Senate Energy Committee Hears Nominees for Interior and Energy Deputy Posts on Permitting, Labs and Public Lands

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lee convened a confirmation hearing Oct. 12 for two nominees to deputy-secretary posts: Catherine McGregor for the Department of the Interior and James Danley for the Department of Energy.

Both nominees described management and operational priorities for agencies that oversee large federal workforces, sensitive national-security missions and sprawling public lands. Chairman Lee noted that the deputy secretary role is ‘‘the chief operating officer’’ of the agencies and that their decisions ‘‘will reverberate throughout the American West and of course the nation at large.’’

The hearing focused on a set of recurring themes: permitting reform and transmission bottlenecks for energy projects, the security and access policies of the DOE’s national laboratories, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production goals for plutonium pits, staffing and maintenance at the National Park Service, and whether department actions will follow federal statutes and court orders.

Catherine McGregor, who previously served as Interior deputy secretary, told the committee she would return to the department to ‘‘drive change and efficiency’’ and to prioritize timely agency action. McGregor said she would ‘‘absolutely’’ work with senators to implement statutes cited by members and pledged to…