DOGE backs off after seeking closure of office overseeing nuclear waste site

LAS CRUCES — Alarm this week over reports that the Department of Energy’s field office in Carlsbad was being closed at the behest of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency appeared to be settled Thursday, when plans to terminate the office’s lease were withdrawn.

The Carlsbad DOE office oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an underground nuclear waste repository 26 miles southeast of the city.

Earlier in the week, the DOGE website listed the office’s lease among those that would be canceled as part of the billionaire tech executive’s project to enact drastic cuts to spending and personnel across the federal government.

Neither the Department of Energy nor the General Services Administration, which manages federal properties, answered questions about what the closure would mean for the management and safety teams responsible for WIPP, which houses defense-related nuclear waste in a repository situated in an ancient salt bed half a mile underground.

Instead, a notice from the GSA dated Wednesday and obtained by the Journal informs the property owner that the termination, which had been set for Aug. 31, had been revoked and the lease remained “in full force and effect.”

The notice of termination followed a 30% reduction in staff at the Carlsbad office over the past month, according to U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., who voiced concern about the lease termination in public statements as he sought a meeting with GSA officials.

WIPP is projected to consume its available storage space during 2025, Vasquez noted in a news release, and plans to expand capacity at the site depend on system upgrades that have already run into delays attributed, in part, to staffing shortages.

“The attempted closure of the WIPP office was reckless and short-sighted,” Vasquez said in a written statement. “I stood up for Carlsbad workers and our national security interests as soon as I heard of this potential closure. I’ll continue holding the administration accountable when uninformed decisions threaten the livelihoods of New Mexicans.”

The closure remained on the DOGE website’s list of “savings” as of Thursday morning. But a spokesperson for the Department of Energy confirmed the GSA “has revoked its prior notice to exercise termination rights for multiple DOE facility leases, ensuring that these mission-critical operations continue without disruption.”