[Senate Hearing 116-370]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                      S. Hrg. 116-370

                           MENEZES NOMINATION

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                              COMMITTEE ON
                      ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                                   to

 CONSIDER THE NOMINATION OF MARK WESLEY MENEZES TO BE DEPUTY SECRETARY 
                               OF ENERGY

                               __________

                              MAY 20, 2020

                               __________
                               
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                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
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               COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

                    LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming               JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia
JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho                RON WYDEN, Oregon
MIKE LEE, Utah                       MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
STEVE DAINES, Montana                BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana              DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan
CORY GARDNER, Colorado               MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi        MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
MARTHA McSALLY, Arizona              ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee           CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota

                      Brian Hughes, Staff Director
                      Lucy Murfitt, Chief Counsel
            Brianne Miller, Deputy Staff Director of Energy
                 Renae Black, Democratic Staff Director
                Sam E. Fowler, Democratic Chief Counsel
                     Darla Ripchensky, Chief Clerk
                            
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                   Page
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa, Chairman and a U.S. Senator from Alaska....     1
Manchin III, Hon. Joe, Ranking Member and a U.S. Senator from 
  West Virginia..................................................     3
Cassidy, Hon. Bill, a U.S. Senator from Louisiana................     4

                                WITNESS

Menezes, Hon. Mark Wesley, nominated to be Deputy Secretary of 
  Energy.........................................................     5

          ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

American Exploration & Production Council, et al.:
    Letter for the Record........................................    76
American Gas Association:
    Letter for the Record........................................    78
Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers:
    Letter for the Record........................................    79
Cassidy, Hon. Bill:
    Opening Statement............................................     4
Industrial Energy Consumers of America:
    Letter for the Record........................................    80
Manchin III, Hon. Joe:
    Opening Statement............................................     3
Menezes, Hon. Mark Wesley:
    Opening Statement............................................     5
    Written Testimony............................................     8
    Responses to Questions for the Record........................    35
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa:
    Opening Statement............................................     1

 
                           MENEZES NOMINATION

                              ----------                              


                        WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

                                       U.S. Senate,
                 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:32 p.m. in Room 
SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Lisa Murkowski, 
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.

           OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

    The Chairman. The Committee will come to order.
    This is our first hearing since the onset of COVID-19--
clearly, a very, very different world that we are facing. The 
pandemic has killed tens of thousands of Americans, infected 
more than 1.5 million and affected every single one of us.
    The Senate has necessarily been focused on aid, relief and 
economic security over the past few months. But we also have 
core duties to fulfill, including the timely consideration of 
the President's nominees for the Executive Branch. That has 
grown in importance as we seek to ensure federal agencies are 
ready to help us recover from the pandemic.
    Our hearing today is to consider the nomination of Mr. Mark 
Menezes to be the Deputy Secretary of Energy. I would like to 
thank Mr. Menezes for appearing before the Committee and for 
the time that you took to speak with me by phone last week.
    As you can see, our format today is very, very different 
than any hearing that we have conducted, certainly during my 
time as Chairman. For starters, I am joining you from a small 
room at the Seattle Airport. I am en route back to Alaska. We 
have other colleagues that are participating virtually. Those 
of you that are there in person are in a larger room rather 
than our usual Energy Committee hearing room. We do not have 
our normal in-person audience, and we are streaming online.
    We have previously provided guidance as to how this hearing 
will be run to Committee members and staff, but I just wanted 
to briefly reiterate here:
   The Committee room, again, has been configured to 
        maintain the recommended six-foot social distancing 
        between Senators, the nominee and others who are needed 
        to conduct the hearing. We have kept all in-person 
        staff to a minimum.
   For those joining remotely, once you start speaking, 
        there will be a slight delay before you appear on 
        screen, but that is normal and to be expected.
   To minimize background noise, we would ask that 
        Senators who are using the video-teleconference option 
        to click their mute button until it is your turn to ask 
        questions.
   And then, departing from our normal ``early bird'' 
        rule, we will have questions from Senators by order of 
        Committee seniority, alternating between Republican and 
        Democrat members.
   If there is a technology issue, we will move on to 
        the next Senator until it is resolved, and then return 
        to the member who had difficulty.
   We ask that all Senators and the nominee adhere to 
        the five-minute time limit. For those Senators who are 
        joining remotely, you will notice the view labeled, 
        ``Timer'' that will show you how much time you have 
        remaining.
   At the conclusion of my statement I will turn to 
        Senator Manchin for his opening remarks. Senator 
        Cassidy will introduce our nominee and swear him in. 
        After that, we will hear from Under Secretary Menezes 
        for his testimony and then begin member questions.
    Before I turn to Ranking Member Manchin, I want to 
reiterate that I appreciate Mr. Menezes appearing before the 
Committee today. We thank him for his willingness to serve our 
nation in a new role at the Department of Energy.
    As members will recall, the Senate confirmed Mr. Menezes to 
his current role, as Under Secretary for Energy (DOE) by voice 
vote in November 2017. In that role, Mr. Menezes has been 
responsible for many programs that are key to fostering energy 
innovation, including nuclear energy, fossil energy, energy 
efficiency, and renewable energy. He helped create the 
Department's cybersecurity office, which was carved out of the 
Office of Electricity. That experience will serve Mr. Menezes 
well as Deputy Secretary.
    I know that he has the full confidence of Secretary 
Brouillette, who has already given you additional 
responsibilities at the Department while the Deputy position 
has been vacant. Having a full view of the Department's 
capabilities will serve Mr. Menezes, as well as everyone else, 
well as we seek to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Our energy industry has been hit particularly hard by this 
crisis. Whether the oil supply shock that was compounded by the 
Russia-Saudi price war, lower electricity demand, or the lack 
of liquidity in the markets for new energy projects, we have 
seen significant economic and job losses in recent weeks.
    The expertise at the Department and its 17 national 
laboratories will help us navigate new realities in the energy 
industry as our economy reopens, stabilizes, and begins to grow 
again.
    It is also important to note that the Department has been a 
key federal partner in addressing COVID-19, and uses its 
tremendous resources in the computing capacity of 
supercomputers at our labs for epidemiological research and 
virus modeling to identify possible treatments. DOE's 
scientists and researchers are uniquely situated to tackle big 
challenges quickly and they have been hard at work since the 
onset of the pandemic.
    Mr. Menezes, again, thank you for the work you are doing at 
the Department as well as your continued willingness to serve 
in this new role. We thank you for that.
    With that, I will turn to Senator Manchin for his comments, 
and then we will turn to Senator Cassidy for the introduction 
and the oath.

              STATEMENT OF HON. JOE MANCHIN III, 
                U.S. SENATOR FROM WEST VIRGINIA

    Senator Manchin. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I want to thank 
you for holding this hearing on Mr. Menezes' nomination to be 
Deputy Secretary of Energy. I want to welcome Mr. Menezes and 
his lovely wife, Dr. Lee. I appreciate your willingness, sir, 
to take on this important post, for taking time to talk to me 
on the phone last week, and for being here with us this 
afternoon. We really appreciate it.
    Because of the pandemic, this is the first hearing the 
Committee has held since March the 10th. Since then, 36.5 
million Americans have filed for unemployment, nearly 1.5 
million have contracted COVID-19 and over 90,000 have perished 
from the disease. The world is a different place, as we have 
noted before, and our work in the U.S. Senate is that much more 
critical as we respond to this devastating pandemic and turn to 
rebuilding our economy.
    The Deputy Secretary plays an important role as the second 
highest ranking officer in the Department of Energy and, as we 
will discuss today, the Department has been playing an 
important role in helping the nation fight the Coronavirus. The 
Department of Energy is a scientific powerhouse. Its national 
laboratories are some of the nation's premier scientific 
research centers. Labs are using what they learn from Smallpox, 
Anthrax and Ebola to develop models to help determine how the 
Coronavirus behaves and the lab's supercomputers are helping us 
screen drug compounds to expedite vaccine development.
    DOE and its labs can also play a vital role in supporting 
the scientific research and development needed to rebuild our 
economy. The Deputy Secretary's job will be a critically 
important one in this effort. Taking a broader view, the law 
creating the Office of the Deputy Secretary simply says, ``that 
the Deputy Secretary shall act for, and exercise the functions 
of the Secretary when the Secretary is absent.'' But the job is 
much, much bigger than that.
    The Deputy Secretary is the Department's Chief Operating 
Officer. He or she is responsible for managing the Department's 
wide-ranging mission and a budget of over $35 billion. I have 
already mentioned the importance of the national laboratories 
and the Department's scientific mission. In addition, the 
Department is responsible for maintaining the nation's nuclear 
weapon stockpile, making the fuel that propels the nuclear navy 
and guarding against nuclear proliferation.
    The Department manages one of the world's largest and 
toughest environmental cleanup programs at Hanford and the 
other cold war nuclear weapon sites. It oversees four Power 
Marketing Administrations that supply electricity produced at 
federal dams to customers in 34 states, and the Department is 
responsible for ensuring our energy security and protecting the 
nation's energy sector from cyberattacks. As I said, the Deputy 
Secretary job is an extremely important one.
    For the past two and a half years, Mr. Menezes has ably 
served as the Under Secretary of Energy, the third highest 
ranking position in the Department. His long history with 
energy issues goes back over 30 years. He has worked for an oil 
services company, for an electric utility, as Chief Counsel to 
the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as an energy lawyer 
for a major law firm, as head of the federal relations for 
Berkshire Hathaway Energy and, for the past two years, as the 
Department's principal advisor on energy policy.
    Mr. Menezes, you certainly have the experience for this 
job, and I want to thank you for your willingness to take it on 
and for being here with us today and having your lovely wife 
with you also.
    Thank you, Chairman Murkowski. At this time, I will turn it 
over to Senator Cassidy.

                STATEMENT OF HON. BILL CASSIDY, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA

    Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Madam Chair and Mr. Ranking 
Member.
    It is a privilege to introduce Lillian, Louisiana native, 
Mark Menezes, to be our next Deputy Secretary at the Department 
of Energy. Mark's Congressional and private sector experience 
and current service as Under Secretary of Energy makes him 
eminently qualified.
    As colleagues recall, the Senate confirmed Mark to his 
current role as Under Secretary for Energy by voice vote in 
November 2017. In that role, he oversees many programs 
important to energy innovation, including nuclear and fossil 
energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy. He also helped 
create the Department's cybersecurity office. Proudly, I say he 
is a fellow LSU Tiger where he earned a Bachelors and law 
degree.
    Today, his role within DOE impacts working Americans across 
the globe. The position of Deputy Secretary carries 
responsibility including promoting policies to rebuild our 
energy economy and to give hope to Americans whose livelihoods 
have been affected by the Coronavirus epidemic.
    Prior to joining DOE, Mark served at Berkshire Hathaway 
Energy developing extensive experience interacting with federal 
agencies and Congress. Prior to joining Berkshire Hathaway, he 
was a partner at Hunton and Williams managing the regulated 
markets in energy infrastructure practice group. Throughout his 
career, Mark has worked collaboratively with federal agencies 
to achieve important outcomes. On Capitol Hill, Mark served as 
Chief Counsel on energy and environmental issues to the U.S. 
House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. He 
secured passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as the chief 
negotiator and legislative architect for the House majority. He 
served the Senate as Staff Counsel for the Committee on 
Commerce, Science and Transportation focusing on maritime and 
energy issues.
    I mentioned earlier that Mark's new position carries 
greater responsibility for rebuilding our energy economy. What 
I have not mentioned is the breadth of his experience. Mark 
worked as a roustabout on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of 
Mexico. It is those folks who ultimately will depend upon the 
decisions we make and that you make. And it is those folks who 
are most vulnerable to the Coronavirus downturn. So the fact 
that you can fully empathize and relate to that guy on a 
helicopter coming back for two weeks to go back two weeks more, 
and how he feeds his family and everything that depends upon 
that, I think, Mark, is your greatest qualification of all.
    I know that he has the full confidence of Secretary 
Brouillette who has already given you additional 
responsibilities at the Department while the Deputy position 
has been vacant. Having a full view of the Department's 
capabilities will serve you and everyone else well as we seek 
to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Again, Mark, thank you for your willingness to serve. 
Before you deliver your prepared remarks, I must swear you in 
and ask standard questions required of all nominees coming 
before this Committee.
    The rules of the Committee which apply to all nominees 
require that they be sworn in, in connection with their 
testimony. Please rise and raise your right hand.
    Do you solemnly swear that the testimony that you are about 
to give to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 
shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
    Mr. Menezes. I do.
    Senator Cassidy. Before you begin your statement, I will 
ask you three questions addressed to each nominee who appears 
before this Committee.
    Will you be available to appear before this Committee and 
other Congressional committees to represent departmental 
positions and respond to issues of concern to Congress?
    Mr. Menezes. I will.
    Senator Cassidy. Are you aware of any personal holdings, 
investments or interests that would constitute a conflict or 
create an appearance of such a conflict should you be confirmed 
and assume the office of which you have been nominated by the 
President?
    Mr. Menezes. I do not.
    Senator Cassidy. Are you involved or do you have any assets 
held in blind trust?
    Mr. Menezes. I do not.
    Senator Cassidy. You may proceed.

    STATEMENT OF MARK WESLEY MENEZES NOMINATED TO BE DEPUTY 
                      SECRETARY OF ENERGY

    Mr. Menezes. Chairman Murkowski, Acting Chairman Cassidy, 
Ranking Member Manchin, members of the Committee and staff, 
thank you for scheduling this confirmation hearing, 
particularly during this challenging time, and for the 
flexibility of your demanding schedules to be here in person 
and virtually this afternoon. I would like to thank President 
Trump for nominating me for the Deputy Secretary of Energy 
position, and I am humbled to appear before you today.
    Thank you to those who have spoken to me prior to this 
hearing to present your concerns, your ideas, your 
recommendations for improving the Department and our working 
relationship. I have been fortunate to serve as the Under 
Secretary of Energy for the past two and half years with 
Secretary Perry, now Secretary Brouillette, working together 
with this Committee to address the challenges our country 
faces. I thank them for their leadership, guidance and 
friendship.
    Thank you, Senator Cassidy, for introducing me to the 
Committee. As native Louisianians we share a unique perspective 
on the role our nation's energy plays in our economy, our 
national security and our workforce.
    Joining me today is my wife, Dr. Yun-hyang Lee, who is, 
herself, a committed public servant as the Division Chief of 
the Interpreting Services at the State Department. Watching 
from home and unable to be here are our children and their 
families, Marisa and her husband, Justin, Will and his wife, 
Hannah, my seven-month-old granddaughter, Simone Frances, and 
her parents, Paige and Matt, Stephanie, live-streaming from 
Tokyo and in Louisiana, my mother, Doris, a retired public 
school teacher, who is most responsible for my life's 
achievements, and many family and friends across the country 
who have been supportive over the years.
    If confirmed, I will endeavor to advance the hallmarks of 
this Administration advocating for U.S. energy of all kinds 
around the world while increasing accessibility and 
availability of energy here at home, broadening our 
supercomputing capabilities and innovation at our national 
labs, providing for a strong national defense through a modern 
and dynamic National Nuclear Security Administration and 
honoring the commitment to the cleanup of our nation's 
Manhattan Project and Cold War legacy sites. I am proud that 
the Department of Energy has been in the fight to combat the 
devastating impact of COVID-19.
    Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary 
Brouillette, DOE has marshalled the capabilities of our 
nation's best scientists, researchers, facilities and most 
powerful high-performance computing resources to significantly 
advance the pace of scientific discovery in the fight to stop 
the virus. The Department's 17 national labs each play a 
critical role in advancing America's leadership in scientific 
research and development, energy technology and nuclear 
security. Our national labs are also part of a unique public-
private consortium spearheaded by the White House Office of 
Science and Technology Policy, to include government, industry 
and academic leaders to unleash the power of America's 
supercomputing resources to combat COVID-19.
    Recognizing advancements in energy accessibility and the 
need for strong deterrent--be it tactile or cyber--the 
Department took the extraordinary steps of bolstering 
cybersecurity and emergency response, as well as artificial 
intelligence, by establishing two new offices focused on these 
emerging priorities. We have committed to build three new 
exascale computing systems and, following Congress' leadership 
in passing the National Quantum Initiative Act, we are evolving 
our quantum science capabilities. Breaking down silos and 
elevating our cross-cutting efforts across the Department is 
another hallmark of this Administration. Over the past three 
years the Department's committed professionals have come 
together across program areas to leverage high priority 
research and expertise to maximize the impact of federal 
research capabilities, expenditures and partnerships. The 
Department has pursued a number of these initiatives such as 
the Critical Materials Initiative, the Energy Storage Grand 
Challenge, the Plastics Innovation Challenge and the Grid 
Modernization Initiative which brings together all five applied 
energy offices.
    I am proud that innovation at the Department has advanced 
under the Trump Administration's commitment to clean water, 
clean air and clean energy. America is now the world's second 
largest producer of wind and solar energy, and America leads 
the world in the reduction of energy-related carbon emissions 
by orders of magnitude. Cutting-edge research and development 
at our national labs will ensure America continues this 
progress for years to come through technology to advance all 
forms of energy. Recognizing interdependencies of our energy 
and water systems, the Trump Administration launched the Water 
Security Grand Challenge. This DOE-led effort advances 
transformational technology to meet the global need for safe, 
secure and affordable water.
    I commit to each of you today that if I am fortunate enough 
to be confirmed, I will work earnestly with you to address the 
challenges and opportunities of today and tomorrow.
    Members of the Committee, I wish to thank you again for 
allowing me to be here today. It is indeed an honor to come 
before this Committee, and I ask for your favorable 
consideration of the President's nomination. I look forward to 
your questions. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Menezes follows:]
    
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    The Chairman. Mr. Menezes, thank you for, for that really, 
very comprehensive view of the role of the Department of Energy 
and just a reminder, again, of the great value that comes to us 
at this time of all that our national laboratories hold, the 
extraordinary opportunities that we now have because of our 
supercomputer capabilities, the matter of quantum science. All 
that is going on within the Department is very important and 
certainly critical at this time that you speak to the level of 
innovation that goes on at DOE. And there is much, much, much 
to be proud of.
    You and I have had an opportunity to speak about many 
things and you know that more often than not, my conversations 
will come back to the issue of the Arctic and the role that the 
Arctic plays when it comes to, not only our energy sources, 
really the opportunities that abound in an Arctic environment, 
both from an environmental perspective, resource perspective, 
but also some of the challenges that we face in building out 
some hybrid solutions such as the microgrids.
    Can you give me an update, if you will, on the Department 
of Energy's efforts to reestablish the Arctic Energy Office and 
if you want to add anything, just very briefly, about the 
efforts that the Department can make as it focuses on the U.S. 
role as an Arctic nation and how we develop our Arctic 
infrastructure?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you, Chairman Murkowski, for that 
question and the opportunity to update you on our efforts on 
establishing the Arctic Energy Office.
    As I had mentioned to you on the phone, as a recognition of 
your efforts to get directing language in the appropriations 
bill, we are expanding the Arctic Energy Office and within the 
next few weeks we'll be able to designate the initial 
transition staff. As I had mentioned, we are on pace to have 
this office opened by the end of the Fiscal Year and it pleases 
me to report that we have been able, even during this time of 
COVID-19 and difficulties of getting folks employed, we have 
been able to have a number of people whom we will dedicate to 
serving this office and it includes an interim director at the 
University of Alaska Fairbanks as well as a senior advisor at 
Los Alamos National Lab and a senior advisor in our 
International Affairs Office. Additionally, we've requested in 
the Secretary's budget, a request for additional resources so 
that we can have a coordinating position at headquarters. All 
of which will be dedicated to the Arctic Office.
    And for your colleagues to truly appreciate the importance 
of this, you know, we are an Arctic nation and increasing our 
energy interest in the Arctic is a national security priority 
both for the vital and strategic resources. You've mentioned a 
few of the things. In addition to oil and gas and the methane 
hydrates, but all the critical minerals that are there as well 
as the technical support to serve the remote Alaska native 
groups, in addition to research in the atmospheric conditions 
up there. All of these help us develop innovative, interactive 
grid solutions that can apply in remote locations for both 
national security and to serve these remote populations.
    So I'm pleased to report that we have good news on that 
front.
    The Chairman. That is good news indeed. I thank you for 
that. I also want to acknowledge and thank you for the effort 
that you made between the National Renewable Energy Lab and the 
Cold Climate Housing Research Center there in Fairbanks. There 
is good news on that front. I want you to know how much we 
appreciate that as well.
    Let me turn to the issue of Alaska's natural gas. As you 
know, we have extraordinary resources up there. We do not have 
infrastructure in place to get the resources to consumers 
around the world. We have a pretty significant national asset, 
that is, for all intents and purposes, stranded. Right now, the 
Alaska LNG project is on the agenda before the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission (FERC) tomorrow. There is momentum at a 
time when the market is challenged. But just very quickly, 
would you agree that Alaska's natural gas is uniquely 
positioned for export with no existing domestic market that 
would be competing for it would certainly help to address a 
great deficit. This is something that [inaudible] great value 
[inaudible] some time in [inaudible] every effort that 
[inaudible] would have in procuring that Alaska's natural gas 
opportunities for communities for continued export [inaudible] 
is significant and important.
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you, Chairman Murkowski, for the 
question. It was a little difficult to hear everything that you 
were asking me.
    The Chairman. Sorry.
    Mr. Menezes. However, I believe that it is the LNG export 
facility that's pending at FERC. And indeed, we have, we have 
been able to develop facilities around the Gulf of Mexico on 
our East Coast to help export this U.S. LNG to the world who 
wants our natural gas. They want our natural gas because they 
would like to have choices from other countries. They are also 
replacing other types of fuel, whether it's Japan looking for a 
replacement for nuclear and whether it's other countries 
looking to replace their current indigenous fuels, the U.S. LNG 
is a great opportunity for that.
    On the West Coast we have limited LNG export facilities. 
Being able to have an LNG export facility in Alaska speaks for 
itself. Currently, Asia countries have to go from the Gulf of 
Mexico over to Asia. And clearly, to have a strategic LNG 
export facility on the West Coast will help our Asia friends 
and partners and it would serve the U.S. producers of U.S. LNG 
as well.
    The Chairman. Thank you. Thank you.
    Let's go to Senator Manchin, please.
    Senator Manchin. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you, 
Mr. Menezes.
    I recently spoke with Dr. Fatih Birol of the International 
Energy Agency about the impacts of COVID-19 on the energy 
sector and what we need to do to get it back on track. He 
strongly urged the consideration of a once-in-a-generation 
scale aid package to invest in innovative energy technologies 
that will help our energy system become cleaner, cheaper, safer 
and more reliable while creating many new jobs, technologies 
like renewables, storage, energy efficiency, advanced nuclear 
and carbon capture. The American Energy Innovation Act, which 
our Committee spent the last year and a half putting together, 
would invest billions, billions of dollars in those sectors. 
Innovation has historically been a catalyst for economic growth 
and job recreation, and I believe our bill steers the course to 
much needed investments in a strong and globally competitive 
economy.
    So my question would be, DOE is in the business of 
innovation. Do you agree with Dr. Birol that energy innovation 
should be a critical part of any stimulus plans?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you, Ranking Member Manchin, for that 
question.
    Yes, absolutely. It is innovation that will drive the 
breakthrough technologies that we all need to be able to meet 
all of our goals as we go forward.
    Senator Manchin. Have you had a chance to look at the 
energy bill that we passed? What are your feelings on that bill 
and do you believe that it hits the right mark on things we 
were trying to do in a balanced way?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question.
    As you know we're continuing to look at that piece of 
legislation. We, of course, stand ready to work with you and 
offer some technical advice, if necessary, on that. However, a 
reading of that legislation clearly points that the Committee 
understands what's necessary to set the stage for a very 
dynamic energy policy of the future and it includes the new 
industries, for example, and it includes training for the 
workforce, which is very important because we're moving on now 
from things like, it used to be ordinary computer science and 
now it's artificial intelligence.
    It captures, you know, the key industries, such as 
cybersecurity, critical minerals, smart manufacturing. It's a 
looking-forward bill. We're continuing to review it, but we 
look forward to working with you, your staff and members of the 
Committee as we go forward.
    Senator Manchin. I am also very proud the national labs 
have been able to leverage many of their capabilities to aid 
the nation in response to the Coronavirus, and I am pleased 
that we were able to secure $99.5 million in the CARES Act for 
these purposes. So can you update us on the DOE's COVID 
response efforts using the tremendous national labs' 
capabilities?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question.
    You know, immediately after the COVID virus was identified, 
our national labs went to work using the high-performance 
computing abilities it did. And in relatively short order, it 
identified the protein structure of this virus and put it out 
into the medical and research communities so that they could 
begin to develop vaccines and therapeutics. It also used 
artificial intelligence and its high-performing computers to 
also go through the several hundred of different compounds that 
were potentially able to be used to develop vaccines and 
therapeutics. So we were able to reduce that number down to a 
manageable number, and we put that out into the medical and 
research community.
    We also created, what we're calling, what we call the 
National Virtual Biotechnology Lab. This is, all 17 of our labs 
participate in this and the idea here is that we're making our 
user facilities available to those that are doing research on 
this and that includes, you know, our light and neuron 
facilities as well as nanotechnologies. I mentioned the high-
performance computing, but also don't forget our advanced 
manufacturing in the 3D printing, the genomic sequencing, the 
molecular structure determination that I had made and we're 
moving to create devices to break through the supply chain 
problems that you've all been reading about. And of course, 
we're beginning to offer testing facilities for sampling.
    Senator Manchin. I have one final question, very quickly. 
The oil markets have hit historic lows over the last few months 
including even reaching negative oil prices, which I have never 
heard in my lifetime, for the first time in history. Although 
prices have come back up a bit, to about the $30 range, they 
are still at record lows. That means the great prices at the 
pump for you and me, but it could lead to some negative 
consequences like bankruptcies, even more job losses and 
international instability among developing countries.
    So I am aware of DOE's interest in using the Strategic 
Petroleum Reserve to relieve some of the pressure on the 
industry during this time of depressed demand, but what other 
tools does DOE have to respond to the global market instability 
and are you concerned about the stability of some developing 
oil-producing nations and, if so, what do you think that we can 
do in Congress or should we do anything?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question.
    Indeed, it is an incredibly trying time. We talked about 
the demand disruption caused by COVID-19 but we must remember 
that preceding COVID-19 there were actions by Saudi Arabia and 
Russia in which they decided, you know, to increase supply and 
Saudi Arabia to cut prices to such predatory pricing levels it 
would be illegal in this country to do so. But that double 
whammy really hit the U.S. producers who had come forward in 
the past several years, really to meet the demand, due to our 
economic revitalization. These are U.S. producers that 
primarily were unconventional shale plays, but they were the 
ones who came forward to make America the number one producer 
of oil and natural gas.
    So where we were, the Department was able to play a role is 
we were able to support the President in his conversations with 
OPEC. So the first time in history the U.S. was able to dictate 
to OPEC countries to get together and to control their supply 
and, frankly, talk to Saudi Arabia about reestablishing the 
prices. All of that helped. The point I'm making is that 
without the policies and the technologies that were in place to 
put the U.S. in that position, we would never have been able to 
bring that to bear against the OPEC countries.
    So on a going-forward basis, we need to make sure that we 
continue to lead the world in being able to be the leading 
producer of oil and natural gas when necessary. Other countries 
then will look to us for leadership and therein, I think, we 
would play a strong role in determining the pricing going 
forward.
    Senator Manchin. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman.
    Thank you, Mr. Menezes.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Manchin.
    Let's go to Senator Barrasso, please.
    Senator Barrasso. Well, thank you very much, Madam 
Chairman, for holding this meeting. Thank you also, Ranking 
Member Manchin. I appreciate and congratulate you on the 
nomination to this high and important position. Thanks to 
Senator Cassidy for introducing you and for your background in 
Louisiana. The current Secretary is from Louisiana as well and 
a fine man, and we appreciate the job that he is doing. So we 
are looking forward to having you confirmed for this position 
as well.
    You know, in April, the Department of Energy released the 
Administration's plan to reinvigorate the nuclear fuel supply 
chain. The report clearly states that Russia has weaponized its 
energy supplies to advance their strategic interests. This 
includes the uranium that we use to power our homes and our 
businesses through nuclear power plants, 20 percent of the 
electricity in the United States.
    As a result of the market manipulation, American uranium 
production is at its lowest levels in 70 years, and I believe 
we cannot really tolerate Russia's behavior in this. The 
Commerce Department is currently negotiating uranium import 
limits with the Russian Federation, and today I am sending a 
letter supporting the Commerce Department's efforts to extend 
and reduce how much Russian fuel is used in America's nuclear 
reactors.
    So, Mr. Menezes, do you support decreasing America's 
reliance on Russian uranium in order to protect our energy and 
national security interests?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question, Senator.
    Yes, as you pointed out, you know, the--America is on the 
brink of losing its ability to produce, you know, its nuclear 
fuel and producing our own uranium. The President's leadership 
on this, I think you had mentioned it, the Department of 
Commerce had received the petition. The President established 
the workforce. We met over quite a period of time, but it did 
result in the release of the strategy to restore America's 
leadership. And that will allow us to put in place what's 
necessary for us to reestablish our own ability to produce the 
uranium that we need for, to both serve the nuclear deterrent 
that we have, our Navy propulsion as well as our civilian 
fleet. So as, umm--and it's important that we can do it here.
    So it's a comprehensive program. The answer to that is yes. 
But we're also in the business now of setting up what we can do 
in this country to ensure that we have the mining capability, 
the conversion, the enrichment and the fabrication. These are 
things that we need to ensure that we can provide the uranium 
and the nuclear fuel that we need for both our domestic and our 
security purposes.
    Senator Barrasso. Well, I appreciate it. It is very 
important to me and to the nation's security. You know, for 
Fiscal Year 2021 your budget request from the Department of 
Energy proposes to establish a uranium reserve to preserve our 
nation's domestic nuclear fuel supply. The proposal in the 
budget comes more than two years after U.S. uranium miners 
petitioned the Commerce Department for assistance. The American 
uranium production in 2019 was about 90 percent less than the 
previous year. We can't afford another year of inaction.
    Given this urgent need to salvage this critical industry, 
will the Department identify immediate funding to establish 
this uranium reserve this year?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for that question.
    You know, establishing the reserve, I mean, is a key 
priority for our Office of Nuclear Energy. And so, we have put 
in place programs that will feed into the establishment of that 
Strategic Uranium Reserve. We're happy to do so. It's been a 
long time coming, and we look forward to working with you and 
the appropriators to ensure that we get the requested amount 
that we need to make sure that we can have this going forward 
into the future.
    Senator Barrasso. In 2018, several colleagues and I led 
successful efforts, bipartisan, to expand and extend the 45Q 
tax credit for carbon capture, for utilization, for storage, 
all related to carbon dioxide. As you are aware, we have been 
waiting for more than two years for the IRS to issue more 
detailed guidance to get these projects started. This was 
raised yesterday in a lunch with the President and a number of 
members of the United States Senate.
    The Department of Energy has supported the IRS as it 
developed the proposed rulemaking. I appreciate that support. I 
continue to urge the IRS to release the rulemaking as soon as 
possible. We took it to the President yesterday.
    Can you talk about the importance of large-scale carbon 
capture, utilization and storage for the United States?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you, Senator.
    And you are correct. This has been a top priority of our 
Department to work with Treasury and the IRS to try to get 
these rules to follow up on Congress enacting 45Q. The reason 
that Congress extended the tax benefits, the tax credits for 
45Q for carbon capture and utilization security technologies, 
is that we can create an economic incentive to take action now 
to drive down the cost of carbon capture technologies, put them 
on existing units to help eliminate some of the carbon 
emissions that we have. We have facilities, whether it's power 
generation, whether it's manufacturing, whether it's 
refineries, we have industries that can benefit from this 45Q.
    So, as you had mentioned, Secretary Perry sent two letters. 
Secretary Brouillette has weighed in with Secretary Mnuchin and 
others. I have had many calls with the IRS in the efforts to 
try to get this out. We have some good news to believe that 
it's going to be forthcoming, but when everybody on the 
Committee to fully appreciate what is available here. There is 
capital out there, ready, to drive down the cost of this 
technology and put it on existing and new facilities, and this 
will go a long way for us to maintaining our leading role in 
reducing emissions in the United States.
    Senator Barrasso. Thank you. Congratulations.
    Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Barrasso.
    Let's turn now to Senator Cantwell.
    Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to 
the Ranking Member. Under Secretary Menezes, it is good to see 
you again and thank you for your work. It was good to be with 
you in the Tri-Cities last summer at the PNNL, Pacific 
Northwest National Laboratories, event. And so, thank you for 
participating in that.
    One of the things the community has brought up, the 
Hanford, larger community, obviously, we are always fighting to 
make sure that we get the appropriate amount in the budget and 
Administration to recognize that Hanford can never be cleaned 
up on the cheap. So, getting that done and recognized is a 
long-time process with every administration. But now, as we 
face this pandemic and the economic impacts of that, just like 
the previous recession, people have suggested maybe we use this 
opportunity to create a higher investment and quicker reaching 
of milestones at Hanford. I think last time the Budget Recovery 
Act had $6 billion in it for an environmental management 
program, and I think $2 billion extra went to the Tri-Cities, 
to the Hanford cleanup.
    Is that an idea that we should be looking at? How will it 
help us meet the Tri-Party Agreement? And what else could it 
help us do if we looked at that kind of an economic investment?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you, Senator, for that question 
and let me, you know, make the commitment to you that we will 
do everything that we can to meet our legal and moral 
obligations to cleanup those sites, to your constituents in 
Eastern Washington. And we also pledge to maintain the great 
relationship that we have established with the state and with 
the union and with the workers there.
    You make an excellent point. A trip out to Hanford is one 
that would make any American proud to see, both what it 
accomplished when we needed it during World War II and yet, 
what it has become today. The challenges are many, but when you 
go out there and you see the process--the progress that has 
been made and the people, you know, out there, you realize that 
we have an opportunity here to build on the successes that we 
can. I was talking to the site manager yesterday and he said, 
we have developed this concept of a virtuous cycle and that is 
progress, when you can demonstrate that you can make progress 
at these very difficult cleanup challenges, that enables an 
advocacy to continue to tell the story and you can then get the 
resources that you need to continue the progress. And I am 
proud to say that, particularly under Secretary Dabbar's 
leadership, we have been making tremendous progress at Hanford. 
We're on target for DFLAW and we're really excited about that 
and I think that we've, you know, did some, have really 
accomplished things with K Basin, with the burial grounds and 
with shoring up the PUREX tunnels.
    But the short answer is, again, yes. That would support you 
can demonstrate progress if you can demonstrate the need, and I 
think it is out there at Hanford. Then you can put together a 
serious attempt to see what resources are needed.
    Senator Cantwell. Well, I like that answer. So thank you 
for that.
    I think it is worth considering and continuing to remind 
people this is an economic investment, but it is an obligation 
and we need to accomplish both of those tasks, make the 
investment and get Hanford cleaned up.
    I wanted, in my few minutes left here, to ask you about the 
Department's assurance to the workforce that we will establish 
the right kind of safety measures at the Hanford site to 
address the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Mr. Menezes. Yes, thank you for that question.
    Yes, I would like to reassure all the workers at Hanford 
that we are going to have adequate safety measures, because 
their safety and health are really our number one priority 
there. As you are aware, we are moving to reopen some of the 
facilities, but we are being careful to ensure that we meet the 
gating criteria at each of the facilities. So it will be data-
driven and that data will be, you know, the downward trend on 
the testings of any cases, whether it's positive cases of COVID 
or influenza-like symptoms. It's also being driven to ensure 
that they have sufficient medical supplies and needs there by 
the local health officials there. It's also being driven by the 
fact that the facilities that you open have to be able to 
accommodate the social distancing requirements. Of course, it's 
also informed by the Governor's decisions and the locally-
elected officials as well.
    So you have our pledge that we will do that. We will do it 
in a measured way, and we would do it as the gating criteria 
allow us to do.
    Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cantwell.
    Let's go to Senator Risch.
    Senator Risch. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Thank you for 
holding the hearing.
    Mr. Menezes, first of all, thank you for your willingness 
to serve. I know you have been actively involved in the 
Department's efforts to develop nuclear hybrid energy systems 
and you are probably, hopefully, you are aware of the bill that 
Senator Manchin and I have co-authored that authorizes an 
Integrated Energy Systems Program at the DOE that will improve 
the grid resiliency and the long-term competitiveness of the 
nuclear industry.
    Could you give us your thoughts and guidance as we move 
forward on these enterprises?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you very much for that question.
    And indeed, I was delighted to read the Integrated Energy 
Systems bill. As you may be aware, a couple of years ago over 
at the Department and working with the leaders in the White 
House, we decided to bring together our three applied national 
laboratories, INL, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the 
Idaho National Lab and yeah, and NETL, I'm sorry, the National 
Energy Technology Laboratory. And in doing so we wanted to see 
how it is that we could integrate these hybrid systems. What is 
it that each lab brought to bring into an integrated, you know, 
modern grid system?
    It needed to be flexible. It needed to have different 
fuels. It needed to be able to take advantage of a lot of the 
energy that is created. As you know, whenever you, you know, 
might have different forms of generation you can create thermal 
heat. That thermal heat can be used to for maybe, for 
electrolysis to create hydrogen, different fuels, new products, 
new technologies. And so, it was a comprehensive approach. The 
three labs got together and they, we had several meetings on 
this and we laid out, really, if you had an opportunity to 
really collaborate in a comprehensive way on cross-cutting 
technologies what can you come up with and it had many of the 
similarities that are incorporated in your bill.
    So we're excited to see that. I will say that the 
Administration has not taken a position on the bill, and we are 
prepared to continue to offer technical advice on them. But as 
you say, it looks very familiar to what the minds at those 
three applied labs came together and identified as lines of 
effort that we can go forward to really try to take advantage 
of what all these three labs bring together in our energy 
systems.
    Senator Risch. Well, thank you very much for that.
    I think that your vision in that regard is to be greatly 
commended as the world moves over the next decades and 
centuries to conversion to mostly nuclear energy which it has 
to unless there is something that is out there that we human 
beings have not heard about yet that can create energy. So 
thank you for that.
    Changing gears for just a second, you know, at one time, of 
course, the United States had the sole position on nuclear 
energy. Indeed, at the Idaho National Laboratory, in my state, 
the first reactor was built. We still have the first three 
light bulbs that were lit by nuclear energy. We built about 52 
reactors there. Things have slowed down, obviously, in the 
United States. Our nuclear fleet of 90+ sites are actually 
being reduced while most of the world is actually going the 
other way. There are 50 nuclear reactors under construction 
today and every time a country decides they are going to go 
that direction, which all countries will eventually, there are 
a lot of bidders there. China is there. Russia is there. France 
is there. We are there.
    Give us your thoughts on how we can continue to compete, 
actually improve our competitiveness as we compete on the world 
stage to build these reactors. We all know that our interests 
are broader than our competitors. We use what is called the 
Gold Standard and are very interested in seeing there is 
nonproliferation. Some of our competitors have no interest in 
that whatsoever. That gives them a cost advantage sometimes. 
Give me your thoughts on that, if you would, please.
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for the question, Senator, and happy 
to do so. You know, nuclear power is an important industry, not 
only for our current civilian nuclear fleet but also, it's 
important that we maintain the global leadership in the 
technology that goes along with building the current fleet and 
building, importantly, the next generation fleet.
    Now why is that? We know how expensive it is, but why is it 
that we should seriously look at this? The fact of the matter 
is that we have benefited from the fact that other countries 
have always looked to the U.S. to have the best nuclear 
technology. We had the best--we had the highest safety 
standards and health standards and, indeed, they wanted to use 
our technology. And so, the way that the global nuclear fleet 
generally developed was that they would enter into a 123 
agreement. Now that's under the Atomic Energy Act, which 
requires that countries that use U.S. technology agree for 
nonproliferation and non-enrichment purposes. And as you had 
mentioned, we had the Gold Standard in place in some places.
    We now find ourselves in competition with other countries 
on nuclear technology--China, Russia, the other countries you 
said. They are going in and to the countries, for example, in 
the Middle East, now that we are economic competitors of the 
Middle Eastern OPEC countries, they are turning to nuclear 
rather than oil or natural gas for the electricity generation 
because they want to preserve their oil and natural gas for 
export, for their revenues. Thus, they are talking, we are 
actually competing with China, Russia, for the opportunity to 
develop and build the nuclear facilities in these other 
countries.
    Now it's important to note that when you do this you really 
are developing a relationship with that country over 40 to 100 
years because it's the next generation technology. It's the 
regulatory systems. It's educating them. It's keeping their 
expertise. It's making sure that they understand the 
technology, they can operate the plants and it's all of this. 
And typically, it would involve a relicensing process.
    So we, as Americans, should care greatly that we continue 
to develop that expertise. When you look at what the Department 
is doing, we're supporting the development of future technology 
by investing in the next technology. We think the small, 
modular reactor is there. Congress has approved advanced test 
reactors so that we can look at different fuels in the fuel 
cycles. And indeed, Congress has directed us to establish and 
fund and build and design a versatile test reactor, all of 
which goes to our allowing the U.S. to continue its leadership 
and that will serve us well. Indeed, it will serve the world 
well so that other countries will not use other countries that 
don't share our value, their technologies. These other 
countries will not require them to have Gold Standards in place 
for nonproliferation and non-enrichment.
    Senator Risch. Well said. Thank you much.
    Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Risch. Mr. Menezes, thank 
you for outlining that. It was good to see last week the 
Department announcing the launch of the Advanced Reactor 
Demonstration Program. We have been working on our NELA bill 
for some time. So we look forward to working with you on that.
    Let's turn to Senator Heinrich, please.
    Senator Heinrich. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Mr. Menezes, do I understand it to be correct that in your 
existing position you have not had a chance to visit the DOE 
facilities in New Mexico at this point?
    Mr. Menezes. I have not. I did have a trip planned; 
however, I was unable to make it out to New Mexico.
    Senator Heinrich. Well, I would be remiss if I did not say 
as things settle out and obviously people are working at Los 
Alamos, are working at Sandia and we are testing extensively 
that workforce. So I would be remiss if I did not invite you to 
come see those facilities and/or WIPP when things become safe 
to do so.
    Mr. Menezes. I would look forward to that opportunity.
    Senator Heinrich. One of the things that I am a little 
frustrated by, and I have talked to the Secretary about this, 
maybe a little frustrated, would be a dramatic understatement, 
is I think it is abundantly clear that the FY21 budget request 
for cleanup work at Los Alamos is just not at an acceptable 
level. There is simply no valid justification for a cut of 
nearly 50 percent. Have you looked at the budget request for 
environmental cleanup work at Los Alamos, and can you explain 
how the planned scope of work at Los Alamos can be executed 
with half of the resources?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for the question.
    First, let me assure you that we remain committed to 
cleaning up the Los Alamos waste sites and while I did not have 
a role in establishing, you know, the budget, I've been briefed 
on it in preparation for the hearing. So I know, generally, 
that we were in a situation where we were spending some 
carryover funds, if you will and then we made a request and we 
received money in the Fiscal Year 2020 which we will also be 
able to spend and then we've made a subsequent----
    Senator Heinrich. Let's drill down a little bit on this 
because between my staff and the Department there continues to 
be a lack of clarity about just how much, if any, prior year 
carryover funding is going to be available to sustain that work 
next fiscal year. So can you provide me, for the record, the 
current amount of available carryover and the amount expected 
carryover into FY21 so we can figure out exactly where we 
stand?
    Mr. Menezes. I'm happy to do that.
    Senator Heinrich. Great, thank you.
    Senator Heinrich. I want to complement Secretary 
Brouillette. I have spent a lot of time on the phone with him 
as a result of this emerging crisis, working through hiccups 
in, sort of, the ability to be nimble in the face of a crisis 
at our national labs, in particular. The labs are doing 
amazing, amazing work. Some of it at the global level, some of 
it very focused on things like supply chain issues and 
establishing the safe practices for times when we were looking 
at the necessity to reuse PPE and issues like that. But there 
have definitely been hiccups along the way where the labs just 
were not able to cut through some of the red tape.
    Do you have ideas for how to streamline and remove the 
barriers that allow us to maximize the laboratories leaning in 
to be the problem solvers for national security issues ranging 
from the nuclear to the novel Coronavirus?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question.
    And indeed, you did describe a situation where the labs are 
both leading the world in many ways to try to find, to combat 
COVID-19, and I know that you have been in contact with 
Secretary Brouillette. Indeed, he and I have had multiple 
conversations about that. You know, I believe the answer is 
what you see in the way Secretary Brouillette has been handling 
your responses. He acts. We have a good relationship with the 
lab. We know the management. We know the leadership over there 
and we're able to hopefully work with the Governor, with your 
office, so that we can get to yes and we can get to yes in a 
way that, you know, would not rely on the ways we have done in 
the past.
    Now one thing that we have all learned during this COVID-19 
crisis is that we cannot continue to do business as usual.
    Senator Heinrich. Yes. These labs are such powerful weapons 
in this fight, and I just want to see them be utilized to the 
fullest because that is what the workers there want to do as 
well. They are bringing solutions forward every single day, and 
we want to use those solutions.
    I am out of time. But I will let you know I am going to 
introduce for the record, I have been very frustrated with the 
lack of meeting statutory deadlines when it comes to energy 
efficiency standards at DOE and so, that is a question that I 
will have you respond to for the record.
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you, that has been a high priority of 
mine, and I look forward to providing you answers to that.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Heinrich.
    Let's go to Senator Lee.
    Senator Lee. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, sir, 
for joining us today and for your willingness to serve.
    I would like to ask you a question about the Renewable 
Fuels Standard (RFS) and, specifically, how you plan to 
exercise the Department of Energy's crucial role in the small 
refinery exemptions during your tenure as Deputy Secretary. 
During your tenure as Deputy Secretary for the Department of 
Energy, are you willing to consider the past year applications 
and would you be willing to use the post-2017 Sinclair decision 
scoring for compliance years that fall before the court's 
decision date?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question.
    As you know we take our obligations under the RFS to be, 
serve in a consulting role with EPA, very seriously. The EPA 
sends us the small refinery exemption applications and we 
diligently review them, and we make determinations on 
eligibility regarding disproportionate economic impact on the 
small refineries. And I want to point out to members of the 
Committee that these are small refineries that, you know, that 
are entitled to make the application on the applications.
    I'll be perfectly honest, having been part of some of the 
drafting that was going on in EPAct of 2005 when RFS was put in 
place and drafting some of the waiver requirements, it was 
somewhat of a surprise to see the Tenth Circuit decision, to be 
honest, where they interpreted, you know, certain phrases of 
``at any time'' to include that you had to have for every year 
since 2011, you had to have requested an exemptive, an 
exemption. I think, I just, I think that has created a problem 
with what EPA is going to do.
    I can assure you that, as EPA sends over these gap filings, 
if you will to be consistent with the Tenth Circuit decision, 
we will review them expeditiously and we will return them as 
promptly as we can to the EPA with our determinations as we 
have done in the past.
    Senator Lee. Thank you. I appreciate that, and I appreciate 
your willingness to work as expeditiously as you can on it. It 
is an important issue.
    My Governor, Utah Governor Gary Herbert, along with several 
other governors, recently sent a letter to the EPA 
Administrator asking him to invoke Paragraph Seven of the Act, 
allowing for the Administrator, in consultation with the 
Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy, to ``waive the 
requirements of the mandate in whole or in part based on a 
determination by the Administrator that the implementation of 
the requirement would severely harm the economy of the state or 
region or the United States.''
    So how engaged has the Department of Energy been on this 
particular issue so far, and can you give me some estimate, 
some forecast as to when we might be likely to see a response 
on this subject?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, the Department of Energy, along with, 
you know, the Department of Agriculture has been engaged on the 
RFS issues throughout this entire Administration. It's been an 
important issue for President Trump. He wants to make sure that 
he can take care of both, you know, the refiners in the United 
States as well as, you know, the ethanol producers. So it's 
been a key priority for the Administration on this. Our role in 
the RVO waiver is, again, consultative along with the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, unlike the SRE where it's the 
Department of Energy in the consultative role.
    However, we will, I'm sure, when EPA begins to act on it, 
we will provide our assistance in evaluating the application. I 
will say that it's a little bit different from the 
disproportionate hardship impact on a small refiner. This is a 
severe economic harm to a state or to a region or to the 
economy.
    Senator Lee. Speaking of differences, how does the research 
and development conducted by the Department of Energy compare 
to or differ from the R&D conducted by a private company?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, the biggest difference is that the role 
of the Department is one, for basic research to do on 
technologies that the private sector would not either have the 
resources or the willingness to go on. They would not have the 
capacity that we have to take the technological risk. They will 
invest in things that might improve their products or to be a 
breakthrough product. The government's role is to see what 
breakthrough technology might result in new products and that's 
the role that we see the government should play in R&D. It's 
more basic R&D at the early levels of the technology readiness 
levels as opposed to doing a lot of research at maybe, 
technology ready level nine where it's almost commercially 
available. That would not necessarily be a role that we see.
    However, it's always important to ensure that the 
technologies that we develop can actually be commercially 
deployed at some point. Thus, we established the Office of 
Technology Transitions to allow that to take place. We do serve 
a role as to try to push this technology that was developed 
through research dollars at the Department and through public-
private partnerships, but to get it out into the, into industry 
and into the commercial world so it can be deployed.
    Senator Lee. Thank you very much.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Lee.
    Let's turn to Senator Hirono.
    Senator Hirono. Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome, Mr. 
Menezes.
    I ask every nominee who comes before any of the committees 
on which I sit the following initial questions.
    Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted 
requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical 
harassment or assault of a sexual nature?
    Mr. Menezes. I have not.
    Senator Hirono. Have you ever faced discipline or entered 
into a settlement related to this kind of conduct?
    Mr. Menezes. I have not.
    Senator Hirono. Last week the American Council on Renewable 
Energy (ACORE) and others released a study estimating that 
600,000 workers in the clean energy industries had lost their 
jobs in March and April, an 18 percent unemployment rate. In 
Hawaii the solar industry is estimating a 36 percent decline in 
jobs. Hawaii has set a goal of leading this country toward 100 
percent renewable power by 2045, a transformation that will 
require thousands of new workers and well-paying jobs like 
installing energy efficient equipment, building renewable power 
sources and energy storage systems in homes and businesses and 
building clean vehicles and recharging networks.
    To support this, I have worked with the Chair, the Ranking 
Member and Senator Cantwell on expanding DOE's workforce 
development programs and the American Energy and Innovation Act 
the Senate considered in March, and I hope we can pass those 
workforce development improvements into law soon.
    Question, in the meantime, what are you going to do to lead 
DOE in helping to restart the clean energy sector and train 
students and unemployed people to be ready to take jobs in 
clean energy?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for that question, Senator. Allow me 
to tell you what we have been doing of late. I mean, during the 
COVID-19, for example, and this is what I know ACORE was, an 
article related to it, is that the Secretary and I basically 
ordered the Department, all departments, to look across, 
including EERE, our Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy 
Office, to see if we could forebear any of the cost share 
payments, for example, on some of the renewable projects that 
we fund and go out. Maybe we can negotiate with them on the 
cost share, perhaps push milestones out or timetables out.
    We've also worked with the Loan Program Office to see if 
they can also give some kind of forbearance, if necessary, on a 
needs basis, of those in the Loan Program Office. But we also 
asked the Loan Program Office to go out and solicit those that 
might be interested in making applications with the Department 
that we could consider. So we were taking that, we were taking 
that role.
    Now, during COVID-19, since March, we have issued several 
FOAs. We have been pushing them out in rapid fashion. We have 
issued, I think, three solar FOAs. These are Funding 
Opportunity Announcements----
    Senator Hirono. So, excuse me. I am running out of time.
    It sounds as though you are doing quite a few things, and I 
would like to have your commitment that you will continue to 
support the renewable energy sector and not just put a lot of 
focus in supporting the fossil fuel side of the energy 
equation.
    Mr. Menezes. Oh, you absolutely have our commitment. I 
think our record speaks for itself on renewables. Thank you.
    Senator Hirono. Good.
    The United States has historically acknowledged a duty of 
individuals who serve the United States to report misconduct, 
fraud and violations of law. Do you acknowledge the 
contributions of whistleblowers and inspectors general to 
combat abuse, fraud and violations of law and to help safeguard 
the national security of the United States?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for that question.
    Yes, we absolutely believe that there's a----
    Senator Hirono. That is all I need to know.
    [Laughter.]
    Running out of time.
    So if you are confirmed as Deputy Secretary, will you 
commit to protecting whistleblowers within the Department from 
retaliation as required by the Whistleblower Protection Act?
    Mr. Menezes. We will certainly comply with the law.
    Senator Hirono. Under what circumstances do you think it is 
appropriate for the President to fire an Inspector General in 
the Department? Do you think that any such firing should be for 
cause?
    Mr. Menezes. Again, we will follow the law at the 
Department.
    Senator Hirono. Well, the law says the President can do 
that. I think the law also says that there should be 
justification. So I would expect that that law would be 
followed.
    I do have one more question, but I will submit it for the 
record, Madam Chair, because I have run out of time. Thank you.
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hirono.
    Let's turn now to Senator Cassidy, thank you.
    Senator Cassidy. Mr. Menezes, thank you again for being 
here. Again, Louisiana is very proud to have two folks at the 
top of the office. But you also know that Louisiana has been 
one of the states hardest hit by both the demand destruction 
for oil and to a lesser extent for natural gas and, as a former 
roustabout, you understand the implications this has for a 
family's livelihood. So as I mentioned in my remarks, with this 
job comes the kind of responsibility, if you will, to get the 
energy economy going back to work. Now some of that is just 
related to how do we get the economy going again, but to what 
degree do you feel that expanding storage or other options may 
help preserve some of these energy paying jobs that families 
depend upon?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for that question.
    You know, we're all in this together. And so, I think all 
departments have an obligation to get U.S. workers back to work 
in whatever way they can. At the Department we've identified 
some of the authorities that we have whereas we sought to and 
have a request before Congress to provide the resources that we 
can purchase U.S.-produced oil, for example, to fill the SPRO. 
On the SPRO, it's interesting to note, Congress gave us 
authority for one billion barrels of SPRO capacity. We 
currently have physical capacity total of 713. Congress decided 
to give us additional resources so we could build that out to 
have additional storage so that we can add the capability of 
putting U.S.-produced oil, when necessary, into storage. That's 
one thing that can be jobs.
    Much of this new storage, of course, would require some 
investment. So that, too, would create U.S. jobs. We would have 
the benefit of employing U.S. workers as well as providing 
future storage capacity going forward. That's one thing to 
consider.
    The other thing, of course, is that, as Chairman Murkowski 
pointed out, LNG facilities continue to make their way through 
the regulatory process. We, too, commit to do our review on 
that so that we can, where it's economically feasible to do so, 
have the facilities in place. That, too, will be U.S. jobs.
    So we're committed in many ways. You heard what I was 
saying to Senator Hirono. We have been pushing the funding 
opportunities out. These result in jobs and projects. And so, 
we're willing to do whatever we can with the authorities that 
we have and the resources that we have.
    Senator Cassidy. Now you mentioned the SPRO and the 
increased storage space, obviously, caverns. Will the 
Department be issuing any additional notices to lease further 
SPRO cavern space?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, at this point we have been receiving 
several requests to consider additional places for storage and 
all of those places are being studied, they're being looked at 
and as I had mentioned, in each instance, it's likely to take 
some investment. We'll have to do some, you know, structural 
improvements there. It won't be a near-term solution to our 
current storage requirements or needs, but it's certainly worth 
an investment that in the longer-term, we can make these 
investments, get Americans back to work and to create 
additional storage in the future.
    Senator Cassidy. So then, let me ask you kind of a related 
question. Of the storage space which you currently have, will 
you be leasing any more of this space to producers?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, we currently have an RFP out for the 
purchase of up to a million barrels, and that's the purchase of 
a million barrels. And we are also, as you are probably aware, 
we had completed an RFP for leasing the space. We had 23 
million barrels, so of the 77 million, we had 23 out. We'll 
probably buy another million. So, you can see that we'll 
probably have 53 or so million barrels still available, and 
we'll be looking at our options going forward.
    Senator Cassidy. Okay.
    We had spoken earlier about carbon capture and 
sequestration projects, and obviously there is a lot of 
ancillary infrastructure associated with that. Can you describe 
some of the regulatory challenges in building carbon dioxide 
pipelines and how the Federal Government can help reduce that 
burden for that associated infrastructure?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question and the 
opportunity to elaborate on that. I mean, the CO2 
pipelines are necessary, you know, for either the transporting 
of CO2 that's captured off an existing plant, 
whether it's coal or natural gas or a refinery, and it would go 
to either enhanced oil recovery or permanent geologic 
sequestration. It needs that pipeline.
    However, pipelines are like all pipelines and, that is, in 
this country while you may have a certificate of need, you may 
have certain permits, it is very difficult in some areas of the 
country to be able to get the regulatory approvals that you 
need. So I think this is something that all states should look 
at whenever they're looking at seeing what pipelines serve what 
purpose. It's our belief that the states should be using their 
delegated authority under federal law to actually get to yes 
and not to be an obstruction to necessary pipelines.
    Senator Cassidy. Music to my ears.
    Madam Chair, I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cassidy.
    Let's turn to Senator King. [Pause.] Senator King, you have 
your mute button on. Go ahead and push that----
    Senator King. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not only on the 
clock with the Committee, but my phone just told me my battery 
is about to run out so I am going to try to be very succinct 
here.
    Mr. Menezes, first I want to thank you for your service 
thus far. You have done a great job at the Department, and I 
think you have been a real asset. You mentioned in a speech 
earlier this month about a whole list of really significant 
accomplishments. One of the things you mentioned was the 
relationship between the national labs and our universities, 
and I want to bring one to your attention. Oak Ridge and the 
University of Maine have really established a wonderful hub and 
spoke relationship on advanced manufacturing. The largest 3D 
printer in the world is at the University of Maine. In fact, 
last spring I was there and they printed a boat, if you could 
believe it. But I want to commend that project to you and the 
whole concept. I hope that is something that you can pursue and 
emphasize in your work with the universities and with the 
national labs. We would love to have you come to the University 
of Maine and see that 3D printer.
    Mr. Menezes. I'd love to do that. I'd love to take you up 
on that, and I note that what you mentioned also was awarded 
three Guinness Book of World Records for the largest 3D printed 
device. So congratulations on that, and we look forward to 
going up there and actually seeing them.
    Senator King. Well, thank you and I hope, we would love to 
see this relationship memorialized in a more permanent program, 
perhaps in next year's budget. So, if you could keep that in 
mind. Lamar, Senator Alexander, and I visited Oak Ridge 
together with a delegation from Maine. As you know, the 
national labs are absolute gems.
    Let me turn to another specific issue. One of the most 
important areas of research, and you emphasized it and having 
emphasized it, is in energy storage, not the oil kind, but the 
electricity kind. I know you are funding a lot of research in 
that area. I think that is one of the most important things you 
can do. Something that is worrying me about that, however, is 
the supply chain of the minerals and the materials that are 
necessary. I hope that that can be part of the research and 
part of the discussion that is taking place, because we can 
have the great technology, but if we are dependent on a country 
that may even be an adversary for critical minerals, that could 
be a real problem and, certainly, energy storage is a place 
where those minerals are used.
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question. You might 
have heard in my opening remark that I had mentioned some of 
the initiatives that we have started here. These are 
initiatives that are comprehensive, cross-cutting and 
collaborative. One of them is the materials initiative. The 
goal there, as you mentioned, it is to diversify the supply to 
create and potentially find substitutes, you know, to drive the 
reuse and recycling of these into, for more efficient use of 
these. It's a collaborative effort over with several of our 
offices and we look forward to working with you on that.
    Senator King. I just want to commend you for the comments 
you made in answer to a prior question about the fundamental 
role that government plays in basic research, how it fills in 
where, in research, where the private sector really, the 
investment doesn't make sense for the private sector, but we 
are providing the underpinning, the basic research that leads 
to the breakthroughs that then the private sector can run with. 
So I just wanted to commend you for that.
    One other quick point, in terms of, I have spent the last 
year working with a national commission on cyber and 
cybersecurity. One of the things that we have--the electric 
grid has worked very hard to maintain the level of their 
cybersecurity. It worries me that we don't have, I don't 
believe, an equivalent level of attention to cybersecurity of 
gas pipeline systems. And in New England, anyway, the gas 
pipeline system is part of the grid because it supplies 50 to 
60 percent of our electricity.
    So I know it is not, it is really more FERC, but I think 
when you are thinking about cybersecurity and you have the new 
office there in the Department of Energy, please pay some 
attention because if we had a cyberattack on one of our gas 
pipeline systems around the entire system, it would be truly 
catastrophic.
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that observation and, I 
believe, question. I will tell you that, you know, Congress 
designated us as the sector-specific agency over the energy 
system, and as a result of that we have regular meetings with 
and established a great working relationship through our CESER 
office with the oil and gas sector-specific commission. So, 
well, I meant, we're also working with FERC on that, but as a--
we work well with our oil and natural gas folks. I think you 
also have to keep PHMSA in mind as well and so together, we 
jointly work with the industry to ensure that they have the 
latest cybersecurity protection, that they're aware of the 
threats. We share these threats frequently with them. We let 
them know when our risk level exceeds the amount on any pieces 
of equipment that might be put on their systems. I think we 
have a good working relationship with them, with the trade 
associations there, and we're going to continue to remain to be 
very vigilant about that because, as you indicated, our energy 
system has become more targeted on cyberattacks and we take 
that very seriously and we're doing what we can to ensure that 
our energy system, including oil and natural gas pipelines, 
remain safe and secure.
    Senator King. Thank you. I like the word vigilant, just 
keep that in mind.
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator King.
    Let's turn to Senator Hoeven, please.
    Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I want to thank 
Secretary Menezes for being here and for the work you have been 
doing in your acting capacity.
    A couple items I am going to follow up on, you have 
commented on, first is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. As you 
are aware, I have legislation, bipartisan in both the Senate 
and the House, that would provide both funding and 
authorization to purchase oil for the Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve. Do you support that legislation and are there any 
other aspects to it that you think should be included?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question, really 
thank you for your leadership on this and your willingness to 
introduce and pursue bipartisan support of this. This bill, 
were it to be enacted, would provide us with the sufficient 
revenues that we needed to be able to purchase oil and put it 
into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from the U.S. producers 
which is what our goal is.
    Senator Hoeven. Also, 45Q, something that you have been 
working on. As you know, I have been working on it as well. 
Please address the importance of getting the rule in place for 
45Q.
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that opportunity and as I 
mentioned before, this is a great opportunity, right now, to 
unleash the capital that can take advantage of these tax 
credits to develop and put in place economical carbon capture 
technologies to capture the carbon, process it and put it in 
either permanent storage or for use for enhanced oil recovery. 
We've been working very diligently, as you know, with the IRS, 
with the Department of Treasury and with OMB to ensure that we 
can get this rule out.
    It's our understanding that it's forthcoming, and we're 
looking forward to that release.
    Senator Hoeven. Do you feel that projects like Project 
Tundra and the PCOR, the partnership relationships that you 
have with institutions of our higher education system like the 
University of North Dakota Energy Environmental Research 
Center, do you think those are important tools for you to 
continue to develop carbon capture and sequestration and do you 
support them?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, we do. Indeed, they are key. They are--
it's a great relationship to be able to have with our 
universities. We are particularly pleased with the one that we 
have been having for years in North Dakota. You had mentioned 
the CCUS, but there's also other technological advances and 
research that can be done there with Project Tundra and with 
the energy and environment research council up there. It's--you 
have unique geologic formations there in North Dakota, for 
example, and I think the work together with that university and 
with that organization resulted in North Dakota being able to 
be at the forefront of the unconventional shale play.
    Senator Hoeven. Are you concerned about early closure of 
critical baseload assets and the impact that it will have on 
reliability and resiliency of the grid and what are some of the 
things you think we can and should do to address it?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for that question.
    Indeed, we are concerned about the premature closing of 
baseload units, whether it's nuclear, whether it's coal, even 
natural gas has been closing, in part because of some of the 
pricing mechanisms that had been in place. Certainly under the 
leadership of Chairman Neil Chatterjee at FERC, he has 
attempted to address some of these inequities, if you will, in 
the market formation in certain ISOs and RTOs around the 
country. And so, we've been working in support of that to get 
policies in place to ensure that the actual cost of providing 
electricity is reflected in the cost and that all types of 
fuels would be treated equally when it comes to pricing.
    Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Secretary Menezes. I appreciate 
your work and look forward to working with you.
    With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hoeven.
    Let's turn to Senator Cortez Masto. You are still muted. 
There you go.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Alright, there we go.
    Thank you, Under Secretary Menezes. First of all, let me 
just say thank you for the conversations that we have had as 
well as the outreach from the Department of Energy that hasn't 
heard--so appreciate it.
    Let me just start with this, because I know this was the 
topic of our conversation when we first spoke. I want to put 
this to bed and give you an opportunity to address a 
conversation that you had on the House side. In response to a 
question during the House Energy Subcommittee, you stated, and 
I quote, ``What we are trying to do is put together a process 
that will give us a path to permanent storage at Yucca 
Mountain.'' So let me ask you, is the Administration pursuing 
Yucca Mountain as a permanent high-level nuclear waste disposal 
site?
    Mr. Menezes. Well, thank you for the question, Senator and 
I, too, appreciate the opportunities to talk to you over the 
last couple of days.
    Let me be very clear about this. The President has been 
very clear on this. The Administration will not be pursuing 
Yucca Mountain as a solution for nuclear waste, and I am fully 
supportive of the President's decision and applaud him for 
taking action when so many others have failed to do so.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
    And can you address interim storage? Does the 
Administration intend to pursue Yucca Mountain as interim 
storage site?
    Mr. Menezes. Yes, so as you are aware in our budgets, in 
the President's budget request, we have requested $27.5 million 
to ensure that we have an interim storage program in place that 
will be a comprehensive approach to look at finding a solution 
and implementing one that is flexible for both interim and 
permanent storage down the road as well as to handle both spent 
nuclear fuel and high level waste. We're going to engage all 
stakeholders and we look forward to working with the 
stakeholders as we go through to put together a comprehensive, 
durable and flexible plan.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
    Let me follow up with that. As you know, I have introduced, 
along with the delegation from Nevada, legislation, the Nuclear 
Waste Informed Consent Act, which would ensure that all 
affected states, including Nevada, local governments and tribal 
communities are given a voice in any deciding process, that 
includes interim storage. I also know that the Chairwoman has 
introduced the Nuclear Waste Administration Act which would 
also establish a consent-based siting process. However, as it 
is written, the proposed Yucca Mountain project prevents Nevada 
from participating in that process and, let me just say this, I 
appreciate that the Chairwoman and the Ranking Member have 
committed to work with Senator Rosen and I to address our 
concerns with the bill.
    But have you had a chance to see those bills, and let me 
ask you this, does the Department intend to work with Congress 
on new legislation to ensure that every state can have a voice 
in the consent-based siting process, including Nevada?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for that question.
    I know that the bills are under review. I, myself, am not 
that familiar with them, but I do promise to look at those 
bills and to offer any technical assistance and the 
Administration has not taken a view, a position, on those 
bills. However, we do know that the solution for nuclear 
storage will rest with Congress and we do pledge to work with 
you as you develop the legislation, we will provide the 
technical assistance as necessary and we will certainly be able 
to work together to accommodate all stakeholders.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Under Secretary Menezes, in Fiscal 
Year 2020 in the Appropriations Act, Congress directed DOE to 
provide the House and Senate with a report within 90 days that 
analyzes the innovative solutions for the disposition of high-
level waste and spent nuclear fuel with priority given to 
technological options that are cost-effective and can be 
implemented in the short-term and that consider stakeholders in 
the siting process. Do you know the current status of this 
report?
    Mr. Menezes. I'm unaware of the updated status but if 
you'll allow me, I will, I will find out and report back to 
you.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
    I have further questions for you. I will submit those for 
the record. Thank you again, and congratulations on your 
nomination.
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto.
    That concludes the first round.
    Mr. Menezes, you have gone through a pretty exhaustive list 
of issues that come before the Department of Energy, everything 
from the innovation that we see at our national labs, I asked 
you about the Arctic focus, you have hit on workforce training, 
COVID-19 response, uranium reserve, cleanup at Hanford, Los 
Alamos, RFS, SPR, cybersecurity, and I think you have responded 
in a very forthright and clearly, clearly, very well-informed 
manner.
    I have one last question, and I understand that Senator 
Manchin has one as well. You and I have had an opportunity to 
talk and visit about the Office of Indian Energy (OIE), and as 
you know, in my state this is an important program for many of 
our remote Alaska native villages. I know that throughout 
Indian Country there is a great deal of interest in having an 
Office of Indian Energy that is robust and can be helpful in a 
way that is meaningful. We have talked about the opportunity 
for the Department to be able to utilize more local experts in 
the work of the Office of Indian Energy to also have better 
working relationships, particularly with our Alaska native 
groups.
    What we have seen is many of the communities have limited 
access to financial resources, some have even been reluctant to 
apply for the OIE grants because of the cost share requirement. 
So it really just puts the grant out of reach for them.
    Just very quickly, your thoughts on what the Department 
could do to open funding opportunities to some of our most 
vulnerable and high-cost energy communities?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for that question, Senator.
    As you know, in our conversations together, our commitment 
is to really have a strong Indian Energy program. I think the 
Director, Kevin Frost, has done a great job. As you are aware, 
we have also made a program policy factor, different from other 
Administrations, that if you were, if you had high energy costs 
you could be, it could be something to consider in granting a 
funding opportunity and also whether or not you were a first-
time applicant or a first-time recipient and under both of 
those scenarios, you know, we were pleased to inform you that 
for the first time we had Alaska, a native win these funding 
opportunities and in the past they never had the opportunity.
    So now that they have them, the question, as you point out, 
and we do share your concerns about the 50/50 cost share. The 
50/50 cost share is for applied funding opportunities, if you 
will, and that does put a burden on the recipient. While we 
have some flexibility in negotiating the 50/50 cost share, we, 
the Secretary and I, have directed the Indian Energy Office to 
look at all applicants and to consider using the Secretary's 
authority to renegotiate those cost share obligations. And so 
we are in the process of doing that right now. It is subject to 
our current available funds, but we have begun that process and 
we're happy to do, to continue it.
    The Chairman. Good, good, I appreciate that response and 
look forward to working with you on not only this initiative 
but on so many of the others that you have raised today. I 
didn't go into my question regarding advanced nuclear. I felt 
that you responded well to Senator Risch when you spoke about 
the future of nuclear here in this country. So I appreciate 
that response as well.
    Let me turn to Senator Manchin for any follow up questions.
    Senator Manchin. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I appreciate 
it.
    First, let me just thank you again, Mark, for being here. 
You have done a great job in answering directly and that is 
what we like. I just have one final follow-up question, if I 
could.
    For over a decade the Department of Energy, the DOE Title 
XVII Loan Program has helped commercialize advanced energy 
technologies all the while maintaining a default rate that is 
lower than most conventional banks and providing over $2 
billion in interest payments to the Treasury. However, there 
are currently billions of dollars in unused loan authority that 
DOE could use to help build the next generation of energy 
infrastructure which, as we look to recover from this economy, 
from the downturn that we have had, it is going to be an 
important tool that we already have in our tool box, if we do 
nothing else which we will.
    On top of that, I understand the Government Accountability 
Office found last year that the Title XVII Loan Program 
obligated only eight percent in Fiscal Year 2018 and only 40 
percent in Fiscal Year 2019. I expressed these concerns to 
Secretary Brouillette at the budget hearing in March, and he 
shared that he initiated a new formal review of the program and 
its requirements. So my question would be, do you have an 
update or can you provide me an update with that formal review 
and share what DOE is doing to ensure that the program will 
obligate its full appropriations?
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you for that question.
    We share your concern about the Loan Program Office having 
resources and yet not being able to get money out the door, so 
to speak, and as we said, we've requested them to do outreach 
on that. One thing to consider is that, you know, the Loan 
Program Office initially included in that Energy Policy Act of 
2005 and then later amended by Congress has several statutory 
requirements to meet before any applicant is qualified to 
receive any funds and that is, you know, it's to lower the 
emissions and the second one is that it's new technologies.
    Now, traditionally these are, if you will, they're 
technical hurdles to meet. And so, what we've done is we have 
asked for a review. We've asked for a review of our regulations 
and our policies to see if there's anything we can do on either 
of those statutory requirements.
    Senator Manchin. If I can interrupt, just one second, Mark, 
if I may.
    When there are so few participants or such little amounts 
of the obligated funds that you could put out the door, 
something happened. Either the way they apply or the amount of 
bureaucracy that might be involved, which is what you are 
looking into, and I applaud you all for that. But, please, 
rapidly do something because something is stopping us from 
being able to engage and use that funding for what it was 
intended. And you said, new technologies, things that can be 
brought forward to the energy market to make it more efficient, 
the grid system, so many things, storage. We are looking at 
storage in West Virginia, because the storage capacity for our 
liquid gas that we get out of our natural gas production would 
be tremendous for manufacturing again too. We have had a hard 
time but we have been notified that we are being considered, 
but that has been a couple years.
    Mr. Menezes. We are looking into it. We've asked our team 
to give us some lists. They have done some. Some are statutory. 
And also----
    Senator Manchin. Tell us what we can do to help you, 
really, tell us, Mark, whatever we can do to help you, I 
guarantee you--the Chairman and I will do all that we can to 
help you.
    Mr. Menezes. Well, after we get the report, we're going to 
share that with OMB and we're going to see if we can come up 
with some recommendations going forward.
    Senator Manchin. Thank you. Thank you again for coming 
today.
    Mr. Menezes. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Manchin.
    Mr. Menezes, thank you. You, as I mentioned, have done a 
good job, a very thorough job and a very competent job as you 
have responded to the questions from all of the members. We 
thank you for that.
    I will just leave with one final note. You mentioned in a 
response to Senator Manchin in his first question that you were 
continuing to work to review the Energy Security Act, our 
energy bill that we hope to be able to move across the finish 
line. We feel that it updates our energy policies in a way that 
is meaningful and necessary and we would look forward to 
working with you to address any of the outstanding matters that 
you may have, but I recognize that with all that we are tasking 
you to do, it always helps when you have updated policies and 
that is what this legislation does after almost a decade of a 
dry spell in not having updated energy reform. So we look 
forward to working on those initiatives with you.
    I want to thank you for being here. I want to thank your 
family for supporting you, not only in your current position, 
but as you have been asked to assume the role of Deputy 
Secretary. I look forward to advancing your nomination to the 
full Senate for confirmation very rapidly, and I would hope 
that you would enjoy the same strong bipartisan level of 
support that you saw back in 2017. I think everything that you 
have shown to the Committee today is just further demonstration 
of the good work that you have done, the trust that the 
Secretary, Secretary Brouillette, has placed in you and 
President Trump as well. So we look forward to moving that. I 
will note that--well, I need to ask unanimous consent that 
letters of support to the hearing record be included. They will 
be so.
    I would also note that we would ask that any questions for 
the record from members be submitted to the Committee by close 
of business tomorrow.
    I would also like to acknowledge as we are closing the work 
of the technical experts, to Darla Ripchensky and her team, but 
all those that have helped us with this hybrid nomination 
hearing today. We are all becoming a little more adept with the 
technology and capacity that we have, but I think it is fair to 
say we couldn't do it without our tech support. So we 
appreciate all that they are doing there.
    With that, if there are no further comments to be had, the 
Committee stands adjourned. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 4:15 p.m. the hearing was adjourned.]

                      APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

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