ECA Staff | 04/04/2024
With DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) set to receive its largest budget ever, EM leadership is updating and amending its structure.
ECA is concerned that in the new structure, that local, tribal and state engagement programs are shifting from the office focused on regulatory and policy issues to the corporate “communications” office in the revised EM structure. EM “stakeholder engagement,” formerly in EM 2.2 which included regulatory work and a history of two-way dialogue, is moved to Communications - EM 2.3
(we did not make up the numbering system!) - where EM historically focuses more on getting out positive stories than coordination and collaboration.
In the early years of the EM program, it took years to convince former defense program officials (that started EM) to engage with and share information with local governments, and through fits and starts, the movement of local, state and tribal engagement became prioritized and moved under EM's regulatory office. This has ensured that, local, state and tribal governments and stakeholders have meaningful opportunities to provide input. This has crossed many
administrations. EM today is a very engaging program (the best in DOE) but this change during an election year when community engagement needs to be stressed, caught our attention.
Today, EM’s announcement is undoing the change. ECA expects that the new structure will not diminish the good work that EM does with conversation versus communication with states, tribes and local government. ECA has been told (very clearly) by EM that this reorganization will not change the engagement.
We will continue to keep ECA members posted on the impact of this change.
Below is the announcement (communication) from EM:
This week, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental announced a reorganization of some functions as part of its ongoing focus on strengthening technology development, communications and engagement, and infrastructure and regulatory policy. The
reorganization, which goes into effect on April 7, will not impact staff levels. These alignments are structured to strengthen EM’s advancement in technology development, achieve stronger alignment and synergy in communications and engagement and create stronger collaboration in the areas of infrastructure disposition and regulatory policy.
Through this reorganization, EM is:
- Establishing a new Office of Chief Technology Officer, which will include a new Chief Technology Officer, EM’s national laboratory policy functions, the Chief Engineer and the Office of Technology Operations.
- Combining its Communications and Stakeholder Engagement functions into one organization, creating greater synergy and alignment in its engagement
functions.
- Combining its Office of Infrastructure Management and Disposition Policy and Office of Regulatory Compliance, into Office of Infrastructure Disposition and Regulatory Policy.
The current EM organization chart is at https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/em-organization-chart
The new EM organization chart is below.
