Department of Energy veteran James Owendoff will replace Susan Cange as DOE’s acting assistant secretary for environmental management, the agency announced Tuesday.
Owendoff also replaces Cange in her full-time position as principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental management: the second-highest-ranking position in the department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). As of Tuesday, Cange had been EM’s No. 2 for a little more than six months. She took over as acting head of EM in January after Donald Trump was sworn in as president.
A DOE press release Tuesday announcing Owendoff’s promotion did not say whether Cange was still with DOE.
Owendoff has since January 2010 been a senior adviser for EM. This follows two stints in the office, from September 1995 to November 2003 and from November 2005 to January 2010, in which he served in positions as senior as acting assistant secretary.
As acting head of EM, Owendoff will be in charge of DOE’s roughly $6.5-billion-a-year program to cleanup up nuclear waste left over from Cold War weapons programs.
In the press release, DOE wrote that Owendoff “plans to initiate a full EM program review to identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness and execution of the nuclear legacy waste cleanup program.”
DOE EM did not reply to a request for comment Tuesday.
An informed source said last week it could be four to six months before the EM office has top leadership on an ongoing basis.
