Dr. Conca reports that everyone seems fixated on Perry shifting DOE away from renewable energy and toward oil and the other fossil fuels that he championed during his 14 years as Governor of Texas. But this is strange as DOE does not have a whole lot to do with energy, except in general scientific research and development and some loan guarantees. DOE has nothing to do with fossil fuels and never has. Most of what the DOE does, and is budgeted to do, involves nuclear weapons and nuclear waste. Even nuclear energy is a relatively small part of the DOE mission and budget. Renewable energy is even less. DOE does have control over LNG shipping overseas, but again, this is a fairly small part of what DOE does. What DOE does have is a National Laboratory system that has no rival in the world and that can perform scientific research and engineering development that industry and academic institutions cannot.
DOE employs or contracts almost 100,000 scientists, engineers and support personnel. Losing this resource would cripple our scientific lead in the world, especially in nuclear and advanced physics. On the other hand, if Trump does not kill DOE, the new Administration and the new Secretary might just increase its role in promoting nuclear power and new reactor designs and build up. That would be good. Could we also get a coherent national energy policy, which we have needed for ages? The announcement of Rick Perry as DOE Secretary comes on the heels of a particularly scary action by the Trump Transition Team concerning DOE.
It sent a list of 74 questions asking for information about DOE operations and personnel, including a list of employees and contractors who attended international meetings on climate change over the past five years....? Given the Trump desire to eviscerate the Federal Government role in regulating anything, it seems likely that dealing with nuclear waste, along with climate change, health issues, clean water may just devolve to the states.
The original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/12/14/oops-rick-perry-chosen-to-head-energy-department/#7877a3765be3
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