practices. The report focuses on the most common and customary procedures.

This report provides information about the Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11.

This study identifies vital gas turbine (GT) parameters and quantifies their influence in meeting the DOE Turbine Program overall Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant goals of 50% net HHV efficiency, $1000/kW capital cost, and low emissions. The project analytically evaluates GE advanced F class air cooled technology level gas turbine conceptual cycle designs and determines their influence on IGCC plant level performance including impact of Carbon capture. This report summarizes the work accomplished in each of the following six Tasks. Task 1.0--Overall IGCC Plant Level Requirements Identification: Plant level requirements were identified, and compared with DOE's IGCC Goal of achieving 50% Net HHV Efficiency and $1000/KW by the Year 2008, through use of a Six Sigma Quality Functional Deployment (QFD) Tool. This analysis resulted in 7 GT System Level Parameters as the most significant. Task 2.0--Requirements Prioritization/Flow-Down to GT Subsystem Level: GT requirements were identified, analyzed and prioritized relative to achieving plant level goals, and compared with the flow down of power island goals through use of a Six Sigma QFD Tool. This analysis resulted in 11 GT Cycle Design Parameters being selected as the most significant. Task 3.0--IGCC Conceptual System Analysis: A Baseline IGCC Plant configuration was chosen, …