Roger Jarrell has left the Department of Energy and as a result is no longer the top federal supervisor at the Office of Environmental Management, DOE confirmed Monday afternoon.
Jarrell, the principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM2, “is no longer with the department,” a spokesperson for DOE headquarters said in an email responding to an Exchange Monitor inquiry.
“DOE does not comment on the details of personnel decisions as a matter of policy,” the DOE spokesperson said.
The DOE spokesperson did not say who would be stepping into Jarrell’s role and overseeing EM until whatever point the U.S. Senate might vote to confirm White House nominee Tim Walsh.
Exchange Monitor was told by a source earlier in the day Jarrell was asked to resign by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright following a disagreement over EM policy.
The same source told Exchange Monitor previously that Secretary Wright was seeking to kill startup of the $20-billion-plus Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
This could not immediately be confirmed. Sources in Washington state and DOE told Exchange Monitor as late as Friday afternoon that the department was still looking to start making glass at WTP from some of Hanford’s less radioactive tank waste next month.
According to the August organization chart, other top managers at EM include chief of staff Alicia Stetin, the head of field operations Greg Sosson, the head of regulatory and policy affairs Kristen Ellis and the head of corporate services Steve Trischman.
Walsh, a combat veteran and Colorado real estate developer, advanced out of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee in late July in an 11-to-nine vote.
Walsh, like many other nominees of President Donald Trump, still awaits a confirmation vote by the full Senate.
Jarrell, a senior adviser at DOE for Environmental Management during the first Trump administration and again early in this one, was tapped for the EM-2 role in April. He succeeded longtime DOE remediation executive Dae Chung, who has since retired from DOE.
During the Joe Biden administration, Jarrell worked as a top executive with the DOE’s environmental prime contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. An attorney, Jarrell holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Military Institute and a law degree from Washington & Lee University, according to his bio.
