President Bush nominated Deputy Treasury Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today as his second secretary of energy, tapping an administration veteran rather than an energy or nuclear weapons expert to lead the Energy Department a time of unstable oil prices and rising nuclear proliferation concerns.
Bodman, 66, has held the No. 2 post at the Treasury Department only since February. Before that, he had been deputy secretary of commerce. A trained chemical engineer and former academic, Bodman came to the administration after a long career in the chemical and financial services industries.
"In academics, in business and in government, Sam Bodman has shown himself to be a problem solver who knows how to set goals, and he knows how to reach them," Bush said, hailing his nominee's "great talent for management and . . . precise thinking of an engineer."
Bodman's nomination was widely seen as further evidence that the White House is tightening its grip on policy making in the president's second term. Deputy Cabinet officials rarely move to the Cabinet-level top spot in their department much less a different agency, since deputies are tapped to manage the day-to-day operations of their agencies, not to formulate policy.
Environmental groups and some energy industry officials had expected Bush to name an energy industry official or a Bush friend from Texas to replace outgoing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Given the department's responsibility for the nation's nuclear arsenal, the president could have also turned to a nuclear weapons expert to signal a shift of policy emphasis to controlling the spread of weapons of mass destruction, said Charles B. Curtis, a former deputy energy secretary who now heads the non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative.
"That needs to be his primary focus," Curtis said.
In four years, Bodman has rarely drawn attention to himself, either at the Commerce or Treasury departments, with one exception. In the summer of 2003, Bodman told participants of a manufacturing symposium, "I will tell you, it is very hard for this government to have a vision on anything. We are totally stove-piped, and we live within these compartments."
In serving three different cabinet agencies in little over a year, Bodman may personally break down some of those "stovepipes," said Daniel Reicher, a former assistant energy secretary. His lack of experience in energy and nuclear weapons issues may be less important than his understanding of the Bush administration.
"All things being equal, it's extremely helpful to have someone who actually knows his way around the administration as opposed to a newcomer to D.C.," Reicher said. "I actually see that as a real plus."
If confirmed by the Senate, Bodman will assume control of a department facing a bewildering array of issues. The bulk of the Energy Department's budget goes to researching, developing, building and maintaining the nuclear weapons arsenal, as well as cleaning up nuclear damage to the environment dating back to the Manhattan Project.
The Bush administration has launched the first new nuclear weapons development program in more than a decade, a research effort to develop a low-yield earth-penetrating weapon to destroy deeply buried bunkers. The department's nuclear weapons laboratories continue to face high-profile security questions. Those research labs also lead the nation's efforts to secure nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union and prevent their spread to terrorists, a concern that Bush identified during the campaign as his greatest fear.
In energy policy, Bodman would be expected to help resurrect a comprehensive energy package first unveiled in 2001 that would spur more oil and gas production, including exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wilderness Refuge, while offering some tax incentives for clean coal technologies and alternative energy production. The president is also pushing development of a hydrogen-powered automobile.
Bodman would also serve as the government's point man with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States at a time when OPEC is discussing production cutbacks to keep oil prices from sliding too far from their recent record highs.
Amy Jaffe, an energy research specialist at Rice University, said Bodman's work at the Commerce Department would integrate him quickly into the Energy Department. Under outgoing Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, the Commerce and Energy departments divided up energy diplomacy, with Commerce taking the lead on overseas energy production projects, especially with Russia. Those contacts should help as the Energy Department pursues ventures with Russia to secure nuclear weapons materials, Jaffe said.
The Commerce and Energy departments also share responsibilities for the bulk of federal science spending, especially efforts to transfer government science to the private sector, Reicher said. And Bodman's chemical engineering background will serve him well in an agency that oversees billions of dollars in scientific research, from high-energy physics to alternative energy development.
"The job as energy secretary, in many ways, combines all aspects of my life's professional work," Bodman said today at the White House.
