In a sign that the leadership logjam at the Energy Department might be clearing, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled this week to vote on three of the White House’s choices for senior DOE positions.
The committee on Thursday is set to consider the Donald Trump administration’s nominees for DOE undersecretary for science; undersecretary for management and performance; and general counsel.
The administration tapped Mark Wesley Menezes, a lobbyist for Berkshire Hathaway Energy, as undersecretary for the Department of Energy, and Paul Dabbar of mega-bank J.P. Morgan to be DOE’s undersecretary for science. David Jonas is the nominee for DOE general counsel.
“Under secretary for the Department of Energy” is the official title for the position labeled on DOE’s current organizational chart as “under secretary for management and performance.” The department’s assistant secretary for environmental management reports directly to the undersecretary for management and performance.
So far, the only DOE leadership position the Trump administration has filled is secretary of energy. Former Texas governor Rick Perry was sworn into that role on March 2. The administration nominated insurance industry lobbyist and former DOE legislative-affairs staffer Dan Brouillette as deputy energy secretary on May 16, but the full Senate has yet to vote on the nomination.
According to the local Las Vegas Review-Journal, an aide to Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) in June said the senior senator from the Silver State would consider blocking Brouillette’s nomination over concerns about Yucca Mountain: the Nye County, Nev., site Congress designated as a permanent nuclear-waste disposal repository. Heller, and Nevada generally, oppose Yucca. The Trump administration supports Yucca.
