President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Energy’s multibillion-dollar Office of Environmental Management, is founder of a real estate development business in Golden, Colo.
Tim Walsh founded Confluence Companies in 2006 and the business has 15 developments, including apartment complexes, condominiums and hotels, according to the company’s website. Walsh is an Army veteran and West Point graduate who ran an unsuccessful race for the Colorado state senate in 2022.
Apparently not much is known about Walsh yet within the DOE weapons complex, at least judging from hallway conversations among attendees at this week’s Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix.
Timothy John Walsh was nominated to become the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management, according to an entry in Monday’s Congressional Record. The nomination was sent to both the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
There is coincidentally another Tim Walsh in nuclear circles: Timothy J.V. Walsh is an attorney with the Pillsbury law firm in Washington, D.C., who often represents companies in cases involving the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He got a couple of calls this week, including one from Exchange Monitor, asking if he was being nominated for the EM post.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is also from Colorado. If confirmed, Walsh would be the first Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for environmental management (EM-1) since Anne Marie White during the first Trump administration.
Longtime Fed Dae Chung is currently leading the DOE nuclear cleanup office on an acting basis. Chung brings stability and experience to the top post, Roger Jarrell, a senior DOE adviser for Environmental Management, told the conference Monday.
Jarrell also had high praise for the departing Candice Robertson. Robertson, who has headed Environmental Management since June 2024, is said to have taken a federal buyout option recently. Jarrell said if Environmental Management had a hall of fame she would be in it.
The Trump administration nominated Brandon Williams Jan. 20 to head DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration. No committee hearing has been set for Williams yet.
