The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today grilled Energy Secretary-designate Federico Pena on the Energy Department's plans for nuclear waste, environmental cleanup at DOE sites and electricity restructuring. In addition, committee members questioned DOE management and called for improvements.
With the DOE under attack, some are saying Pena is taking over "the position of captain of the Titanic," according to Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Murkowski. He questioned whether the nomination of Pena, who has no energy-related experience, is "evidence that the White House doesn't care about the department."
Murkowski, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and others attacked the administration on nuclear waste disposal. Craig, a co-sponsor with Murkowski of legislation to locate a nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, called nuclear waste the "number one" environmental problem and said the administration "flatly stuck their heads in the sand" on the issue.
Craig said he is confident Congress will pass the bill by the summer, and called for administration cooperation. The White House has threatened a veto.
Senators also questioned the growing dependence of the United States on imported oil, and charged DOE has no strategy for energy independence. Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., contended talk of self-reliance in petroleum usually means opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil production, which he opposes.
On electricity deregulation, Pena said a draft administration proposal to implement competition is currently under interagency review and he hopes it will be completed by late February or early March.
Pena said the administration supports retail competition and that it should be implemented on a comprehensive basis, not piecemeal. Decisions on recovery by utilities of stranded costs, or power generation investments made under regulation that are unprofitable under competition, are best left to the states, Pena said.
In a related development, a coalition of 33 utilities and 46 states today said they will ask a federal appeals court Friday to force the DOE to accept nuclear waste by the legal deadline of Jan. 31, 1998. The utilities also are asking the court to end payments they have been making to a fund created to build a nuclear waste disposal site.
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