Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
4/3/2015
The Energy Communities Alliance, which represents local communities near Department of Energy sites, is urging DOE of Energy to create a “community adjustment and economic diversification planning assistance program” to help reduce impacts caused by funding cuts. The group wrote DOE this week, noting that the Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) last month posted a federal funding opportunity for community planning and economic diversification in areas impacted by cuts in defense spending. “ECA believes the DOE should provide support to host communities and we urge you to create a program similar to what OEA provides to defense communities,” states the March 31 letter signed by ECA Chair Chuck Smith, also a councilman for Aiken County, S.C. “This support will be mutually beneficial, allowing communities to better develop and diversify so they can be stronger and better hosts for local DOE operations.”
DOE shut down a program 22 years ago to assist communities impacted by downsizing, the ECA letter notes. At the same time, in recent years several DOE communities have been impacted by closures and budget cuts. For example, the recent shutdown of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant led to the layoffs of hundreds of workers at the western Kentucky site. “Despite current layoffs and anticipated budget shortfalls at DOE sites across the country, the agency has not yet established a similar program to assist communities like the ones ECA represents,” the letter states, referring to the Defense Department program. “When a site such as Paducah, KY, loses its mission, DOE should have a program in place to help the workers and community plan for impacts through changes and diversification of their local economies. Instead, DOE leaves the community to addressing downsizing on its own instead of following DOD’s example.” DOE this week did not respond to a request for comment.
