MONIZ LOOKS TO CHANGE DOE LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
7/19/13

New Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced changes to the leadership structure at the Department late this week that include combining the Under Secretary of Energy position with the Under Secretary of Science. Moniz said the new Under Secretary of Science and Energy will manage all of the Department’s science and applied energy programs, including the Office of Fossil Energy, as well as oversee most of the Department’s non-weapons-related national laboratories. “We must have the ability to closely integrate and move quickly among basic science, applied research, technology demonstration and deployment. The innovation chain is not linear, but rather one that requires feedback among its various elements,” Moniz and Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman wrote in a memo to DOE employees July 18.

Moniz said combining the Under Secretary of Energy and Science positions enables the Department to better implement the White House’s recently-announced climate plan. DOE recently unveiled $8 billion worth of new loan guarantee authority that it plans to make available for CCS and other advanced fossil technologies in the coming months as part of the plan. It will also take the lead on formulating energy efficiency standards and coordinating an Administration-wide Quadrennial Energy Review. “The President’s actions in the last month have really upped the stakes, and hopefully we’ll up our game in carrying through our responsibilities,” Moniz said in a July 18 town hall event with DOE staff.

Moniz Creates Under Secretary for Management Position

Moniz announced several other changes to DOE’s front office late this week. He said he would create a new Under Secretary for Management position, to which the offices of Environmental Management and Legacy Management, as well as several other support offices, would report. Currently, the two offices report to the Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, who also heads the National Nuclear Security Administration, through a structure set up approximately two years ago. The new Under Secretary for Management position would be responsible for project management across DOE, with a focus on the Department’s large construction projects that have had a history of cost-and-schedule concerns, Moniz said. Not long after the town hall, the White House nominated NASA Chief Financial Officer Beth Robinson to serve as Under Secretary of Energy. While the White House announcement did not specify which position Robinson was nominated for, she is believed to be the candidate for the Under Secretary for Management position.

A new organizational unit, the National Laboratory Operations Board, would also report to the Under Secretary for Management and Performance, Moniz added. “Worker health, safety and security continue to be critically important priorities, and we are in the process of reviewing how to strengthen our capacity to meet these challenges within this new structure,” he said in the memo to employees.

DOE Creates New Councils

In addition to announcing a bevy of senior advisers for his personal office, Moniz announced the establishment of a system of councils within the Department to “improve coordination of issues that cut across Departmental organizational lines.” Those councils would focus on energy, the national labs and cyber security, according to Moniz. He said he would also move to fill the Departments nearly a dozen Senate-confirmed positions, including the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy slot, “soon.” “We have several names that [are] going through the vetting process,” Moniz said during the town hall, and added that he anticipates “some action” on that front “before the August Congressional recess.”

Moniz said all of the changes would make the Department more “integrated” moving forward, allowing the complex’s workforce to focus more on DOE’s major missions. “Reorganizations can often be tremendous entropy-generating devices. I have no interest in more entropy. We have enough. Everything that we will do, propose, put forward organizationally will be mission-driven” Moniz said during this week’s meeting with Department employees. “Among the mission-driven points is that we have to execute. We all know that we have been criticized in many areas: project managements, costs. Is this the magical solution? No. But I think it’s going to be a big help.”

The leadership reorganization comes after a series of recent reports have also suggested that DOE reorganize in order to be more effective. A report from a trio of unlikely bedfellows, the Heritage Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, called on the Department to merge its science and energy undersecretaries to oversee a new, condensed Office of Science and Technology that would oversee most of the national labs. Another recent report released by the Clean Air Task Force and the Energy Innovation Reform Project, suggested that the Department’s current structure for applied energy programs creates “institutional silos” around technology types that “inhibit” effective energy innovation. Instead, the report called on then-Energy Secretary nominee Moniz to reshuffle its offices into two or three new ones centered on end-use rather than primary energy sources.