Effective this month, William (Ike) White has been the acting chief of the Department of Energy’s multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup branch for four years, placing him among the longest-serving leaders of the office.
In mid-June 2019, White became a senior adviser and highest- ranking executive at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. A career fed who has never had his name submitted to the Senate for the position of assistant energy secretary for environmental management, or EM-1, White nevertheless appears to have run the show longer than anyone else.
A roster of former assistant secretaries updated by the nuclear cleanup office in 2021, indicates White has now logged more time at the helm of Environmental Management than any of the 15 people in charge of the office since it launched in 1991.
DOE did not respond to a request for comment by late Thursday.
White’s length of service exceeds all nine Senate-confirmed assistant secretaries, including Thomas Grumbly, who led Environmental Management for three years ending in May 1996. Another Senate-confirmed head that lasted three years is current Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board member, Jessie Hill Roberson, who ran cleanup for a term ending in July 2004, according to DOE.
Two other longtime federal civil servants, David Huizenga and Jim Owendoff each piloted Environmental Management for about three years combined over various stints.
Huizenga, also served in the top brass at DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration on an acting basis and even briefly acted as secretary of energy until the Senate confirmed Jennifer Granholm for the job under President Joe Biden (D). Owendoff, now DOE’s chief risk officer, has been acting manager for cleanup during three separate terms in three different decades, according to DOE.
White succeeded Anne Marie White, no relation, the last Senate-confirmed assistant energy secretary for environmental management.
Editor’s note: Headline and first graph modified at 4:38 p.m. June 30 to correct math error.
