By: Jennifer Potash
Alleged discrimination by the U.S. Department of Energy and increased fuel prices were among the topics Energy Secretary Bill Richardson touched on during a talk Wednesday to a capacity audience at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Earlier in the day, Secretary Richardson, with Rep. Rush Holt (D-12), announced the extension of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s contract with the Energy Department and an additional $6 million in funding for the lab’s Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, which will allow for the expedited disassembling and removal of the reactor in three years, instead of five years.
Mr. Richardson has faced considerable scrutiny following the controversy regarding nuclear secrets missing from the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico and the rise in fuel prices.
When he accepted the job, Secretary Richardson said he never expected to face such hot issues.
"When I was at the U.N., the president said to me, ‘Listen I need you here closer to me. I want you to go to this little agency that has no problems, is very low-key,’" Secretary Richardson said. "He told me I was having too much fun at the U.N."
Before joining the Energy Department, Secretary Richardson was ambassador to the United Nations and had served as President Clinton’s special envoy on many sensitive international missions.
The secretary also told the audience that no question was off-limits.
"I’ve got a great staff and they’ve been telling me all day how great I am and I’d like to hear some people dissent a little bit," he quipped.
During the question-and-answer period, Karthick Ramakrishnan, a graduate student at the Woodrow Wilson School, asked Mr. Richardson to address allegations of discrimination against foreign-born scientists by the Energy Department.
After answering the question, Secretary Richardson asked Mr. Ramakrishnan what he "would have done if you were in my shoes."
Mr. Ramakrishnan replied he would have strengthened protections for whistle-blowers who come forward with allegations of discrimination in the labs.
"Good point," Secretary Richardson said.
While admitting there have been problems with national energy policy and "some things we should have done sooner and better," Mr. Richardson deflected criticism that the Department of Energy and the Clinton administration do not have an energy policy.
He said one of the soundest choices the Clinton Administration made was to release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help reduce the shortage of fuels, especially home heating oil supplies.
In the long run, the nation needs to encourage consumers and businesses to be more energy efficient and the government needs to re-establish tax breaks for the research and development of alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind, geothermal and bioenergy, he said.
In the short term, citizens need to realize that the administration has to continue talking to OPEC regarding the pricing of oil, he said. OPEC supplies 40 percent of the nation’s oil, Secretary Richardson said.
Enoch J. Durbin, an engineering professor at Princeton University, urged the secretary to prioritize the use of natural gas for motor vehicles.
