With the COVID-19 pandemic making telecommuting more routine, the Department of Energy might terminate the lease for office space it secured last year in Albuquerque, N.M., to accommodate certain staff for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an agency spokesperson said by email.
“Due to COVID-19 restrictions,” the Carlsbad Field Office was not able to use newly leased General Services Administration space in Albuquerque in early 2020, the DOE spokesperson said in a reply to a Weapons Complex Morning Briefing inquiry last week. “With the changing work environment, termination of the lease is currently being considered.”
Last April the federal government started hunting for office space in Albuquerque, which is about a four-hour drive from Carlsbad area Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), saying a housing shortage near the disposal site made it tough to fill certain jobs in the Carlsbad office. The federal notice said the government was looking for office space, including a conference room, to serve about 10 staff positions for WIPP.
The Carlsbad Field Office said the local housing crunch was due to a booming regional oil and natural gas production business in recent years. But the coronavirus pandemic was taking root in the United States and most cleanup sites overseen by the DOE Office of Environmental Management directed most employees who could start working at home to do so.
With the increased telecommuting, much of the existing office space is sparsely populated. Acting Environmental Management chief William “Ike” White has said in various speeches during 2021 that COVID-19 has DOE and other federal agencies rethinking the approach to on-site staffing.
