UNDER PRESSURE, DOE REVERSES COURSE ON RELEASE OF FEE DATA

The Department of Energy will no longer keep Performance Evaluation Reviews for National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Environmental Management sites under wraps, deciding late Friday night that the annual report cards should be made public. The decision by Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman would reverse a 2009 decision by the NNSA to shield the reviews from public release that has resulted in scant information about the reviews being distributed over the last three years. The NNSA argued that the information was business sensitive, releasing only one-page summaries of the report cards, but in recent months, Congress, media outlets and government watchdog groups have ramped up pressure on the agency to change its policy. The Department hasn’t publicly confirmed the decision, and it’s unclear how soon the reviews will be released.