The President-elect’s Cabinet is almost complete, with only few slots remaining. Such slots includes in who will be the Energy Secretary. However, reports from Bloomberg claim that Donald Trump has narrowed down his search to four individuals. Rick Perry is the leading candidate among the four.
The other key candidates that are under consideration are Ray Washburne, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a Dallas investor, Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota and Joe Manchin from West Virginia. This reports were unveiled by sources close to Trump’s transition team.
In the recent past, the previous administrations have always picked scientists to head the Energy Department. However, Trump is about to break this tradition if he happens to pick any of the four candidates. The Energy Department is charged with the responsibility of formulating policies on the safe handling of nuclear material.
The president-elect met with Washburne and Perry as he attended the Army-Navy football game that took place in Baltimore on Saturday. The two men have met with Donald Trump two times to discuss the potential roles in the new administration. On the 2nd of December, Heitkamp met with Trump at the Trump Tower while the Manchin is Scheduled to meet with Trump in New York.
Trump’s choice for under-secretary for Nuclear security is said to be Jay Martin Cohen who is a retired rear admiral of the U.S. Navy.
The Obama Administration saw two scientists head the Energy Department, they included Ernest Moniz who is a nuclear physicist who had previous experience heading the energy initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Steven Chu was his predecessor, a nobel Laureate and a self-professed nerd who directed the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and was a physics, molecular and cellular biology professor.
The Energy Department deals with a lot of Nuclear affairs with the National Nuclear Weapons complex being under its oversight and promoting nuclear security worldwide and advocating nonproliferation.
