The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Advisory Board will stick around for at least two more years, according to a Federal Register notice published last week.
The advisory board is being renewed for a two-year period that began Jan. 14, according to the Jan. 21 notice, which said the action is taken under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and with consultation of the General Services Administration.
The board provides advice to the assistant secretary of DOE’s $7.5-billion Office of Environmental Management (EM), which oversees nuclear cleanup of the agency’s Cold War and Manhattan Project sites.
While the Joe Biden administration has not nominated any permanent assistant secretary, the post has effectively been filled on an acting basis by special adviser William (Ike) White a career fed since June 2019. White started acting as the top manager at EM after the resignation of the last Senate-approved assistant secretary, Anne Marie White. The two are not related.
The Biden administration has gotten some static by several of the site-specific advisory panels over the slow pace of approving new members and hindering the committees’ ability to keep quorums and conduct business. During meetings, the delays have been attributed in part to the administration’s emphasis on increasing committee diversity.
The Federal Register notice said the EM advisory board setup is “essential” to helping the DOE cleanup office operate in the public interest.
“Recommendations to EM on the programmatic resolution of numerous difficult issues will help achieve EM’s objective of the safe and efficient cleanup of its contaminated sites,” according to the notice.
