No decisions yet on fate of DOE Cleanup to Clean Energy

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy during President Donald Trump’s second term hasn’t focused on a Joe Biden administration effort to tap underused land at federal nuclear sites for carbon-free power, an Environmental Management official said Monday.
With the administration being “new,” less than two months old, no decisions on the Cleanup to Clean Energy program have been made yet, said Roger Jarrell, a senior adviser for Environmental Management to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
Jarrell, who played a similar role for Environmental Management during the first Trump administration, responded to an Exchange Monitor question during a panel discussion on issues facing the nuclear cleanup office.
Under Biden’s Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, DOE called for and received proposals for solar and other carbon-free power projects at five DOE nuclear sites. The properties are the Hanford Site in Washington state, Idaho National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
DOE entered into lease negotiations on renewable energy developers at the sites, but did not announce any final lease agreements before the end of the Biden administration.