trump administration revealed A new organizational chart for the Energy Department was unveiled this week, eliminating several offices focused on renewable energy while increasing fusion.
The shakeup eliminates the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the Office of Clean Energy Demonstration (OCED), the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chain, the Office of State and Community Energy Programs, and the Office of Grid Deployment and the Federal Energy Management Programs Office.
On the other side of the ledger, DOE has created a new Office of Fusion and merged geothermal and fossil fuels under the Office of Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy.
Some of these steps will likely lead to legal challenges, E&E News tellsNoting that at least one office caught up in the reorganization, OCED, was authorized by Congress under bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
Donald Kettle, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, told E&E News, “Cabinet secretaries’ authority to rotate key functions and offices is very limited, especially when those offices were established and funded through congressional action. Congress has taken a tight rein on reorganization and plans generally require either congressional approval or an opportunity for congressional review.”
The Fusion Office was probably created to encourage commercialization of the technology. Previously, Fusion fell under the Office of Science, which focuses on research rather than commercialization.
