Energy Sec. Hazel O'Leary last week announced a tough program to trim the U.S. Department of Energy by $1.7 billion, 24 offices, and 3,788 employees (a 27% cut) during 5 years.
To save another $5.2 billion, the administration is sending Congress legislation to enable it to sell the naval petroleum and oil shale reserves. Also proposed is a spinoff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
O'Leary said, "Our downsizing and alignment commitments will enable us to do our work better and at lower cost. Our legislative package puts the ball squarely in Congress' court."
THE DETAILS
Four fossil energy offices will be closed. The Metairie, La., program management activities will be consolidated at the Bartlesville (Okla.) Project Office.
Work at the Laramie, Wyo., office will be consolidated with similar work in the Morgantown (W.Va.) Energy Technology Center.
Bakersfield, Calif., and Casper, Wyo., offices will be closed if the Naval Petroleum Reserves are sold.
A DOE strategic alignment team that has been working 2 years on reorganizing the department suggested the changes.
It said decisions on whether functions should be centralized or decentralized were made case by case.
Some House Republicans have proposed dismantling DOE. The department said its downsizing proposal is not aimed at preventing that but simply "to enable the department to accomplish its critical national missions better and for less cost."
The plan also calls for adding offices. To reflect the changing mission of the department, an Office of International Affairs would be created. And a chief information officer would be given the mission of standardizing the many computer and telecommunications hardware, software, and data administration modes.
MIXED REVIEWS
Not surprisingly, DOE's restructuring plan received mixed reactions.
Mike Baly, American Gas Association president, said the restructuring would save billions of dollars without eliminating essential services to the energy industries and the public.
Baly added, "There are many program areas within DOE that can be eliminated or greatly reduced. This is particularly true in the coal and nuclear areas, where programs never seem to pay for themselves, as all eventually should."
Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), energy committee chairman, said, "I salute any federal agency 'that engages in streamlining and belt tightening. But this initiative, however productive, will not stop the calls for even bigger changes and larger savings" from those who want the agency dismantled.
"Over its roughly 20 years of existence, DOE has spent billions upon billions of dollars with not enough to show for it."
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