Carter Said to Be Leading Contender for Energy Secretary
By Hans Nichols - Jan 22, 2013
Bloomberg.com
Deputy
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is the leading candidate to head the
Energy Department in President Barack Obama’s second term, according to
two people familiar with the matter.
Carter, 58, a physicist,
would replace Energy Secretary Steven Chu and be part of the core
administration team overseeing energy and environmental policy,
according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss personnel
matters.
Chu, 64, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, may announce
his departure from the administration this week, according to two other
people.
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This will be bad.
Carter was one of the drivers inside the Pentagon for getting contractor cost under control. If he is moving to Energy, that could make for some rough sledding for contractors. Plus he understands something about NW from the user side and will be less inclined to give a pass to ever growing budgets.
Will be interesting to see who is tapped to head up NNSA. Will be very interesting.
Even though he's the #2 at DOD, with his bio I'm surprised he wasn't tapped for NNSA Chief...
United States Deputy Secretary of Defense. Prior to that, he served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.
He is currently on leave from his post as Co-Director (with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry) of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Harvard and Stanford universities that designs and promotes security policies aimed at preventing the emergence of major new threats to the United States. He is also on leave from the International Relations, Security, and Science faculty at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Carter served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy in the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 1996. Carter served as a member of the Defense Science Board from 1991–1993 and 1997–2001, the Defense Policy Board from 1997–2001, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's International Security Advisory Board from 2006-2008. In 1997, Carter co-chaired the Catastrophic Terrorism Study Group with former CIA Director John M. Deutch, which urged greater attention to terrorism. From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy to William J. Perry in the North Korea Policy Review and traveled with him to Pyongyang. In 2001-2002, he served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism
Carter received bachelor's degrees in physics and in medieval history from Yale University, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Carter was twice awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award given by the Department. For his contributions to intelligence, he was awarded the Defense Intelligence Medal. In 1987 Carter was named one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the United States Jaycees. He received the American Physical Society's Forum Award for his contributions to physics and public policy. In November 2011, Carter was included on The New Republic's list of Washington's most powerful, least famous people.
Carter co-edited and co-authored eleven books, including:
- Directed Energy Missile Defense in Space (1984)
- Ballistic Missile Defense (1984)
- Managing Nuclear Operations (1987)
- Soviet Nuclear Fission: Control of the Nuclear Arsenal in a Disintegrating Soviet Union (1991)
- Beyond Spinoff: Military and Commercial Technologies in a Changing World (1992)
- A New Concept of Cooperative Security (1992)
- Cooperative Denuclearization: From Pledges to Deeds (1993)
- Preventive Defense: A New Security Strategy for America (1997)
- Keeping the Edge: Managing Defense for the Future (2001)
In addition to his public service, Carter was a Senior Partner at Global Technology Partners and a member of the Board of Trustees of the MITRE Corporation, and the Advisory Boards of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory and the Draper Laboratory. He has been a consultant to Goldman Sachs and Mitretek Systems on international affairs and technology matters, and speaks frequently to business and policy audiences. Carter was also a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Physical Society, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Carter was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Not only does he have some understanding of the complex physics of nuclear weapons but he can also build and shoot a mean looking medieval cross-bow. Great pick! Bring him in.
Wow, this would be the first time since Watkins that we'd have a Sec of Energy that comes into the job having knowledge of the nuclear weapons program and defense program customers. As well as an interest in these issues (which are the overwhelming piece of the DOE budget), as opposed to nuclear and alternative energy.
Would that be the same Watkins who gave us the tiger teams?
I really can do without that. This was the beginning of a completely risk averse philosophy.
" Would that be the same Watkins who gave us the tiger teams?
I really can do without that. This was the beginning of a completely risk averse philosophy.
January 24, 2013 at 4:26 PM"
Oh ya the Tiger teams will be back to clean drain the swamp, clean up the place, and shake it up.
"Watkins that we'd have a Sec of Energy that comes into the job having knowledge of the nuclear weapons program and defense program customers"
If knowledge was a sentient being it would be insulted by what you just said.
The only thing I clearly remember about Tiger Teams is being told to put secondary containment under a couple of bottles of high purity water.
“The only thing I clearly remember about Tiger Teams is being told to put secondary containment under a couple of bottles of high purity water.”
That sums it up nicely. We made a beautifully executed, rational transition from a resilient workforce to a dependent one.
I remember the planning quidance of an ex-LT who advised that the locals responded to naval base exams by placing questionable items in 2-ton lorries and driving the convoys around the base continuously until the exam was over.
Love the creativity in following the letter of the order.
Love Watkins even less.
Cater is enough of a long-term insider that he won't effect the labs but will stay ensconced in the bordellos of power, minding his own ego.
His feeble initiatives will miss the mark. The danger will be his knee-jerk response to Congressional criticism over any "discoveries" of malfeasance or mismanagement.
So, manage your appearances. Keep looky-loos away from your business. Pay lip service to Obamacide inititives while keeping back channels open to the "other" side. Be happy and positive in public. And be ready to disclose some good dirt on your competitors if sniffing dogs get too close to your treasures. Be mindful of those currently in power and those who will seek power soon. Keep up appearances.
Science? Do it. Carter won't care about that. If need be, hire some interns and call it "creating science jobs". Oh, but keep your hands off of them. This story has gotten really old.
Remember when Dr. Chu first came in and announced a project to reign in the huge bureaucracy at DOE HQ?
That was a funny one, wasn't it?
Here's to the new boss,
Same as the old boss.
For what it is worth, Carter told a group of reporters yesterday that he was staying on as the number 2 in Defense.
Chu announced he is leaving today (2/1/13).
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