Suzanimal
03-16-2015, 02:39 PM
For five years, Dan Poneman was the Energy Department’s No. 2 administrator during a time when the agency steered hundreds of millions of dollars to a struggling nuclear company that has won the backing of both the Obama administration and top Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
This month, he’s set to become the company’s president and CEO — a post that will bring him as much as $1.7 million a year.
Poneman’s new job has drawn fire on Capitol Hill since the company announced his hiring March 5, and is prompting watchdog groups to question whether DOE’s revolving-door policies are strong enough. It’s also bringing more unflattering attention to Centrus Energy Corp. — a company that has struggled to make a living from enriching uranium for the nuclear industry and the U.S. military despite benefiting from hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money and what auditors call “advantageous” government leases.
The company, formerly known as United States Enrichment Corp. or USEC, emerged from bankruptcy protection just last fall after taking a financial beating when uranium prices fell after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan.
“DOE has long had an improper relationship with USEC,” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, No. 3 in the Senate GOP leadership, charged in a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Mr. Poneman’s appointment as President and CEO only promises to make that record worse.” Barrasso, whose state’s large uranium industry sees the company as a competitor, specifically complained about past DOE uranium deals that helped Centrus’ bottom line.
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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/dan-poneman-centrus-116089.html#ixzz3UaDaGPCQ
This month, he’s set to become the company’s president and CEO — a post that will bring him as much as $1.7 million a year.
Poneman’s new job has drawn fire on Capitol Hill since the company announced his hiring March 5, and is prompting watchdog groups to question whether DOE’s revolving-door policies are strong enough. It’s also bringing more unflattering attention to Centrus Energy Corp. — a company that has struggled to make a living from enriching uranium for the nuclear industry and the U.S. military despite benefiting from hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money and what auditors call “advantageous” government leases.
The company, formerly known as United States Enrichment Corp. or USEC, emerged from bankruptcy protection just last fall after taking a financial beating when uranium prices fell after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan.
“DOE has long had an improper relationship with USEC,” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, No. 3 in the Senate GOP leadership, charged in a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Mr. Poneman’s appointment as President and CEO only promises to make that record worse.” Barrasso, whose state’s large uranium industry sees the company as a competitor, specifically complained about past DOE uranium deals that helped Centrus’ bottom line.
...
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/dan-poneman-centrus-116089.html#ixzz3UaDaGPCQ