RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE        September 12, 2024

New Transition Paper -- ECA Calls For Comprehensive Review of Department of Energy’s EM Cleanup Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) must continuously examine its work and evolve. The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is calling on the next Administration to launch a comprehensive review of all aspects of the EM program. 

In the paper, Ensuring Long-Term Success: Recommendations for the Next Administration on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Mission, ECA outlines a series of recommendations for the next Administration to help ensure EM is well positioned for long-term success. While EM has made substantial progress in cleaning up sites over the past 35 years, decades of work remain to be completed, and the program faces substantial challenges in areas such as workforce development, waste disposal capacity and sustained relationships with local communities that can threaten continued success.

This review includes in-depth, and honest assessments of the highest-risk issues at each site, as jointly agreed upon with federal and state regulators, Tribal nations and local governments; how DOE and EM are working with local governments on all aspects of cleanup, including long-term stewardship and future development strategies; how regulatory strategies and approaches are leading to tangible and lasting cleanup progress; how EM is ensuring it benefits from the best of private industry and maintains the necessary skilled workforce necessary for the long-term and how DOE is safely and effectively managing and disposing of all waste under its responsibility, among other issues.

ECA is also putting forward a set of recommendations for the new Administration to better ensure long-term cleanup success, including:

• Establishing disposal paths for every type of radioactive and hazardous waste, including ensuring both private and public sites are available and utilized 
• Re-evaluating EM’s use of the end-state contracting model so that more funds are available for actual work 
• Ensuring regulatory agreements are reasonably achievable and balance short- and long-term needs
• Improving workforce planning to address EM “brain drain” and long-term needs for skilled talent of all kinds 
• Continuing to focus on economic/energy development benefits
• Maintaining robust local, state, tribal government and stakeholder engagement at each site
• Clarifying DOE policy on how hazardous and radioactive materials discovered at “completed sites” will be addressed to ensure that the cleanup is protective of human health and the environment and the local community is not responsible for DOE’s legacy waste cleanup
• Reconstituting a dedicated nuclear waste organization within DOE to address high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel issues 

As always ECA stands ready to work with DOE on development and implementation of policy. 

ECA’s paper will be available at www.energyca.org. For additional information, please contact Andres Ridge, ECA Program Manager, at 202-828-2321 or ajr@energyca.org.

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Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is a non-profit membership organization of local governments adjacent to or affected by U.S. Department of Energy activities. The mission of ECA is to bring together local government officials to share information, establish policy positions, and promote community interests to address an increasingly complex set of constituents, environmental, regulatory, and economic development needs. Additional information is available at www.energyca.org.

September 16-18, 2024| Crystal Gateway Marriott | Arlington, VA

​Join us for the 10th Annual National Cleanup Workshop! 

Hear from senior DOE leaders, local government officials, and industry leaders about DOE's cleanup priorities, the future of the workforce, and more.

Featured Speakers: 

• The Honorable Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary of U.S. Department of Energy
• Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN-03), Chairman, House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee
• Candice Robertson, Senior Advisor, DOE-EM
• Jeff Avery, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, DOE-EM
• Greg Sosson, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, DOE-EM
• Kristen Ellis, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs, DOE-EM
• Dae Chung, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Corporate Services, DOE-EM
• James McConnell, Associate Principal Deputy Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration
• Brent Gerry, Mayor, City of West Richland, WA; Chair, ECA and
• Rebecca Casper, Mayor, City of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Vice-Chair, ECA.

Hosted by ECA with the cooperation of the Energy Facility Contractors Group and DOE-EM, the workshop brings together more than 800 senior DOE executives, officials from DOE sites, industry leaders, local elected officials, contractors and community stakeholders to discuss EM’s progress to address the environmental legacy of the Manhattan Project and Cold War-era U.S. nuclear weapons program.