DESPITE LACK OF EM ASSISTANT SECRETARY, IT’S ‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’

The lack of a senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management for the past two years has not impacted EM’s relationship with state regulators, an EM official said yesterday at the Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum. As DOE prepares to renegotiate key milestones at a number of sites, EM Senior Advisor Dave Huizenga is fully able to take on discussions with regulators, EM Chief of Staff Colin Jones said. “Dave Huizenga is the head of the Environmental Management program whether he is an assistant secretary officially or not. It is not causing us any problems in our relationships with states,” Jones said. “It’s business as usual. There is nothing he cannot do with the title that he has as senior advisor. Where this gets all tied up in the politics of the White House and other stuff, I don’t know.”