Appearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, new Department of Energy Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar was asked whether a recent DOE reorganization put too much on his plate by having him oversee both nuclear cleanup and federal scientific research.
“The Environmental Management portfolio has dominated the time and attention of whichever undersecretary has had it,” Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) said during a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing on DOE priorities. “The new organization has you overseeing this largest nuclear waste cleanup effort in the world,” along with DOE’s scientific research arm.
Bonamici said Ernest Moniz, the energy secretary during the latter years of the Obama administration, thought it important to have these two major offices reporting to separate undersecretaries. The recently announced shakeup by Energy Secretary Rick Perry has the Office of Science, the $6.5 billion Office of Environmental Management, the Office of Technology Transfer, the Office of Legacy Management, and the National Laboratory Operations Board all reporting to the undersecretary for science. Environmental Management was previously part of the Office of the Undersecretary for Management and Performance.
“The big overlap between the two [EM and the Office of Science] is technology and project management,” Dabbar said. “They both do that very well.”
Dabbar, a former JP Morgan managing director who has also served on DOE’s Environmental Management Advisory Board, added the Office of Science has strong history of contract and cost management. These are important skills when major procurements must be managed, he noted.
The Environmental Management and Science offices have compatible skills and it makes sense to have them under the same silo at DOE, Dabbar said. In his written testimony to the committee, he said the new alignment “will create added momentum in environmental cleanup.”
In addition to lauding the depth of talent at both DOE offices, Dabbar pointed to his own biography as a reason why the realignment should work.
“I sat on the Environmental Management [Advisory] Board for 12 years. I have been to Hanford many, many times,” Dabbar said, adding he had good knowledge of technical issues facing EM “and how to attack them.”
