WIKIMEDIA, JSQUISHThe White House announced today (July 12) that President Donald Trump has nominated Paul Dabbar, an investment banker with J.P. Morgan Chase, as the undersecretary for science for the Department of Energy (DOE).

According to the statement, Dabbar is the head of Energy Mergers and Acquisitions at J.P. Morgan, and has “investment experience across all energy sectors including solar, wind, geothermal, distributed-generation, utility, LNG [liquefied natural gas], pipeline, oil & gas, trading, energy technology, and has also led the majority of all nuclear transactions.” Currently, he is also on the DOE’s Environmental Management Advisory Board.

The previous DOE science undersecretary, Franklin “Lynn” Orr, a chemical engineer and a professor at Stanford University, left the position in January. “Under former President Barack Obama, DOE’s science undersecretary oversaw the department’s $5 billion Office of Science, as well as other offices, including those involved in energy efficiency, renewable energy, fossil energy,...

Trump also nominated Mark Wesley Menezes, Vice President of Federal Relations for Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a Texas power company, for the position of undersecretary of the DOE.

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