Cynthia Weiner Stachelberg spent a good part of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday reminding Republican senators that as an assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior, she would not be directly involved in issues such as tree spiking or gun control.

Nominated as assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, Stachelberg was one of three nominees at the hearing, but she took most of the heat in an otherwise civil and issue-focused session. The other two nominees were Geraldine Richmond, for under secretary of science at the Department of Energy, and Asmeret Berhe, for director of the DOE Office of Science.

In his opening statement, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the committee’s ranking member, voiced opposition to Stachelberg’s nomination based on her lack of experience with Interior’s core areas of land and resource management. She is currently executive vice president for external affairs at the Center for American Progress, where she has worked on a range of issues, including gun control. She previously worked with the Human Rights Campaign on gay and lesbian issues.

However, Barrasso used most of his five minutes to rehash his opposition to the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to head the Bureau of Land Management.

Without naming Stone-Manning directly, he grilled Stachelberg on her position on tree spiking and involvement with groups that might support it. Opposition against Stone-Manning based on her involvement with a tree-spiking incident in 1989 resulted in a deadlocked committee vote on her nomination. (See Senate Committee Deadlocks on Biden Pick to Head BLM.)

In response, Stachelberg repeatedly refocused her answers on her own nomination. “Senator, I really wish to address questions that have to do with my portfolio and the challenging job I have been nominated for,” she said. “And if I am confirmed, I will be happy to work with you and others on the committee to address those issues.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also pushed Stachelberg on her views on gun control, bringing up a recent tweet in support of banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. She again parried by saying the gun control issues she worked on at the Center for American Progress were not immediately relevant to “the position I’ve been nominated for now.”

Stachelberg got an easier ride from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chairman of the committee, who noted the wide portfolio of issues she might face as assistant secretary and asked about her priorities.

Staffing up the department would come first, Stachelberg said, to rebuild after staff losses during the Trump administration, followed by working on wildfire and drought issues, especially in the West.

Richmond and Berhe

Even Barrasso could find little to fault in Richmond’s qualifications. A professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon for 26 years, she has been published widely, received DOE funding for research projects, visited the National Laboratories and served on several agency advisory boards. In her opening statement, Richmond said her top priorities at DOE would be providing a seamless process from basic research and development to demonstration and deployment at scale, buttressed by cross-agency and cross-industry collaboration.

Calling on DOE to be model for diversity, Richmond said, “We are stronger, smarter and simply better when we all seize possibilities together, and there is no better place on this planet for scientific discovery and innovation than a country built on the premise of joining forces.”

Responding to questions from Democratic senators, Richmond also stressed the need for the U.S. to increase funding and focus on R&D to keep pace with global competitors, including China.

“We are the envy of the world when it comes to fundamental science and discovery science,” Richmond said. “We have the potential of falling behind if we don’t continue to increase our investment in basic science. That’s where we will continue to win if we continue to provide support for them. … We cannot lose this race, so the funding is critical.”

Citing a 2018 report, Richmond said China’s ramping of support for energy R&D “is frightening; especially when we think of ourselves as being a leader in the science and engineering enterprise, looking at the funding China is pumping into their technology and research, it’s incredible. … We can spend our time looking over our shoulder, worrying about China. Instead, we need to look forward and say, ‘Let’s be as innovative as we possibly can and get our scientists on board to make the kind of changes we need in order to stay ahead.’”

She even earned high marks on a question on biofuels from Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), recalling her own childhood on a farm in Kansas where her father shoveled coal into the furnace every morning to heat the house.

“We can make much more progress in the bioenergy sphere, but again, we’ve just got to make sure we’re doing the best research that we can,” Richmond said. “That and any other of the fossil fuels. We cannot give up on any of these fuels at all.”

Rerouting Waste

Berhe also started out the hearing with criticism from Barrasso, who argued her 12 years as a professor of soil biogeochemistry at the University of California, Merced, did not include the broad scientific expertise or administrative experience needed to run the Office of Science.

But Berhe defended her specialty as one that requires “advanced experimental observational and computational tools and interdisciplinary perspectives.”

“I approach my nomination to serve as the director of the Office of Science with the expertise of an Earth system scientist that works across and synthesizes knowledge from multiple scientific areas and teams,” she said. “The integrative systems perspective that I would bring, if confirmed, is uniquely suited for this role, especially for the current time when we need to urgently address multiple issues.”

A question from Marshall also allowed Berhe to talk about new areas of research in carbon sequestration in soil, citing an “incredible opportunity” to use carbon that is currently in animal and human waste streams. “There are a number of options, in particular ones that allow us to use waste and reroute waste and use it as a resource, options that allow us to store carbon in deep soils,” she said.