Energy secretary Moniz to visit Tri-Cities

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz plans to visit the Tri-Cities on Aug. 16, following a field hearing a day earlier in Seattle.

He will be in Richland to meet with leaders in higher education, organized labor, regional economic development and utilities, according to the staff of Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. The senator will join him.

Moniz also will meet with students, local elected officials and representatives from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to discuss career opportunities in the state’s growing energy fields, what skills will be needed and how to train workers.

No schedule has been announced.

At the field hearing in Seattle Aug. 15 Cantwell and Moniz will examine DOE’s ability to respond to and prepare for manmade or natural disasters that would threaten the energy infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest.

It also will discuss planning for cyber security attacks, derailments of trains hauling crude oil and earthquakes.

Moniz also visited the Tri-Cities in 2013 and toured the Hanford nuclear reservation shortly after becoming energy secretary.

This story was originally published August 9, 2016 at 1:39 PM with the headline "Energy secretary Moniz to visit Tri-Cities."