In his nomination of Samuel Welch Bodman as secretary of energy, US President George W. Bush is flirting with taboo. Bodman might know something about energy, a quality that in Cabinet-level politics makes him suspect. A comprehensive understanding of energy tends to come from experience in energy companies. Under the principle that the regulated mustn't regulate, no one with experience in commercial energy operations should run the department most people mistakenly think regulates energy. Or so the thinking goes.
Of the 10 people who have been energy secretary, Hazel O'Leary, a lawyer who served in the administration of Bill Clinton, had the most private-sector energy experience, having been president of an electric utility. Donald P. Hodel, a lawyer who served as energy secretary in the administration of Ronald Reagan, had been administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration. Other energy secretaries have been lawyers or engineers with little energy experience—and one dentist.
Promising resume
By comparison, Bodman's resume looks promising. He's a PhD engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who ran Cabot Corp. of Boston, a chemical company that once produced oil and gas. Cabot spun off its production assets into Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, about the time Bodman became chairman and chief executive. The possibility therefore exists that he possesses above-average energy knowledge, although a little coaching should enable him to hide it from political antagonists.
In fact, energy secretaries don't regulate energy and don't have to know much about the subject. Most of them, being bright people, learn much on the job anyway. And the relevant part of the bureaucracy they manage suffers no shortage of energy expertise. Energy regulation just happens not to be central to the job.
This is an organizational paradox of the US government, about which the oil and gas industry and the American public need an occasional reminder. Energy isn't the primary mission of the department that bears the name. The Department of Energy dedicates much more resources to managing nuclear security and environmental programs than it does to energy.
The energy work DOE does perform is important. It includes research into various energy forms and technologies, including oil and gas, and the provision of comprehensive data and analysis through the Energy Information Administration. But these activities don't involve regulation. Since the end of oil price controls in the early 1980s, DOE's involvement in significant regulation has been indirect, occurring through the autonomous Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Heavy-duty energy regulation in the US takes place at the Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency. Interior's Minerals Management Service and Bureau of Land Management have much to say about whether and how drilling and production occur on federal land. And EPA influences nearly everything oil, gas, and coal companies do. It therefore holds more sway over actual energy supply than any other agency—including DOE. Yet when Bush chooses someone to replace EPA Administrator Michael O. Leavitt, whom he has nominated as secretary of health and human services, concern about the prospective new EPA chief's views on energy supply will be scarce. The general presumption will be that the EPA administrator handles the environment, not energy. Isn't energy supply the responsibility of the energy secretary?
Energy wishes
Well, no. The energy secretary, when he or she isn't busy with nuclear issues, deals mainly in wishes about energy supply and only indirectly in actual supply, exerting influence almost wholly political in nature. Boman adapted quickly to the role. At the press conference announcing his nomination, he displayed the optimism his job demands and deftly camouflaged whatever understanding he has about real energy supply by promising "to work toward the day when America achieves energy independence."
To characterize the energy secretary's influence as more political than regulatory is not to call it insignificant. Outgoing Energy Sec. Spencer Abraham deepened the discussion—which some consider fanciful—about hydrogen as a vehicle fuel. O'Leary performed historic service by resisting pressure from members of her political party for new price controls. And energy secretaries can, should, and sometimes do function as advocates for energy supply—real energy supply—when it comes under jeopardy in Congress and other agencies. For Boman, should he be confirmed, that will be the biggest energy test.