CHRIS SMITH NOMINATED AS DOE ASSISTANT SEC’Y FOR FOSSIL ENERGY

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/11/13

The White House nominated Chris Smith to be Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy last night, seven months after the former Chevron official took over the position in an acting capacity. President Obama announced his intent to nominate Smith as part of a batch of more than two dozen other high-level nominees. “I am grateful that these talented and dedicated individuals have agreed to take on these important roles and devote their talents to serving the American people. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years,” Obama said in a Sept. 10 statement.

Former Energy Secretary Steven Chu promoted Smith to be Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, FE’s No. 2 position, in February after Chuck McConnell stepped down as Assistant Secretary, leaving Smith to serve in the office’s top position in an acting capacity at a time of major transition at the Department following the November election. Upon taking the helm of FE earlier this year, Smith made a point of emphasizing that he would change little in terms of program direction compared to his predecessors. Smith did, however, quickly reshuffle the Office’s organizational structure, centralizing FE’s leadership chain so that all three Deputy Assistant Secretaries, as well as the director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, report directly to him. Smith tapped Lawrence Livermore National Lab alum Julio Friedmann and top American Gas Association official Paula Gant to be FE’s Deputy Assistant Secretaries for Clean Coal and Oil and Natural Gas, respectively, last month.

Smith had served as FE’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Gas from 2009 to 2013. Prior to his tenure at DOE, Smith spent most of his career at Chevron, working in a variety of positions there between 2002 and 2009. He also worked at Texaco before its refining operations merged with Chevron’s. Smith graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and the University of Cambridge and also served as an Operations Officer and Task Force Engineer in the U.S. Army.