REP. HASTINGS URGES DOE TO BE MORE TRANSPARENT ON CLEANUP PLANS

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) called on the Department of Energy late last week to be more open about its plans for its cleanup efforts, warning that a lack of transparency could hurt the Department with lawmakers as work begins on Fiscal Year 2014 spending bills. “These are complicated projects, there’s no question about that. The best way to deal with them is to be as transparent as you possibly can. If there are some challenges that we don’t know about, we need to know what those are,” Hastings said at a meeting held by the Energy Communities Alliance in Washington, adding, “When you don’t have transparency on some of the key issues, you’re bound to raise some questions that could affect the funding, and that’s not good.”

In his prepared remarks, Hastings singled out the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant as an example of where DOE needs to be more forthcoming with information. While the Department has established a set of expert teams to help finally resolve long-standing technical issues at the WTP, much of that work has been “behind closed doors,” Hastings said. “The Department of Energy must increase transparency and be prepared to answer basic questions if cleanup investments are to be sustained.  Perhaps nowhere is this more critical than at the Waste Treatment Plant where rebaselining efforts have been put on hold, some work remains stopped and information about cost and schedule have not been made available,” Hastings said, adding, “For nearly a year, I have asked for details in writing outlining the schedule, cost and workscope associated with the Department’s plan to resolve WTP technical issues and testing. …  Advocates of EM in Congress and in communities like all of yours need complete information to be successful in our efforts to advance cleanup projects.”

Hastings did, though, praise DOE for its progress to date in completing the WTP. “At the Waste Treatment Plant, despite my frustration about the Department’s lack of transparency in their planning, real progress is being made and the project is over 60 percent complete. WTP is not optional—it is in fact the key to cleaning up the vast majority of the tank waste,” Hastings said in his prepared remarks.