PCAST FORWARDS 18 NAMES TO DOE FOR LABORATORY PANEL

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has made its 18 selections to a Congressionally mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories, and now it’s up to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to whittle that list down to nine. Moniz has until May 1 to make his selections for the panel after PCAST forwarded its 18 selections to the Department of Energy last week. The names of the selections have not been released publicly. The commission, created by a Senate-drafted provision in the Fiscal Year 2014 omnibus appropriations act, has a broad mandate, as language in the bill tasks it to examine whether the national laboratories are properly aligned with DOE strategic goals, are not “unnecessarily redundant and duplicative,” effectively support current and future national security challenges, are sized correctly, and provide a benefit to other government agencies. The commission is also expected to weigh in on whether there are “opportunities to more effectively and efficiently use the capabilities of the national laboratories, including consolidation and realignment, reducing overhead costs, reevaluating governance models using industrial and academic bench marks for comparison, and assessing the impact of DOE’s oversight and management approach.”