The Department of Energy (DOE) appointed Jeff Marootian as the principal deputy assistant secretary of the agency’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
EERE issues and implements those awful efficient energy regulations.
Marootian’s appointment is a big deal because Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-WV) canceled the vote to confirm him to lead the office as the assistant secretary.
Manchin canceled the vote because Marootian supports the office’s proposed stove efficiency rules:
“While I supported Mr. Marootian’s nomination in December, since then the office he’s been nominated to lead has proposed stove efficiency rules that I’ve raised concerns about,” Manchin told Fox News Digital in a statement.”While I appreciate that these rules would only apply to new stoves, my view is that it’s part of a broader, administration-wide effort to eliminate fossil fuels,” the West Virginia lawmaker continued. “For that reason, I’m not comfortable moving forward with Mr. Marootian at this time.”
Therefore, the Senate never had a chance to confirm Marootian.
The White House withdrew Marootian’s nomination.
DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm hired Marootian as her senior advisor for the office. Before the appointment, he served as Biden’s special assistant and D.C. Department of Transportation director.
Granholm obviously likes Marootian because the department hired him for a position that doesn’t need confirmation: principal deputy assistant secretary in EERE.
Marootian’s role (emphasis mine):
Jeff Marootian leads and directs the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), focused on creating and sustaining American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy. The role oversees the planning and execution of the organization’s $3.2B portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities.
Information from Marootian’s DOE page (emphasis mine):
The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) is responsible for supporting EERE’s Assistant Secretary in leading the organization. In this role, the Office of the PDAS oversees the External Affairs and Strategic Analysis teams, who work to increase the overall effectiveness and impact of all EERE activities. The projects, work products, and activities of these teams directly contribute to realizing EERE’s mission, facilitate and amplify the successes of EERE technology offices, and soundly and consistently inform the Assistant Secretary’s decisions.—The External Affairs team coordinates interaction with key external stakeholders to raise awareness of EERE’s work and create opportunities to advance EERE’s mission, helps EERE technology offices deliver key messages and information about their work to a diverse range of media, consumers, and stakeholders through multiple communication channels, and serves as the primary liaison between EERE technology offices and congressional authorizing committees, as well as other committees and offices. The team also provides corporate guidance on congressional interaction and strategic advice on legislation relevant to EERE.The Strategic Analysis team provides consistent, objective, and credible analyses for EERE’s activities—from market to impacts analysis—as well as an understanding of the effect of various policies on EERE’s core mission.
Marootian’s new job doesn’t sound like a paper-pushing job.
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