III. ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION AND DEVELOPMENT

BACKGROUND

Restructuring and downsizing throughout the Department of Energy (DOE) complex has affected numerous communities across the country. To maintain and improve their quality of life, these communities are striving to diversify their economies and become more self-sufficient.

ISSUES

Closures and cutbacks at sites throughout the nuclear weapons complex have resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of DOE contractor personnel jobs since 1992, with significant impacts at some 13 major DOE sites.

To successfully diversify the economy, ECA communities require partnerships with DOE.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Economic development can be sustained only where DOE activities are integrated into the community’s strategic planning process. To assure success, ECA recommends that DOE:

1.   Restore and fully fund economic development and diversification and worker transition. In particular, ECA believes that economic development must be retained as a condition of DOE’s contracts to manage and operate DOE facilities.

2.  Make identifying excess real property a priority. DOE and its contractors have had internal difficulties identifying excess or unneeded properties. By making this a priority DOE can accomplish two goals: 1) decrease overhead at its facilities, and 2) assist local communities with creating jobs or accomplishing other reuse goals. DOE should continue to provide these properties to communities at no cost where the community will use the property for economic development and other public purposes.

3.   Work with local governments to create infrastructure efficiencies that will benefit DOE and the local community, such as facility and utility infrastructure privatization.

4.  Fully indemnify local governments and Community Reuse Organizations (CROs) that acquire property from DOE against environmental liabilities caused by DOE as a matter of policy. Section 3158 of the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 as amended provides DOE with the authority to indemnify future owners of its property against liability for contamination left in place by DOE.

5.  Focus on long-term reuse and job creation in and around the communities in which the affected workforce resides.

6.  Work closely with local governments on Economic Development and Diversification keeping in mind that local governments are the official representative of the community.

7.  Create one point of contact for each DOE facility to assist the community through the reuse and transition process.

8.  Coordinate its property transfer policies and activities with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior and State officials to avoid delays in cleanup and reuse of the properties..

9.  Support the preservation of historic assets for public education and heritage tourism across the DOE complex.