The relationship between the federal government and national laboratories should be modified to ease the burden of federal regulations while promoting transparency and trust between the two entities, according to the co-chairs of the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories (CRENEL) and a laboratory director. CRENEL, established last year, released a report recently outlining recommendations to improve the performance of national energy laboratories. "We find that the trusted relationship that is supposed to exist between the federal government and its national labs is broken and is inhibiting performance," CRENEL co-Chairman TJ Glauthier said at a House Science, Space, and Technology Energy Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. Glauthier suggested the Department of Energy (DOE) oversee programs on the policy level and allow the labs to handle the implementation of the policy "without needing as many approvals from DOE along the way." Glauthier’s suggestions included promoting flexibility in the management of budgets and personnel compensation and the approval of public-private collaborations, goals outlined in CRENEL’s report.
Peter Littlewood, director of Argonne National Laboratory, agreed on the need for greater lab autonomy, saying that "when DOE gives the laboratories and their contractors the authority to operate with more discretion, we are empowered to take the kind of risks that are imperative for scientific discovery and technological innovation. In return, we accept the need for transparency and accountability." Littlewood said that because of the DOE’s "increasing attention to detail and attempts to reduce uncertainty," the national lab system has "reached a point where we punish failure rather than rewarding success" and "traded innovation for regulation."
