With new leadership and more money for U.S. Energy Department environmental cleanup, community leaders and contractors attending an Energy Communities Alliance event Thursday were in an upbeat mood.
Anne Marie White, sworn in March 29 as assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, appeared during a welcome luncheon at the organization’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. In brief comments, the longtime nuclear consultant said she is anxious to help “get some stuff done” at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
White is the first Senate-confirmed “EM-1” during the Trump administration. Former cleanup chief Monica Regalbuto left when President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, and department veteran James Owendoff took over leadership on an interim basis until White was sworn-in.
“Without a real EM-1, nothing happens,” Richland, Wash., Mayor Bob Thompson said in introducing White. Thompson, whose city neighbors the Hanford Site, expressed hope White would challenge the status quo at EM, but he didn’t specify how.
Thompson added White will face tough challenges in overseeing DOE efforts to clean up the nuclear waste trail of the Cold War. But “you decided to take this job. We wish you well,” Thompson said.
AECOM Vice President Colin Jones said White comes to the post with a different perspective than some prior EM-1s because she used to be one of the 20,000 contractors employed by the Energy Department.
In addition to new leadership, EM finds itself with a fat budget so far during the Trump administration. Congress, in the recent fiscal 2018 omnibus budget, funded cleanup at $7.1 billion. That’s more than the $6.5 billion requested by the White House.
Speakers noted the $6.5 billion and $6.6 billion budget requests for, respectively, fiscal 2018 and 2019 were the highest EM funding proposals in a decade. Given the congressional backing this year, it’s conceivable final 2019 funding could be in the $7 billion neighborhood as well, Jones said.
“It’s going to be interesting. I’m not sure we can blame [our problems] on poverty when we’re going to get $7 billion in 2018, what’s left of 2018,” Jones said.
Energy Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar also praised the funding numbers from Congress and the White House.
A late 2017 DOE reorganization by Energy Secretary Rick Perry placed the Office of Science, EM, the Office of Technology Transfer, the Office of Legacy Management, and the National Laboratory Operations Board all under the undersecretary for science. The Environmental Management office was previously part of the Office of the Undersecretary for Management and Performance.
In a presentation the night before, at the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill, Dabbar said Perry has taken special interest in “efficiency of operations.” The DOE chief wants to focus on cleanup projects “that have been stuck for a little bit,” he said.
Perry has also contacted the chief executives of some DOE contractors on challenging cleanup jobs, Dabbar said. The secretary understands the importance of showing progress on key cleanup jobs, he added, without identifying specific projects or companies.
