[CPEO-MEF] Energy Department health and safety

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

DOE reorganization raises concerns about worker safety


By Les Blumenthal
McClatchy Newspapers
San Jose Mercury News
September 1, 2006


WASHINGTON - Months before new health and safety rules are to take 
effect for more than 100,000 workers at Department of Energy sites 
across the nation, the DOE is dismantling the office that's in charge of 
implementing them.

The move has drawn sharp criticism on Capitol Hill and from others, who 
say it will gut the department's worker-safety and health programs. 
Lawmakers and other critics say the restructuring will roll back more 
than 20 years of better worker safeguards while appeasing contractors 
who've long complained about overly restrictive regulations.

"This is the pendulum swinging back," said David Michaels, who headed 
the office as an assistant secretary of energy in the Clinton 
administration.

Department officials defended the restructuring, saying the Office of 
Environment, Safety and Health needed to be overhauled. Combining it 
with the DOE's security office will increase, not lessen, workers' 
safety, they said.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15420231.htm

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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