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US Climate Change Science Program
Updated 11 October, 2003

Biography:
Robert G. Card
Under Secretary, Department of Energy
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Photo of Robert G. CardAs Under Secretary, Mr. Card has line responsibility for Departmental operations in Energy, Science, and Environment. Energy responsibilities include renewables, fossil, nuclear and nuclear fuel cycle management, space nuclear power, power transmission, energy conservation and energy efficiency standards. In the area of science, the Department is the largest federal funder for physical sciences covering 14 national laboratories plus university and commercial research engagements. Major elements include basic energy sciences, high energy and nuclear physics, biological and environmental sciences, fusion energy and computing. Environmental operations include nuclear waste management, spent fuel retrieval from commercial, defense and international sources, and remediation of the nuclear weapons complex. Example activities of the Under Secretary during this tenure include responsibility for:
  • Implementation of the President's Clean Coal and FreedomCar initiatives
  • Reconfiguration of the Environmental Management program to complete public and worker risk reduction nearly 40 years earlier for over $50 billion of cost savings
  • Siting and development of the Nation's high level nuclear waste repository
  • Chair of the Interagency Working Group on Climate Change Science & Technology
  • Filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to its full capacity of 700 million barrels
  • The Secretary's Nuclear Power 2010 initiative
  • Management improvement initiatives including safety and security improvements, DOE order and requirements streamlining, and project management improvements

    • Prior to his DOE employment, Mr. Card was President and CEO, Kaiser-Hill Company, LLC. In that role he was responsible for the $7 billion, 5,000 employee, cleanup and closure of the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Rocky Flats site, which was formerly one of the nation's five primary nuclear weapons production sites. The plant, which contained the largest unfinished plutonium stockpile in the nation, is located in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area. After assuming responsibility for the project in 1995, Mr. Card restructured site operations and the closure strategy to advance the planned closure schedule of 2065, at a cost $37 billion to a closure goal of 2006, and a total cost of approximate $7 billion.

    Mr. Card also served as a Director and Senior Vice President at CH2M HILL Companies, Ltd. The Company had revenues of about $2 billion and was one of the world's larger science, engineering, construction and operations firms. The corporation had major practices in the areas of energy & environment, water, transportation, and industrial manufacturing. Prior to the Rocky Flats assignment, Mr. Card served as Group Executive, Environmental Companies, responsible for the energy and environmental business, which was the firm's largest business practice. This business served a variety of customers including the federal government, electric utilities, oil and gas companies and other industries. Mr. Card personally managed the design and construction management of an award-winning heavy oil production project in Canada.

    Mr. Card completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School; received a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University; and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington.


     

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