The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set today to consider the White House’s choice of Monica Regalbuto to serve as the next Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management. Regalbuto, who currently is an official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, is likely to face questions related to Hanford and the ongoing shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, given the presence of Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) on the panel. A number of Republican members, such as Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Jim Risch (Idaho) and Tim Scott (S.C.) could ask Regalbuto about cleanup efforts underway in their home states. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the panel’s ranking member, could take the opportunity to ask about DOE’s use of excess uranium to help fund cleanup work and the resultant impacts on the domestic uranium industry. The hearing is set to be held in Room 366 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building beginning at 10 a.m. Along with Regalbuto, the committee will consider two Interior Department nominees.
Regalbuto currently holds the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fuel Cycle Technologies. The Obama Administration nominated her in March to officially fill the vacancy left when Ines Triay stepped down as Assistant EM Secretary in July 2011. Since then, EM has been headed on an acting basis by David Huizenga, who is set to return to the National Nuclear Security Administration at some point in the future.