Personnel Notes

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is staying at the Pentagon, ending speculation that he will soon be tapped for Secretary of Energy.

With current Energy Secretary Steven Chu widely expected to step down soon, Carter’s name was circulating as a potential successor at DOE, an agency that plays a major security role by overseeing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and nuclear labs.

But a senior administration official said President Obama has asked Carter to stay at the Defense Department.

“Dangerous climate change poses an urgent threat and we have a responsibility to address that threat," Boxer said.

Richard Kauffman, a top adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and expert in green technology finance, is leaving to become New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) “energy czar.”

Cuomo announced the “Cabinet-level” position in his annual “state of the state” address Wednesday.

Chu himself is widely expected to step down soon as part of the broader second-term turnover in President Obama’s Cabinet.

Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has finalized his committee staff, his office announced Wednesday.

Wyden, who already had tapped longtime aide Joshua Sheinkman as his energy staff director in December, rounded out the rest of his staff with "a tremendous combination of veteran committee staffers and dedicated newcomers," he said in a statement.

The former head of an Energy Department research and development program is heading to Google to lead its energy strategy.

Arun Majumdar will join Google after leaving his most recent post as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in June.

“One of the world’s biggest challenges is bringing reliable, sustainable and affordable energy to everyone. We need a new energy blueprint for the future — the latest advances in technology have the potential to bring us closer to that goal than ever before,” Matthew Stepka, vice president of Google.org, said Monday of Majumdar’s hiring on the Internet giant’s “green blog.”

Incoming Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has tapped his longtime energy aide as committee staff director.

Green organization the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has named a new executive director.

The group promoted Heather White to the position. She was previously chief of staff and general counsel for the consumer advocacy and environmental group.

“I look forward to expanding EWG's ability to change markets, to maintaining its strong and respected voice on Capitol Hill, and to reforming our broken toxics law, the farm bill and national energy policy,” White said in a Tuesday statement. “Our cutting-edge research and technology will continue to make a game-changing difference in these national debates.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named a new vehicle emissions regulator.

Christopher Grundler will head the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, EPA told The Hill on Wednesday. The Detroit News first reported the move, citing an internal agency memo.

That office, which oversees emissions from cars, buses and trucks, helped design new vehicle fuel efficiency standards that the Obama administration finalized in August.

It also is looking into Hyundai and Kia’s exaggeration of fuel economy figures for about 900,000 cars.

RootsAction.org is demanding the potential secretary of State nominee sell shares in the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline. 

Senator-elect Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) says Tessa Gould has "unmatched political skills."