DOE Secretary Pena Resigns
“There is never a perfect time for a decision like this, but I believe that after five and a half years as a member of the Clinton cabinet, the time is now.”-- DOE Secretary Federico Pena
DOE Secretary Pena will leave the Department of Energy on June 30. In a hastily called news conference yesterday, Pena announced his resignation “for personal and family reasons,” saying that he and his wife “have three wonderful children, and it is now time for us to focus on their futures.”
Pena has been at the Department of Energy for about one year, having formerly served as the Secretary of Transportation. He said Deputy Energy Secretary Elizabeth Moler was on the short list of replacements. Whomever is his replacement, Pena said that nuclear waste disposal would be his or her “biggest challenge.”
Pena’s three page statement touched on a number of issues important to the physics community, which are excerpted below:
“The President early on asked that we bring further management reforms to DOE. I have been requiring good management, that our sites be good neighbors to the communities in which they live, that we be open and honest and that environment, safety and health be a priority. Today, we are requiring our contractors to perform (as in the case of Brookhaven). We have a new head of contracting and privatization, we are a year ahead of schedule for restructuring our workforce, and we are preparing our team to better supervise and execute major contracts more effectively. Major new projects, like the National Ignition Facility are on budget and on schedule, and we are making tough decisions on projects that were behind schedule.”
“I am proud of the pivotal role DOE played to support the President’s commitment to address global climate change. We developed a technology-based effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which the President has supported with a $6 billion research and development investment over five years.”
“Our nonproliferation efforts have been strengthened. We have a solid Stockpile Stewardship program to support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty....”
“Our greatest challenge has been cleaning up our own contaminated sites once used for our nuclear program. We have fashioned a national blueprint to accelerate the closure and clean up of numerous sites across our country....”
“The President’s vision of American leadership in science and technology is being actualized in our national laboratories. Whether it was a DOE-supported scientist who helped discover water on the moon, our discoveries of the third form of life, and the third family of quarks, or our development of seismic techniques of increasing oil production, or our work on cancer research and the human genome, our scientists continue to lead the world in R&D awards and Nobel prizes. DOE is an engine for American technological innovation. I am proud that DOE has developed and operates the fastest computers in the world, and that we are on track to achieving three trillion operations per second this year. We have no intention of slowing down and plan to reach 100 trillion operations per second by 2005. New scientific tools like the National Ignition Facility in California or the National Spallation Neutron Source in Tennessee will ensure that the U.S. continues world leadership in these areas of great science.
“As a science and technology agency, I believe that DOE has a unique obligation and role in supporting the President’s goal of improving science and math performance of our youth by mobilizing our own scientists and technicians to help students and teachers across America so that we can produce the next generation of American scientists and engineers.”
In responding to Secretary Pena’s announcement, President Clinton said, “It is a measure of my confidence in his abilities that I entrusted him to run not one, but two cabinet agencies.”
