NEW DOE FOSSIL ENERGY CHIEF RESHUFFLES ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
2/15/13

The acting head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) rolled out a new organizational structure this week that seemingly centralizes the office’s leadership chain. FE’s recently-installed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher Smith, who is also serving as the office’s acting Assistant Secretary, debuted a new organizational structure to FE staff during a Feb. 11 town hall meeting. According to several DOE staff members and contractors, Smith announced during the meeting that FE’s three deputy assistant secretaries will now report directly to the Assistant Secretary, as will the director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, a change from the previous structure where all reported to the Principal Deputy, FE’s No. 2 position.

The changes appear to further centralize FE’s chain of command under the Assistant Secretary and effectively multiply the number of officials reporting directly to FE-1, according to a new proposed organizational chart posted earlier this week on DOE’s website. The deputy assistant secretaries for Clean Coal, Oil and Natural Gas and Petroleum Reserves will now report directly to the Assistant Secretary, allowing for more direct access, according to DOE. The proposed plan also creates a new senior adviser position with in the office, in which former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Petroleum Reserves David Johnson will now serve as Senior Adviser for Global Energy Security. The Assistant Secretary already has two permanent advisers. Smith announced the changes slightly more than a week after stepping into the role of FE head after Chuck McConnell announced his resignation Feb. 1.

The move effectively streamlines much of Fossil’s upper leadership structure, multiple DOE officials confirmed. “It’s going to be a much more of a controlled organization. I expect to see a more top-down but centralized organization since there will be more people directly reporting to Chris Smith,” one contractor said. Another official pointed out that the new structure essentially reverts back to a leadership system used previously at FE, which they said allows for more accountability in decision-making. Officials said Smith also stressed the notion that FE will be “run from headquarters,” seemingly moving the center of decision-making on the program and project levels even further away from NETL and more toward Washington, D.C. 

Mollot to Serve as DAS for Clean Coal

Smith also announced Monday that Darren Mollot will serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal on an acting basis. Mollot replaces Jim Wood, who left his position in December to become chairman and CEO of the technology development company ThermoEnergy Corp. after nearly four years as clean coal chief. Mollot is the current director of the Office of Clean Energy Systems within the Clean Coal office, where he oversees CCS demonstrations and R&D, advanced energy systems and cross-cutting research. Mollot has been at the Department for more than 20 years, where he started out as a research engineer at NETL. He also spent time in the private sector at IBM and Westinghouse Electric Corp. Smith announced that Guido DeHoratiis, currently director of FE’s Office of Oil and Gas Resources, would work in an acting capacity as deputy assistant secretary for and Oil and Natural Gas, Smith’s previous position.