Department of Energy

The Department of Energy rescinds 394 pending job offers as part of Trump’s hiring freeze. It also removes almost all of its job advertisements.

Representing OPM, James Sullivan coordinates in an email to Department of Energy officials on several DOGE-led initiatives. One messages states “as discussed over the phone, when you compile the list of 69 DEI employees placed on admin leave, please share with Amanda and myself.” Energy officials also send a list of 1394 probationary employees to Amanda Scales, all of whom will be fired.

The Department of Energy consults with DOGE staff at OPM about return-to-office mandates. Clayton Cromer handles the exchange from OPM’s side.

Adam Ramada detailed from DOGE to DOE

Luke Farritor detailed from GSA to DOE

Luke Farritor is granted basic access to Office365 at DOE.

Ryan Riedel starts as Chief Information Officer at DOE.

DOGE staffers Luke Farritor and Adam Ramada arrive at the Department of Energy and are onboarded.According to Dept. of Energy spokesperson, DOGE staff departed the agency within a few days of arrival, but other reporting suggests they were still active and granted access to sensitive systems in the coming months.

Adam Ramada shows up in the Department of Energy’s online directory, along with Luke Farritor. There also is reportedly a third DOGE staffer at the agency.

David Taggart starts as Acting General Counsel at DOE.

Ryan Riedel leaves role as Chief Information Officer at DOE (exits govt. service)

Ross Graber starts as Chief Information Officer at DOE.

After reportedly supporting DOGE activities in the State Department, Ross Graber is named as the new CIO for the Department of Energy

Acting General Counsel David Taggart at the Department of Energy issues a memo stating that all DOGE spreadsheets being used to determine which grants will be cut at the agency should be designated as “legal privilege” documents. This classification is meant to prevent the documents from being shared in legal disclosures or FOIA responses.

Adam Blake starts at DOE.

Employees at the Department of Energy are sent an email offering for them to enroll in a new separate deferred resignation plan.

Luke Farritor uses his admin access to lock out all government officials at multiple agencies from using grants.gov to issue new grants. Instead, all grants must now be sent to a new email address which will be reviewed by DOGE staffers before grants can be posted.

Luke Farritor and Adam Ramada reportedly have had accounts for several weeks on systems and networks that handle classified material about nuclear weapons. This contradicts agency reports they had departed the agency within a few days of arrival.

Ross Graber abruptly resigns as the CIO of the Department of Energy, making him the second DOGE pick to be named to and exit the role. The responsibilities of CIO are reverted back to the agency’s Deputy CIO, who had been serving in the role after Ryan Riedel’s departure.

In a retaliation against the university coordinated by GSA, grants for Harvard University from DOD, HUD, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education are all terminated. There were 200 grants from DOD alone. The stated reasons varied but included that they no longer effectuated the administration’s priorities or directly accusing Harvard of fostering antisemitism on campus.

Seth Cohen starts as Special Counsel at DOE.

In an email to agency partners, the operators of grants.gov declare that the revised mechanism added in April that routed all Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) through a DOGE email address has been reversed. Instead, agencies are to return to using the tool like that did previously. This doesn’t necessarily mean that DOGE or political appointees will not be reviewing grants, but they have no longer locked other users out of the system.

Seth Cohen detailed from DOE to NRC

Adam Blake and Ankur Bansal detailed from DOE to NRC

Ross Graber leaves role as Chief Information Officer at DOE

As a direct result of DOGE-driven cuts, the Department of Energy announces that it has to delay a regular report tracking shipments of uranium fuel and completely suspend a report on photovoltaic panels. The department that tracks such reports lost more than 100 people out of its 350-person workforce this year. These reports are not as critical as other Energy reports, but the damage to data collection and reporting is making energy traders nervous.

Seth Cohen promoted to Chief Counsel for Nuclear Policy at DOE

The Department of Energy launches a new “Genesis Mission” to heavily use AI tools for scientific research. The website for this endeavor is created by the National Design Studio and features the classic hallmarks of their work: bold fonts on a black background with animations all on a single page with no navigation and an email signup form. According to Edward Coristine’s twitter account, this page took 3 weeks to make.

Ankur Bansal leaves role as Senior Advisor at DOE

A memo from the Secretary of the Department of Energy orders the rollback of rules for nuclear safety that had been in place since the 1950s. The rule that required radiation leaks to be “as low as reasonably achievable” was seen as too costly for nuclear power startups and a blocker to the administration’s goal of getting 3 new advanced reactors started by July 4, 2026.

Ankur Bansal promoted to Managing Director, AI Infrastructure at DOE

As the Trump administration has struggled to find options to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after it started hostilities against Iran, theree are reports that the State Department had eliminated all staff from the Bureau of Energy Resources who would have been able to predict the problems. Key staffers who maintained communications and diplomatic relationships with oil companies in the region were also let go. Furthermore, departments that would have researched and debated the effects of the Iran invasion in the Department of Energy, Treasury and State have been eliminated or were sidelined from the decision to go to war.