Abraham Recants Call to Abolish Energy Department

Abraham Recants Call to Abolish Energy Department

NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Jan. 19, 2001

WASHINGTON (UPI) – Energy Secretary-designate Spencer Abraham reversed Thursday his previous stance that the Department of Energy should be abolished.

In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Abraham said that recent developments in the energy sector and DOE reforms had convinced him that the department was necessary.

In November, Abraham, a freshman Republican senator from Michigan, was defeated in his bid for re-election. During his Senate tenure, Abraham had co-sponsored a measure to eliminate the department and shift its duties to other agencies.

"While widely held concerns about the department's management structure and operational success, combined with the relatively stable nature of our energy markets, led me to support this legislation in the past, a number of new developments have occurred that either significantly addressed these concerns or put them in a new light," Abraham testified.

Should he be confirmed to head the department, Abraham promised to focus his efforts in two primary areas:

Improving the safety and security of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, while discouraging weapons proliferation.

Developing a national energy policy to address the cost of oil on the East Coast and the electricity crisis on the West Coast.

The latter is of critical interest as the California electricity crisis reaches near-epic proportions, with rolling blackouts, high prices and little consensus on how to fix the problem.

The panel's top Republican, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, called Abraham "an outstanding nominee" and said he "fully supports [Abraham's] nomination."

Abraham said national security issues were the most important element of the DOE mandate.

"As you know, more than two-thirds of the department's funding comes from defense accounts," he said. "One of the more sobering and important responsibilities vested in the secretary of energy each year is the duty to certify to the president each year that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is safe, secure and reliable. …

"I can assure the members of this committee that nothing I do will be higher on my priority list than the management of our nuclear stockpile."

Abraham promised to help safeguard nuclear weapons information, a subject that has been a bugaboo for his predecessor, the embattled Bill Richardson, because of lost information, inept security oversight and possible espionage.

Abraham did not discuss specifics on how to deal with the electricity crisis in California except to say that he was studying the situation and would work closely with President-elect Bush and other federal agencies to broker a solution.

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