The Department of Energy has rebuffed Donald Trump's demand for the names of employees and contractors involved in shaping and executing government climate policy — which was widely viewed as a prelude to a politicized purge, to be carried out by Trump's climate-denying DoE leadership.
The Department said it refused to hand over the names because it wanted to preserve "the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," and promised to "be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team" while not "providing any individual names to the transition team."
"Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people," Burnham-Snyder said."We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," he added. "We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team."
He added that the request "left many in our workforce unsettled."
Energy Department refuses to give Trump team names of people who worked on climate change
[David Shepardson/Reuters]
(via /.)
(Image: Department of Energy Sign, JSquish, CC-BY-SA)
