President-elect Donald Trump has made countless headlines for his suggestion of creating a registry of Muslims in the U.S. But that’s not the only list he wanted.
Late last week, Trump requested, among other things, that agency officials “identify which employees and contractors have worked on forging an international climate pact as well as domestic efforts to cut the nation’s carbon output,” according to the Washington Post. Today, the Department of Energy (DOE) roundly rejected that request, with department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder saying in a statement (emphasis original), “We will be forthcoming with all publically-available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.”
While that should set employees’ minds at ease for now, the civil servants are no doubt already looking ahead to life under the new administration.
During the election, Trump vowed to dismantle the Obama administration’s pro-environmental policies, including the Paris Agreement, a framework for a global carbon market ratified by 117 countries which have agreed to significantly reduce ozone-depleting carbon emissions.
In Nov. 2012, Trump tweeted that the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” This summer during a foreign policy debate against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump denied ever claiming climate change was a Chinese hoax; his tweet, however, was still online, proving that to be a lie.
Earlier today, it was announced that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry would be tapped to helm the DOE in Trump’s cabinet. Trump has selected as his secretary of state Rex Tillerson, an oil industry executive and CEO of Exxon, signaling that, at least for the next four years, the environment will likely to a backseat to oil industry profits. Their nominations depend on confirmation from the Senate, however.
H/T Slate