Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
7/25/2014
Ohio Senator Rob Portman (R) pushed the Obama Administration’s choice to serve as the next No. 2 official in the Department of Energy this week on the need for adequate funding for the Portsmouth D&D project in his home state. Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, has recently issued notices warning that as many as 675 positions—one-third of the total Portsmouth D&D workforce—will need to be eliminated this fall due to budget issues. “These … jobs are good paying jobs. We lose these folks; it’s going to be tough to be able to bring them back quickly because they’ll find other work. It’ll be devastating for not just Piketon, [Ohio], but that whole six or seven county area in southern Ohio,” Portman said during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall to serve as the next Deputy Secretary of Energy.
The Portsmouth D&D project is funded through annual Congressional appropriations as well as by DOE providing FBP with stocks of surplus uranium, which the contractor sells, using the proceeds for work. However, the contractor has had to grapple with steadily declining uranium prices, decreasing the value of the material provided to help augment funding. In addition, DOE has announced plans to reduce the amount of excess uranium to be made available to help fund cleanup activities. In its FY 2015 budget request, DOE sought $160 million for D&D work at Portsmouth, an increase of approximately $22 million from current funding levels. However, FBP has estimated a total budget reduction in FY 2015 of approximately $110 million from this year’s funding level largely as a result of both the drop in uranium prices and the reduction in material to be made available.
Portman stressed to Sherwood-Randall the need for sustained funding to keep the Portsmouth D&D project on track. “This is a cleanup that has to occur. This is something that everybody agrees is necessary,” he said. “The bottom line is we have to clean it up. We should clean it up. The quicker we clean it up, the lower the cost is going to be to the taxpayer, and the safer it’s going to be for folks in southern Ohio.” Sherwood-Randall said that if she is confirmed, she would “work closely with you to identify a way forward that acknowledges the important work that is needed and gets the job done as efficiently as possible.” She also said that “if the barter program is not sufficient for funding … we will need to work together to identify additional sources of funding.”
Senate Floor Has ‘Not Been Very Kind’ to DOE Nominees, Senator Says
If confirmed, Sherwood-Randall would replace Dan Poneman, who has announced plans to leave DOE this fall after having served as Deputy Secretary for five years. Randall currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for Defense Policy, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Arms Control. Among her previous positions, she served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council from 2009 to 2013; and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 1994 to 1996.
At this week’s hearing, though, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) warned Sherwood-Randall may have a difficult time making it through the Senate confirmation process. A number of other DOE nominees have not yet been considered by the full Senate after having fully cleared the committee stage of the process, including Under Secretary for Science nominee Franklin Orr, Chief Financial Officer nominee Joseph Hezir, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy nominee Ellen Williams and Director of the Office of Science nominee Marc Kastner. The Senate energy panel has approved the nomination of Monica Regalbuto to serve as the next Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management, but she still is awaiting approval by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Earlier this month, the White House withdrew the nomination of Elizabeth Robinson to fill the position of Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance after her progress through the Senate also appeared to have stalled. “You’re going to need to navigate a floor process that has not been very kind to our DOE nominees,” Murkowski told Sherwood-Randall. “We’ve certainly cleared a lot of judges this year, a lot of officials for other agencies and departments. So perhaps we can take a little breather from that and focus on DOE for a change. I think that Secretary [of Energy Ernest] Moniz needs to have a full team around him, and I want to help support him in that.”
USW Urges Additional Funding
Also this week, the United Steelworkers labor union called on lawmakers to provide a total of approximately $400 million in appropriated funds for FY 2015 for the Portsmouth D&D project to prevent the planned workforce reductions. ‘“Since the Portsmouth plant stopped enriching uranium in 2001, more than 800 USW members of Local 689 have dedicated their lives to performing this much-needed cleanup work so the land can be re-industrialized and used for economic development,” USW International Vice President Carol Landry said in a release. “These are good, family-supporting jobs that benefit the community and perform a service for the country by eliminating hazardous material from the environment. Reducing the workforce would significantly delay clean-up activities and could compromise the safety of the community.”
Hearing on ConverDyn Request for Injunction to Block DOE Transfers Set for Next Week
However, the funding situation could soon get significantly worse for the Portsmouth D&D project. A federal judge has schedule a hearing for July 29 on a request by the uranium conversion services company ConverDyn for a temporary injunction to block DOE for proceeding with uranium transfers while a suit the company has filed against the Department is pending. ConverDyn has filed a suit against the Department over its uranium transfer policy, which the company claims will cost it $40.5 million in lost revenue over the next two years. DOE has warned, though, that the Portsmouth D&D project would be “effectively halted” if ConverDyn’s request for an injunction is granted. In a court filing earlier this month, DOE said a halt to the uranium transfers altogether would result in layoffs of up to 825 additional workers at the Portsmouth site, as well as forcing the Department to put the site in a minimum safe operations state.
