After spending five years as acting boss of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White has passed the keys to another longtime fed, Candice Robertson.
The previously-announced transition is officially reflected in a new organizational chart posted Friday by DOE’s nuclear cleanup office. The chart shows Robertson as senior adviser or ranking Environmental Management executive, sometimes referred to as EM-1, with current principal deputy assistant secretary Jeffrey Avery continuing in the No. 2 role.
DOE previously announced Robertson starts her new role today and White’s last day at the cleanup office was to be June 14.
President Joe Biden’s administration is nominating White to become a member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. White’s nomination was received by the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 23 but no hearing date has been set.
Although White’s name was never submitted to the Senate as assistant secretary of environmental management, he did nevertheless run the cleanup office for five years.
White started running Environmental Management in mid-June 2019, taking over from Anne Marie White, no relation, the last Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for environmental management. Anne White was in the post 15 months. DOE has said Ike White, while awaiting Senate confirmation to the safety board, is taking another DOE senior adviser role outside Environmental Management.
Robertson, like the departing White, is a longtime federal manager with more than 16 years in the U.S. government coming to DOE after serving as an elected commissioner in Nye County, Nev. In recent times, Robertson has headed the cleanup office’s efforts to develop carbon-free electricity projects on DOE nuclear sites. She has also been chief of staff to a member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Roberston has also held several senior positions in DOE and Environmental Management, including being director of external affairs at the nuclear cleanup office.
Robertson is scheduled to speak to a DOE contractors group Tuesday in Arlington, Va.
