Senate Energy and Natural Resources Hearing Questions DOE Nominees on Rule Rollbacks and USGS Independence

At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing, a senator pressed three Department of Energy nominees about recent DOE rollbacks of energy-efficiency rules and raised concerns about the nominee for director of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The senator said the administration announced plans to cut “dozens” of energy-efficiency rules that, the senator said, have saved consumers “hundreds of dollars a year” on utility bills. The hearing considered nominees for general counsel, chief financial officer and the director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency‑Energy (ARPA‑E); the senator also criticized statements by the nominee for U.S. Geological Survey director and said those remarks raised questions about his commitment to impartial science.

The nominees introduced in the remarks were: Mister Brightbill, nominated to be general counsel at the Department of Energy; Miss Pierce, nominated to be the department’s chief financial officer; Mister Prochaska, nominated to lead ARPA‑E; and Doctor Mamula, nominated to lead the U.S. Geological Survey. The senator described the general counsel as “the keeper of the agency’s conscience who ensures that the department follows the law, upholds the constitution, and protects the public interest.”

The senator said the CFO is “the guardian of the public’s money” and said ARPA‑E is “our investment in the future,” describing ARPA‑E’s mission as overcoming barriers to transformative energy and environmental technologies. The senator criticized the administration’s stated goal of cutting regulatory “red tape,” saying the change had instead halted “real progress.”

On the U.S. Geological Survey nominee, the senator said Doctor Mamula had previously stated he planned to shrink the agency’s mission and had dismissed conservation efforts and public-land withdrawals as a left‑wing tool to block mining; the senator also referenced past statements in which Mamula alleged that “hostile foreign entities fund domestic environmental lawsuits,” and said those statements raised questions about how he would uphold USGS’s commitment to impartial, science‑based work. The senator said the USGS “must remain nonpartisan and independent, and the integrity of its science is essential for informed decision making across the government and industry alike.”

The transcript excerpt does not include any formal motions or votes on the nominations. The senator closed by saying he looked forward to hearing from the witnesses and thanked them for their willingness to take on the responsibilities of their prospective offices.

No vote or committee decision was recorded in the provided excerpt.