Late to the Party

Senators apparently are in no rush to consider the nomination of Sharon Burke to be the Pentagon's first-ever director of operational energy plans and programs, a position created by Congress over a year ago.

A Senate Armed Services Committee spokesman told us there is “a long way to go” before members will take action on the Dec. 11 nomination.

The delay is not lawmakers' doing, of course. It took the administration almost a year find someone willing to serve in the job. Burke is considered a capable candidate, according to a story by our colleagues of Defense Environment Alert.

The delay has consequences, of course. Even if Senators were to move quickly on the nomination early next year, Burke would effectively come on board after the deliberations of the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review are over. The drill is perhaps the Pentagon's single most comprehensive evaluation of its plans and programs.

That is not to say the QDR will not feature energy issues. In fact, officials have said energy and related issues will get priority treatment, probably at a macro level. Still, the deliberations will happen without a person at the table whose single focus is making the U.S. military more energy efficient and, thereby, more effective on future battlefields.

Burke, or whoever ultimately gets the job, also will miss much of the the crucial design phase of the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle, whose fuel efficiency is yet to be determined. All officials have said about the requirement is that the GCV should consume less fuel “than current vehicles of the same weight.”

The director of operational energy plans and programs owes Congress a report by Feb. 1, 2010, laying out steps DOD is taking toward improved fuel management at forward-deployed bases, according to the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization legislation, enacted in late October.

Lawmakers apparently had a hunch that the director post may still be vacant when the report is due. In that event, the document must be submitted by the defense secretary, the legislation states.