PA. REP. CRITICIZES DOE OVER HOW NETL SHAKEUP WAS HANDLED

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/27/13

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said this week that he is not happy with the way the Department of Energy has handled the recent leadership shakeup at the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Murphy, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and whose district neighbors the lab’s Pittsburgh office, said he was disappointed that DOE did not inform him or other members of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation of lab Director Anthony Cugini’s removal last week. “The personnel matter unfolding at the lab is one in which I would have expected the leadership at the Department of Energy to have alerted me and the local congressional delegation rather than having us hear about it after the fact,” Murphy said in a statement provided to GHG Monitor earlier this week.

Murphy said he hopes the communication process with NETL “improves so we have a handle on what’s going on, and more importantly, that the critical fossil research work continues without disruption.” The offices of other local Congressmen did not respond to a request for comment.

Little information related to NETL’s abrupt leadership shakeup has come to light a week after Cugini was escorted offsite, but Deputy Director Scott Klara continues to manage the lab on an acting basis. The exact reason for Cugini’s removal as NETL director remains unclear, but several officials previously told GHG Monitor that Cugini had been placed on administrative leave as part of an ongoing DOE Inspector General investigation. NETL and DOE headquarters have declined to comment on the issue, saying that they do not comment on personnel matters. The DOE Inspector General’s Office has also declined to comment.