A coalition of more than 30 citizen groups, called the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, wants President Joe Biden to nominate a Department of Energy assistant secretary for environmental management committed to cleanup and environmental justice, according to a Monday letter.
Whoever gets picked to run the $7-billion-plus DOE Office of Environmental Management must have a “deep, genuine and effective commitment to remedying damage done to affected communities living near the highly contaminated sites of the DOE nuclear complex,” Marylia Kelley, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) president, said in the letter Monday to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
“As one measure of the priority the Biden administration puts on public health and environmental justice [EJ], the nominee for EM-1 [assistant secretary for environmental management] should be someone with a proven commitment to EJ in cleanup of DOE sites,” Kelley goes on to say.
“In my opinion, this means hiring someone from outside of the agency,” Denise Duffield, associate director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, said in a Monday email to Weapons Complex Monitor.
Federal career manager William ‘Ike” White has held the title of acting EM-1 since the Biden administration came into office on Jan. 20 and has been effectively the top boss since June 2019 initially as senior adviser at the office following the forced resignation of assistant secretary Anne Marie White, the last Senate-approved EM-1.
The limited speculation on a new EM-1 has centered upon Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chair Joyce Connery.
