Sen. Cantwell expresses concerns surrounding Bodman's knowledge of Hanford cleanup work WASHINGTON - In naming Deputy Treasury Secretary Samuel Bodman to head the Department of Energy on Friday, President Bush selected a man who knows generally about the Hanford reservation but who is unfamiliar with the department's massive nationwide nuclear cleanup program.

"He knew about Hanford," Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said of her conversation with Bodman shortly after Bush announced his nomination as energy secretary.

Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that will have to confirm Bodman, said she invited him to visit Hanford and talked to him about the Tri-Party Agreement, which governs the Hanford cleanup and some of the work being done at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

But Cantwell said she came away with the impression Bodman did not know about the magnitude of the department's $7 billion cleanup program at Hanford and other federal nuclear sites.

"I cautioned him not to think he could do it on the cheap," said Cantwell. "Other energy secretaries have tried it. It's a mistake."

Bodman's nomination took Washington, D.C., by surprise. His name had not appeared on any of the lists of possible nominees for the post and he has no particular background on energy issues.

"He's a very surprising pick," said one source close to the department. "We have no clue about him. We can't see where he has ever put forward an energy policy, let alone a cleanup plan."

Bodman is a close friend of former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who in turn is a close friend of Bush. Sources said he is a Bush loyalist, whose views at Treasury and while serving previously as deputy commerce secretary were "very in tune with the White House."

Prior to joining the Bush administration in 2001, Bodman was the chief executive of the Cabot Corp., a Boston-based chemical company. Before that, he was the chief operating officer of FMR Corp., the holding company for Fidelity Investments. He also taught chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a doctorate in science.

"He will bring to the Department of Energy a great talent for management and the precise thinking of an engineer," Bush said in announcing Bodman's nomination at a ceremony in the White House.

Bush said Bodman has shown himself to be a "problem-solver who knows how to set goals and knows how to reach them."

In selecting Bodman, Bush made it clear that his top priority as energy secretary will be to convince Congress to adopt the national energy strategy the administration unveiled more than three years ago.

Bodman accepted the challenge, telling Bush that "if confirmed by the Senate, my colleagues and I at the Department of Energy stand ready to carry forth your vision of sound energy policy to ensure a steady supply of affordable energy for America's homes and businesses and to work toward the day when America achieves energy independence."

As head of the Cabot Corp., Bodman oversaw a company whose annual sales now are near $1.8 billion annually and is the No. 1 producer of carbon black in the world. The substance, produced by heating leftover oil sludge to 3,000 degrees, is used in tires, inks, cables and coatings.

Though primarily a chemical company, Cabot's energy arm has been involved in liquefied natural gas, natural gas pipelines in Texas and fuel cell production.

In 1994, it was named in a lawsuit filed by four former workers at the Energy Department's Oak Ridge site who said they became ill from handling beryllium. The lawsuit was later dismissed and Cabot and other defendants claimed the beryllium they supplied was in nonharmful form.

According to a 1988 article in Fortune magazine, Bodman was known around Boston as an "impatient, hands-on manager who would rather make a mistake than do nothing."

While serving at Treasury and then Commerce, Bodman had a low profile.

"The good news is he was at Commerce and Treasury and therefore should understand Washington," said another source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He also has a degree from MIT and was a businessman, so therefore he understands science and how the budget process works. But he has no background in national security, environmental management or energy research and development."

Those associated with Hanford were cautious in their reaction to Bodman's nomination.

Sam Volpentest of TRIDEC said he had never heard of Bodman.

"I hope he is good for Hanford," Volpentest said. "I hope he will continue the work here rather than delaying it. We are making more progress than any other site in the nation."

Gerald Pollet of the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest said he, too, had never heard of Bodman. Pollet said he hoped that, if confirmed, the new energy secretary wouldn't order yet another multimillion-dollar "strategic" study of the cleanup program, as almost all his predecessors have. Pollet said such studies just delay cleanup.

But Pollet said he also saw an opportunity for improving the Hanford cleanup.

"It's a long shot, but we have to try," Pollet said.

A representative for Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., referred a request for comment on the nominee to a statement posted on his Web site.

"By any standard, Sam Bodman has what it takes to be an outstanding secretary of energy - a doctorate in science from MIT; a proven track record leading large, complex organizations as a corporate CEO; and a close working relationship with the White House, which has tapped him for three increasingly challenging assignments," the statement said.