Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
12/5/2014
The Senate moved forward late this week with approving a handful of pending Department of Energy nominations, but the White House’s choice to serve as the next head of the Office of Environmental Management still appears to remain in confirmation limbo. Franklin Orr was confirmed to serve as the new Under Secretary of Energy for Science and Energy, while Joseph Hezir was confirmed to serve as DOE’s new Chief Financial Officer. In addition, the Senate set up a vote for early next week on Ellen Williams to serve as the new head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
Still to be determined as of press time, though, is the fate of Monica Regalbuto’s nomination to serve as the new Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. She was nominated by the Obama Administration this spring to fill the vacancy left when Ines Triay stepped down as Assistant EM Secretary in July 2011. At the time of her nomination, Regalbuto had been serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fuel Cycle Technologies in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. However, she has since moved to take a senior management role in EM, and now serves as Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary. Regalbuto had largely been seen as an uncontroversial choice to head up DOE’s cleanup program, and sailed through a hearing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held to consider her nomination in June. Due to concerns over DOE’s uranium transfer policies, though, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has placed a hold on Regalbuto’s nomination, which prevents the full Senate from easily approving it by unanimous consent.
Orr has been a member of the faculty at Stanford University for almost 30 years, according to DOE, and has led the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy since its founding in 2009. Prior to that, he served as the dean of the Stanford School of Earth Sciences. Hezir last worked as a Research Engineer and Executive Director of The Future of Solar Energy Study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative, according to DOE. He was the Vice President and Managing Partner of EOP Group, Inc. and Executive Vice President of EOP Education, LLC and EOP Foundation, Inc.
