Dec 4, 2008

Frank,
I ran across this on the Secretary of Energy job. I really hope the Obama team reads before appointing someone who knows little about the real DOE.
-Anonymous

Wanted: Renaissance Person for Energy Secretary

Llewellyn King

While most of Washington is fascinated with the triangle of strong personalities that President-elect Barack Obama has empowered to preside over foreign policy (Gen. Jim Jones, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden), another constituency is wracked with the agony of hope. It is the bitterly divided energy constituency that hopes that a new secretary of energy will lean their way.

The most hopeful of these are the greens who have taken Obama at his word, and who expect a flood of money for wind, solar and biomass; great new jobs; and crippling limits to the use of coal and nuclear.

But there is another constituency that believes it is the real green alternative – coal. Or, more precisely clean coal. Already, this receives nearly $1 billion a year in funding, much of it going to carbon capture and sequestration – a concept fraught with legal, political and technical difficulties but popular with the utilities and the miners. Died-in-the-wool environmentalists look at it as a trick at best and a semantic obfuscation, designed to deceive the public, at worst. Clean or otherwise, coal will be burned for decades to come – most of it in its dirty form, the experts tacitly acknowledge.

Another constituency that was just feeling it could be listened to is nuclear. John McCain raised hopes when he talked about 45 new reactors, and nuclear advocates hoped that Obama heard that loud and clear.

Now, two clouds hang on the nuclear horizon – opposition in the Democratic Congress and the credit drought. The advocates believe they can coax the Congress to their point of view, especially with a pro-nuclear secretary. But they are not so sure about the credit markets, even with loan guarantees. A new plant could cost between $10 billion and $14 billion. That is a lot of borrowing, and John Rowe, the chief of mighty Exelon Corporation, has said no utility can build the plants unaided.

Then there are the seldom heard but influential nuclear weapons hawks who would like to see a secretary who understands the aging nuclear stockpile, and worries about the effectiveness of weapons that have not been tested in a generation. They want the stockpile updated; new weapons designed and built and, if feasible, tested underground. They are said to be lead by that grand old man of Washington policy wonks, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft. They point out that $20 billion of the Department of Energy’s $25 billion budget is earmarked for weapons. It goes to the somewhat autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.

To be secretary of energy is to preside over a complex archipelago of almost totally unrelated responsibilities. The department has nuclear waste, nuclear verification, nuclear stockpiles, warhead decommissioning and various black programs to deal with before one calorie of energy is produced.

A source with 30 years of experience in the DOE warns: “You can’t turn a battleship around in the bathtub, and budgeting here is like that.”

The department is not only remarkable in its reach but also in its staffing. It directly employs about 7,000 people. But through the big nine national laboratories, it has dominion over 130,000 people. This makes the DOE unique and, in some respects, advantages it. While the labs work on far-flung projects for other agencies, and sometimes private corporations, they are controlled and funded by DOE. One secretary told me: “It’s like having a private army. The labs, with all of their Ph.Ds, will do anything so long as you fund them.”

What is certain is that the new secretary, unless he or she has had extensive experience with the department, will be shocked to learn that the DOE has little to do with energy today. It is really a series of giant sandboxes for scientists to play in.

49 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is certain is that the new secretary, unless he or she has had extensive experience with the department, will be shocked to learn that the DOE has little to do with energy today.
==========================

Every time I hear someone recite their
choice for DOE Secretary; they talk
about how this person is so "green".

They say, "Let's have the guy from
Google - the one that put all those
solar cells on the roof. Thet's the
type of person we need to head DOE".

I wonder what some environmental "eco-weenie" who has been chosen as DOE Secretary is going to say when he / she finds out that a major portion of their new job has to do with the care and feeding of nuclear weapons.

Anonymous said...

Check out the names on the short list, especially the last one.

"I'll be Baaaaaack"


Energy Department, change is coming
DOE is expected to get shaken up under Obama's administration, playing a central role in its plans to move the economy to a greener future.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
December 4, 2008: 5:50 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President-elect Barack Obama's pick for energy secretary will likely lead the department through a new era with a sharp focus on renewable energy, but who'll lead a revamped agency is far from clear.

Despite what some may think, the current Department of Energy isn't really about wind or solar power. It's not even about coal, oil or gas. Mainly, the agency is about nuclear - nuclear weapons to be exact.

The new agency is likely to focus on a big push into renewable R&D greater conservation efforts and some role in curtailing greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently about $15 billion out of the department's $24 billion dollar budget is spent maintaining the nation's nuclear weapons stockpiles, cleaning up sites used to produce those weapons, or dealing with non-proliferation issues.

Spending on energy programs and research - including nuclear, fossil fuels, renewables, and conservation - totals about $4 billion. Research into renewables alone totals just over $650 million.

"There's a misconception that the prime responsibility of the energy secretary is energy," said Melanie Kenderdine, an associate director at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative and a former department head at DOE. "It's really nuclear weapons, cleanup, and proliferation."

The agency will likely retain it's nuclear focus, although that branch has been gaining independence from the energy side since the Clinton Administration.

"Under Obama you're likely to see an energy secretary focus more on energy rather than nuclear weapons," said Paul Bledsoe, strategy director for National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan research group.
Who's it going to be?

Who Obama might pick for the post remains a mystery - The Obama team would not comment. But some names discussed include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., former NATO commander Wesley Clark, Google's renewable energy guru Dan Reicher, MIT's Ernest Moniz, even the Republican governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Bledsoe thinks it's likely to be a governor.

"A well known political figure may make sense," he said. "A lot of transition to a clean energy economy is convincing Americans it's the best thing to do."

Obama has an extensive energy agenda that includes comprehensive urban planning, further raising of fuel efficiency standards, developing clean coal technologies, and requiring utilities to buy a certain percentage of renewable power - to name just a few.

But central to his plan is a proposal to spend $15 billion a year researching and commercializing renewable energy technology. Much of that money would likely be funneled through the DOE, via one of their many national labs that do renewable research.

Money from a massive economic stimulus plan - which many expect will pass shortly after Obama takes office - may flow through DOE as well.

Conservation measures like adding insulation to homes, replacing appliances and light bulbs, and upgrading windows are things that could be done in a hurry and employ lots of laid off construction workers - a key criteria for getting stimulus money. Most of the federal government's conservation programs are currently run out of the energy department.
Greenhouse gasses

Another big role the energy secretary may take on is playing a part in any plan to control carbon dioxide emissions.

It's not exactly clear which agencies would have a role in a carbon dioxide law - which hinges on issuing permits to emit greenhouse gasses. It's likely the Environmental Protection Agency would play the part of compliance officer. But it could be EPA or the Departments of Commerce, Treasury or Energy that issue the permits.

"The problem with formulating policy on this is all these issues roll into each other," said one Washington, D.C.-based energy analyst, speaking of energy policy in general.

Gen. James Jones, Obama's pick for national security advisor, has made it clear he wants to deal with energy policy as a national security issue, and some have talked of giving the Pentagon a greater role.

Energy's wide reach is one reason why the Obama team has talked of creating a new office to oversee all the energy and climate change efforts, an energy/climate czar.

Some say an energy secretary won't be picked until the energy/climate czar is announced.

Then there's the hard part - getting all these changes passed even in a Democrat controlled Congress.

'It's going to be more complicated than people think," said the D.C. analyst, noting that a lot of lawmakers are from states reliant on the fossil fuel or automobile industry. "There are a number of Democrats who will vote with their state or region rather than their party."

Anonymous said...

Note: "some names discussed include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., former NATO commander Wesley Clark, Google's renewable energy guru Dan Reicher, MIT's Ernest Moniz, even the Republican governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Can this be true? None of these clowns knows anything about energy. This is a job of an engineer or physicist!

Anonymous said...

"Can this be true? None of these clowns knows anything about energy. This is a job of an engineer or physicist!"

It doesn't matter - Secretary's are just figure heads that tour the DOE sites telling everyone what a great job thier doing. But, then again, there was O'leary :)

Anonymous said...

3:21 PM. Bet he keeps the 40,000 dollar bonus.

Anonymous said...

"They point out that $20 billion of the Department of Energy’s $25 billion budget is earmarked for weapons. It goes to the somewhat autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration."

But not for much longer. You're going to see huge cuts in the US nuclear weapons budget.

Take that 20% downsizing figure thrown out by Tom D'Agostiono last year and double it to 40% and cut the implementation period down from a decade to about 2 years. That's what's coming from the new Administration and the Democratic Congress. They have zero interest in funding the weapon complex at current levels regardless of any DOD concerns.

St. Pete is gone. LANS has had over 2 years to get their act together and start serious efforts to diversify LANL's project base and reduce lab costs. They've failed (not that they care).

Anonymous said...

"Under Obama you're likely to see an energy secretary focus more on energy rather than nuclear weapons,"

Ah, looks like we need a Hazel 0'Leary clone. I remember stories of how she had pictures of nuclear explosions taken down at DOE HQ to be replaced with pictures of Wind and Solar generating devices.

Perhaps a Navy retread, although that talent pool may be reserved just for the NNSA.

I wonder if James Schlesinger would be willing to come back and clean up the mess that evolved from his tenure.

Anonymous said...

We'll get another DOE Sec in the same mold as Hazel O'Leary. You remember Hazel, don't you?

She was the one who changed the name of the DOE "Office of Classification" to the "Office of De-Classification" and saw to it that lots of sensitive stuff was release to the public.

I believe she was also the one heading this cabinet during the time that RIFs hit LANL back in the mid-90s.

This was also a period of CRADA craziness, when it seemed the main purpose of the labs was to partner with industry in any fashion people could imagine. Anyone remember the old AMTEX program where the weapon labs where going to save the US textile industry? Perhaps we'll have a new program involving the labs saving the Big 3 US Automakers this time around (and please note that the textile industry in America is now gone!). With Bill Richardson as head of Commerce, I think you'll see a huge push to turn the weapon labs back to doing a bunch of big CRADA agreements.

It's going to be deja vu all over again at the labs! Fun times, for sure, if you can keep your job.

Anonymous said...

'Groundhog' day

Anonymous said...

"It's going to be deja vu all over again at the labs! Fun times, for sure, if you can keep your job."

In other words a continuation of the last 8 years as per Bush.

Anonymous said...

"Can this be true? None of these clowns knows anything about energy. This is a job of an engineer or physicist!"

Ahem. We had Bodman- PhD Chemical engineer, if I recall from MIT, and what value did he bring to this position?

Anonymous said...

Change. It happens. It's happening here. The lab will never, ever be what it was 10, 20, or 50 years ago. Those days are gone. The funny thing is that in 25 years people will be wishing for the good old days under Obama. Be flexible. You'll live longer.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @12/5/08 8:56 PM said...

"The funny thing is that in 25 years people will be wishing for the good old days under Obama."

Indeed, these days I often think of the time of Nanos as the good old days.

Anonymous said...

"It's going to be deja vu all over again at the labs! Fun times, for sure, if you can keep your job."

12/5/08 7:24 AM wrote:

"In other words a continuation of the last 8 years as per Bush."

Not at all... the mid 90's were a period of great silliness at LANL. But at least the senior management team was relatively benign back then.

Anonymous said...

This report is wrong about the "nuclear weapons" budget. Here is the actual president's budget request for FY09. The total "Defense Programs" budget sits around $6B annually. For comparison, two of the big 3 automakers - supposedly for-profit companies - are requesting this much from DOE to help them build "green" cars.

http://www.energy.gov/news/5920.htm

National Nuclear Security Administration ($9.1 billion)
The FY 2009 National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) budget requests $9.1 billion, an increase of $287 million above the FY 2008 enacted level, to promote national security by maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and promoting nuclear nonproliferation and threat reduction to address the realities of the 21st century. The NNSA budget requests $6.6 billion, a $320.6 million increase over the FY 2008 appropriation, for its weapons program to meet the immediate national security requirements of the stockpile, and continue progress toward transforming the nuclear weapons complex to a much smaller size by 2030. The Department’s FY 2009 request for nonproliferation activities includes $1.8 billion for detecting, securing, eliminating, and disposing of dangerous nuclear materials around the world as well as the installation of radiation detection equipment at an additional 49 foreign sites in 14 countries and at 9 additional Megaports locations. This budget also supports implementation of an aggressive schedule to complete all shipments of Russian-originated highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel by the end of 2010 and maintains a schedule for completion of the construction of the second of two fossil-fueled power plants located in Zheleznogorsk, Russia in 2010.

Anonymous said...

Saw a tidbit in an article that said the unemployment rate for those with technical backgrounds rose from 3.3% to 5.5% over the past year. The unemployment rate for the college educated rose from 2.2% to 3.1%.

Anonymous said...

"Saw a tidbit in an article that said the unemployment rate for those with technical backgrounds rose from 3.3% to 5.5% over the past year." (11:51 AM)

And the unemployment rate for scientists who work at our nation's NNSA labs? That's the one I want to know about.

Anonymous said...

Scientists and engineers who work for NNSA can find jobs elsewhere, so layoffs of scientists at LANL and LLNL aren't going to be a political hot potato. The recent layoffs of scientists at LLNL seems to have caused no big problems with the politicos.

Yeah, they may have their Los Alamos homes foreclosed on by the bank, but 1 in 10 homes in the US are already in foreclosure or behind in payments. Unemployed LANL scientists will become members of a rapidly growing club in our country: 'America, the Bankrupt'.

Anonymous said...

******** News Article ********
President-elect Barack Obama added sweep and meat to his economic agenda on Saturday, pledging the largest new investment in roads and bridges since President Dwight D. Eisenhower built the Interstate system in the late 1950s, and tying his key initiatives – education, energy, health care –back to jobs in a package that has the makings of a smaller and modern version of FDR's New Deal marriage of job creation with infrastructure upgrades.

The president-elect also said for the first time that he will “launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen.”

“We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms,” he said in the address.

****************

No, nothing about modernizing our nuclear weapons or revitalizing the NNSA labs, but what did you expect? It's all about building roads and schools. Come to think of it, construction firms like Bechtel might be able to make a killing with this agenda. Think the Boston "Big Dig" done five times over!

Anonymous said...

And the unemployment rate for scientists who work at our nation's NNSA labs? That's the one I want to know about.

(12/6/08 1:09 PM)

Goodbye!!! Don't let the door kick you in the ass!

Anonymous said...

"And the unemployment rate for scientists who work at our nation's NNSA labs?"

I think that is zero, by definition, if they are WORKING at the labs.

Anonymous said...

Re: 1:56 pm
Didn't Bechtel already make a big "killing" at the "Big Dig" by dropping a steel panel on a woman due to their non-understanding of cold-flow/creep in the epoxy used for the anchor-bolts. Seems they have a similar non-understanding as to how to run a National Laboratory.

Anonymous said...

"technical backgrounds rose from 3.3% to 5.5% over the past year. The unemployment rate for the college educated rose from 2.2% to 3.1%."

Somehow the numbers do not add up. You need a college education to have a technical background. I suppose you could mean a subset of the college educated.

Anonymous said...

12/6/08 1:56 PM

Yeah, those dumb schools and wasteful roads. The road to recovery is more nukes!

Anonymous said...

Latest rumor from inside the Beltway...
-------
Dorgan Won't Be Energy Secretary
By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post - Dec 6, 2008

Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.) is no longer under consideration to be secretary of energy in President-elect Barack Obama's administration, according to transition officials. The decision was arrived at based on a belief within the former Illinois senator's inner circle that the plains state Democrat is more valuable to them where he is.

"Senator Dorgan would be a fantastic energy secretary but, because he is too important as a red state senator and a powerful ally, he is best suited to help advance President-elect Obama's agenda in the Senate," said a transition official granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal deliberations.

The names still in the mix for energy secretary, according to well informed senior Democrats include: Govs. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kansas), Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.), Bill Ritter (D-Colo.) and Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.), Sen. Jeff Bingaman (N.M), Google's Dan Reicher, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, former Edison International CEO John Bryson, Federal Express Chairman Fred Smith and Steve Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The decision to take Dorgan off the list is an acknowledgment by the Obama team of political reality. Dorgan is up for re-election in 2010 in a state that John McCain carried 53 percent to 45 percent in November over Obama, and that President Bush won with 63 percent in 2004.

Senate Republicans are expected to make a major push to get popular Gov. John Hoeven into the contest and that task would be made far easier if Dorgan's Senate seat were open. (Hoeven was recruited to run against Sen. Kent Conrad in 2006 and passed.)

Obama and his team have been careful in their Cabinet picks so far not to hand seats to Republicans.

The only two Senators to be nominated to Obama's Cabinet to date are Vice President-elect Joe Biden and secretary of state nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton; the replacements for each will be chosen by Democratic governors.

On the House side, the Members under consideration -- Raul Grijalva (Ariz.) for Interior, Xavier Becerra for U.S. Trade Representative -- for Cabinet posts sit in very safe seats that the party will have no trouble holding.

The only exception is in Arizona, where the nomination of Gov. Janet Napolitano as the head of Homeland Security means that Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer will ascend to the governorship for the next two years.

----

Anonymous said...

I can't believe they'll pass over Al Gore. Talk about a strong background in science - Inventer of the Internet and Father of Global Warming.

Anonymous said...

The last one had shit for brains so the job can't be too hard.

Anonymous said...

Nobody on that list has the brains or interest to be an effective SecEng.

The right man for the job is Sid Drell.

They will all let the stockpile wither, and be surprised when it is needed and isn't there....2013ish after the first nuclear terrorist incident

Anonymous said...

Bodman- PhD Chemical engineer, but

a faker who never did a lick o' engineering. He lead a Fidelity stock fund. (Hope he held it and lost his shirt....)

MIT motto

If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffel 'em with bulls**t.

Anonymous said...

Carter was trained as an engineer too, and he was, technically, as useful as a pig at Passover.

Anonymous said...

I spent the O'Leary years bored stiff at Livermore, just hoping something worthwhile was created to engineer. I waited about 10 years, wasting time on stillborns until something came along.

Don't have the time or interest to wait another 10 years. I could join my daughter as a college freshman and become a Bishop in that time.

Nope, I will read Obama's first six-twelve months and then make a decision to stay or take my lumps and find something rewarding to do.

wish i hadn't selected tcp1

Anonymous said...

I second that nomination. Dumb Al Gore, with Woody Allen as his deputy and California attorney General Jerry Brown as administrator of NNSA.

Moe, Larry and Curly

Anonymous said...

We want Nader and Claybrook!

Anonymous said...

Arnold is very well qualified on nuclear weapons issues. He had a romantic moment framed by the light of a stolen nuke obliterating one of the Florida keys (see the movie "True Lies").

Anonymous said...

It's too bad that Sen. Dorgan can't be the new DOE Secretary.

During recent Senate Committee meetings he got along very well with Domenici and seemed genuinely concerned that science at the NNSA labs was not adequately funded.

Dorgan also was present at the meeting where Sig Hecker shocked the Senate Committee by describing LANL as having seriously declined after LLC privatization to the point of becoming a drab "prison".

Having Dorgan at the top would have been a big plus for both LANL and LLNL.

Anonymous said...

12/7 10:15 pm: "They will all let the stockpile wither, and be surprised when it is needed and isn't there....2013ish after the first nuclear terrorist incident."

2013 is wildly optimistic, IMO. A recent study has it at 50-50 or better in two years.

Anonymous said...

"One secretary told me: "It’s like having a private army. The labs, with all of their Ph.Ds, will do anything so long as you fund them.""

1) Anyone have the PhD count for the various labs?

2) Any PhDs signed up for the CogSysEng jobs?

Anonymous said...

"They will all let the stockpile wither, and be surprised when it is needed and isn't there....2013ish after the first nuclear terrorist incident"

Roughly, how much of the stockpile would be needed to deal with a nuclear terrorist incident?

Anonymous said...

"One secretary told me: "It’s like having a private army. The labs, with all of their Ph.Ds, will do anything so long as you fund them.""

Sounds like a brothel, not an army!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone out there heard about Mary Neu abusing her power to settle old vendettas and most recently order the transfer/firing of, Rebekkah Aguilar, the best RCT at TA-48/RC-1?

Anonymous said...

"They will all let the stockpile wither, and be surprised when it is needed and isn't there....2013ish after the first nuclear terrorist incident"

That's the critical level it must fall before American will act.

Lend-Lease, WWII is America's benchmark.

Anonymous said...

I'll bite. What did this RCT do (or not do) to cause a vandetta?

Anonymous said...

Roughly, how much of the stockpile would be needed to deal with a nuclear terrorist incident?
===============

Depends on who gave them the bomb.

Anonymous said...

As the Gov. Rod Blagojevich "I want the money" story broke this morning, I was listening to the news on CNBC. The FBI indictment has an interesting passage which was mentioned on the CNBC program.

When discussing what Gov. Blagojevich might get in trade for selling Obama's Senate seat, Blagojevich's aide suggests:

"Think about being the DOE Secretary, because that one makes the most money."

Watching the NNSA labs being turned over to highly profitable for-profit management fits well with this idea. I'm sure there are people running DOE and NNSA right now that will make out very well in the end.

Right, Tom D'Agostino?

Anonymous said...

St. Pete is still stressing...

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/
Local%20News/-We-ve-changed-New-Mexico-

"But for the 76-year-old former math teacher turned career politician, one part of the job won't really stop.

It's the worrying. He'll keep fretting about one of the state's most pressing issues: What will become of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"I don't know exactly how it's going to be funded, and that's enough for any worrywart," he said in a recent interview at the Los Alamos airport, where he took part in a land-transfer dedication during what the hilltop community dubbed Domenici Day."

Anonymous said...

Here's the official scoop on the Blagojevich 'DOE' quote...

www.thesmokinggun.com/
archive/years/2008/1209081rod4.html

**********
FBI Affidavit, Released Dec 9th, 2008 (Page 57, 58):

93. On November 5, 2008, Rod Blagojevich spoke with Deputy Governor A regarding positions that Rod Blagojevich might be able to obtain in exchange for the soon-to-be vacated Senate seat. Among the potential positions discussed were Secretary of Health and Human Services and various ambassadorships. Deputy Governor A noted that the cabinet position of Secretary of the Energy is "the one that makes the most money."

**********

Hmmm, sounds like the FBI might also want to consider checking into how those people running DOE make all that money, don't cha' think?

Anonymous said...

"I don't know exactly how it's going to be funded..." (Domenici)

Neither do I, Pete. And neither do most of the wrecking crew called LANS LLC who have been given a big profit fee to run the place... straight into the ground!

People should pay very careful attention to Pete's comments in this article. He seems to have a premonition about what's coming LANL's way.

You get the impression that Pete feels the time is almost up for LANL. Perhaps it can survive with funding for a bare-bones Pantex like mission, but very little else (i.e., science).

I share Pete's concern that the national lab that was once the crown jewel of the nation's research community is slowly dieing. The decision to privatize LANL's management by handing it over to a construction company was a fatal blow.

Anonymous said...

For the person who keeps accusing Chris Mechels of posting anonymously, see the comments to the New Mexican article about Domenici. Mechels has the balls to openly post very critically.

Frank Young said...

I know someone who knows Chris Mechels. I asked recently and Chris has never posted a comment to this blog.