The changeover in presidential administrations has slowed appointments to Site Specific Advisory Boards for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, a federal executive said this week.
Appointments to the Savannah River Site’s Citizens Advisory Board have “ground to a halt,” Gregg Murray, a member of that panel, told an online meeting of Environmental Management Advisory Board chairs. Currently, the Savannah River board has only seven members out of a potential 25, he said.
Mark Gilbertson, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, said there was a “lull” in approving incoming advisory board members during the latter months of the Donald Trump administration.
It is a priority for the new administration, but it takes time, Gilbertson said. “You kind of fell into the worst time,” Gilbertson said to Murray.
The DOE is aware of the delays, Gilbertson said. “I understand your frustration and ask you to bear with us,” Gilbertson added.
“This seems extreme,” Murray said, adding the proposals seeking approval of new members were submitted to DOE during the fall.
Oak Ridge Advisory Board Chairwoman Michelle Lohmann said recruiting new female members to her board has been difficult over the past year, a situation she attributes to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Typically, advisory board members are appointed for a two-year term and appointments may be renewed twice for a maximum period of service of six years, according to a Savannah River board webpage.
There are eight such panels charged with providing advice to DOE and serving as something of a liaison between the agency and the community. The others are the Hanford Advisory Board, the Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board, Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board, the Nevada Site-Specific Advisory Board, the Portsmouth Site-Specific Advisory Board, and the Paducah Citizens Advisory Board.
